MUTTON BIRD SEASON

Taranaki Daily News, 2 April 1934, Page 9

MUTTON BIRD SEASON

SOUTHLAND PREPARATIONS. EXCLUSIVE MAORI INDUSTRY. The mutton-birding season opened in Southland last week, the steamer Tamatea sailing from Bluff for the Titi Islands with the first of the muttonbirders on Tuesday. As the islands are kept strictly isolated during the spring and summer, the prospects for the season will not be known for some weeks.

Mutton birds have always been very popular in the south; and thousands are sold there every year. They are caught by the Maoris of Southland, who have exclusive rights to the islands, and the only Europeans allowed to share in the catch are those who have married Natives who have a right to visit the islands. The majority of the birds are salted and smoked, but a certain number offreshbirds reaches the Southland market.' ■ Preparations for the mutton-birding season extend over some months before the season opens. As the birds are preserved ■in kelp bags, these have to be prepared, and,. favoured localities on the Southland coast are visited during January by birders. The broad flat parts of the kelp are gathered and split open from one end to form bags. These are blown up and tied and are dried in the sun. They become fairly hard and brittle, and later have to be softened with water. METHODS OF CATCHING. The kelp bags being airtight make excellent containers for the birds, but they are too fragile to stand rough handling in transport, so flax kits are made to enclose the lower ends of the bags. The upper part of the bag is protected with strips of totara bark. The bags, kits and bark have to be ready when the season opens, and are transported to the islands along with the birders and their food supplies. The method of catching the birds varies according to the time of the season. The parent birds nest in burrows dug in the peaty soil of the islands, and the young birds are removed from these at the beginning of the season. The burrows are shallow and can be opened above the nest by cutting a round plug out of the soil. The plugs are replaced and, as the birds use the same burrows year after year, the robbing of the nests is accomplished in most cases by removing the plugs replaced during the previous season. Later in the season the young birds come out of the burrows and have to be caught in the open. The work of catching is done by torchlight, and a good mutton-birder can secure as many, birds as he or she can attend to on the following day. SALTING AND PREPARATION. When the Maoris knew nothing of salt, apart from the salt of the sea, the birds were roasted and preserved in the bags in their own oil. Birds treated in this way would keep for a long period, and were transported to the north and exchanged for other commodities. Some of the birds are still preserved in this way,

but they are usually overcooked and do not appeal to European tastes. The modem method of preparation is to Pluck, split and dress the birds, which are salted in casks and smoked before being pi ace d in the bags. At one time the salting was done in pits dug in the ground, These were lined with the leaves o f a shrub, known in the south as the muttonbird tree, and the birds were dry sa lted. After being smoked they will keep for a year or more if the kelp bags remain airtight. The birds are exceedingly oily, and unless'- they are properly prepared for the table are far from- appetising. Bythose who . know how to prepare them they-are r e g ar d e d as a great delicacy.