The Book of the Huia

Te Ao Hou, June 1964, Page 55

The Book of the Huia by W. J. Phillipps Whitcombe & Tombs Ltd., 30/- The huia, whose tapu feathers were once one of the greatest of treasures, probably died out early this century. A beautiful and interesting bird (apparently, the only bird in the world in which male and female have differently shaped beaks), it was a victim of the changes brought about by European settlement. Trigger-happy colonists found it sufficiently interesting to stuff, but showed little concern for its survival. The clearing of most of the forest and the introduction of stoats and weasels further contributed to its fate. Also, though huia feathers had previously been worn only by men and women of the highest rank, by the end of the century the feathers were in great demand by all those who felt that they had any claim at all to chiefly rank. The price soon rose to £1 or more for a single feather—and this was not good for the bird's survival.

Mr Phillipps' book is a thorough consideration of all the information concerning the huia which has survived. He has talked to many old timers who knew the huia in their youth, and though it is usually accepted that the last certain sighting of the bird was in 1907, he lists many more recent occasions on which people have been sure that they have seen it. One such instance of a ‘probable sighting’ is as recent as Christmas 1961. The author is convinced that huias will be rediscovered in one or more of the rugged, densely-forested parts of the North Island in which they used to live, and he gives much evidence which suggests that this is possible. There is also some interesting information concerning the place of the huia in ancient Maori society. Did you know, for instance, that if a Maori man dreamt that he saw the skull of an ancestor decorated with feathers, this meant that his wife was going to have a child? If they were huia feathers, the child would be a girl; if they were those of the kotuku (white heron), it would be a boy.