White Hawks.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20285, 20 April 1934, Page 6

White Hawks .

Nature Notes

By

James Drummond,

F.L.S., F.Z.S.

WHITE HARRIER-HAWK has attracted the attention of Mr G. Smith, who is prospecting for gold on the Motatapn River, a tributary of the Matukituki, which flows into the south-western corner of Lake Wanaka. “ Almost every day,” he wrote, “ I see a pure white hawk, usually accompanied by two hawks in ordinary plumage. I asked several people, including musterers, about it. They replied that it is the only white hawk they have seen. Are there any other white hawks in New Zealand?” There are, but they are novelties. Some are complete albinoes, like the hawk Mr Smith refers to; others are partial albinoes; others are merely hoary from age. Maori names for the mutants show that they were known of before Europeans came to New Zealand. The ordinary harrierhawk is kahu; a hoary individual is kahukorako; a legendary white hawk, evidently an albino, is matakirea. Many years ago an albino was caught in a rat-trap in Christchurch. Except for a few brown feathers on the upper surface and for a tawny wash on the lower surface, it was snow-white. Forty years ago a hoary male hawk, very aged, was a feature of bird life on the lovely Papaitonga Estate, sixty miles north of Wellington, bought by Sir Walter Buller from the Ngati-raukawa owners. At noon one day a cry was raised: "The White Ilawk!” Maoris and Europeans on the estate, rushing out. saw it fly over the lake to a bait of eels laid for it. Another hawk in ordinary plumage came out of the skies. They met face to face and fought in mid-air from one side of the lake to the other. A cadet, coming out with his gun, found a party of twelve Maoris sitting on a slope watching the fight and backing the white hawk. It heard him when he was within forty yards, and was up at once, but a minute later a charge of quail-shot killed it without spoiling its plumage.