MUTTON BIRD? OR JUST TITI?

Te Ao Hou, December 1960, Page 54

MUTTON BIRD? OR JUST TITI? by PAUL POTIKI Call it what you will, it is one of Maoridom's most favoured foods. The pakeha too is rapidly finding out that the Titi is a most palatable meal. How many of us, however, know anything of the fascinating habits of the Titi? How many of us know anything of the methods of catching and curing which have come down through generations of Stewart Island Maoris? Sometimes I even wonder whether many of us know how best to cook the Titi, especially when one hears of elaborate methods which involve several changes of water followed by baking in the oven with a clove of garlic in each bird? The Titi belongs to the Petrel family and the correct name for the Stewart Island species is Sooty Shearwater. It is migratory in its habits and spends from late spring to mid-winter in South Pacific waters, where it breeds and rears its young. The main colonies seem to be Tasmania, Cape Horn, the Snares Island south of New Zealand and the small islets which lie close to the east and south west of Stewart Island. It is from these small scrub-covered islets that the main supply for the New Zealand table is taken. The Titi may also be found on some of the islands in the north, especially White Island, the Three Kings and the Poor Knights but birds taken from these are usually for personal use and not the open market. At the time we imported Titi from Tasmania but these were mainly for the northern markets where the Stewart Island birds rarely reach owing (Continued on page 63)