THE PUKEKO'S STORY.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1935, Page 18 (Supplement)

THE PUKEKO'S STORY.

THE RED WHITE AND BLUE. (Sent by Joan Kirk.) The other swamp birds call me redhead, but I am rather proud of that colour as it matches well with my blue breast and white under-tail coverts. My mother once told me that as she was feeding quietly in a raupo swamp on some juicy raupo roots some boys were going along the road not far from the swamp, singing '“Hurrah for the Red, White and Blue.” She was conceited enough to think at first that they were singing about her fine colours, but when she found it was about their country’s flag she felt prouder still. 5We live for the most part in the swamps, but sometimes we find a kind farmer who grows a nice crop of oats or wheat near our marshy home, and we like to come out and help ourselves at times. Some of the farmers get angry, but we also eat up a lot of grubs and insects that would help themselves to his crop, so we really earn our food. In the large flax swamp, where man cuts down the leaves to take away to a mill to get fibre out of them, we really do an immense amount of good by eating up the grubs that do harm to them. I, only a few weeks ago, heard two men who were walking through a flax swamp say that since most of our family had been killed or chased out the grubs and pests were getting very bad and that he would not let anyone on his land kill any more of us. Although not web-footed we can swim quite well and think nothing of crossing a deep creek or lagoon. I must tell jou of one strange habit we have when swimming if anything alarms us. We dive down to the bottom and hang on to anything that may be there till we are I drowned. The brown people knew of | this habit and often chased us into I water and often took many for food. We | build our nests of grass and don’t mind lat all if the water rises round it. My | mother once told me that she had built I. a fine nest and had five eggs when a flood occurred and the nest floated off. When we are young we are like balls of black velvet and we can ran and hide very quickly when, alarmed. We were in this land long before the whites ever came, and all we ask is a small corner here and there to make a heme in. So whenever you see the red, white and blue have a kindly thought for the pukeko, whose homes have been destroyed in many parts of the land,— (Extract from “Forest and Bird.”