The Titi (Mutton-bird)

Te Ao Hou, September 1968, Page 22

Poutama Island landing, South Cape, showing the living quarters and the rough seas through which the boats are landed. The Titi (Mutton-bird) Before the mutton-birders depart for the islands, a great deal of preparation is necessary. Enough food to last for three months must be taken, kerosene for heating and lighting, torches and batteries, plenty of salt to cure the birds with, tin containers to pack the birds into ready for the market, and other personal belongings. Before the tins came into vogue, the birds were packed in bags made from kelp gathered off the rocks along the sea-coast. I very much preferred the birds packed in kelp bags. The titi tasted much better and kept much longer in the kelp bags than they do in the tins. The preparation of the kelp bags was rather fascinating. Broad pieces of kelp were gathered and opened up from the small end, or neck, with a knife, leaving a margin of about two inches around the sides and bottom of the kelp. The kelp was then blown up like an ordinary balloon and hung out to dry in the sun. Flax baskets were made to cover the bottom of the kelp bags, and bark was gathered from trees, especially totara bark, as it was the most suitable—being more pliable and much easier to strip than most bark. The bags were filled up with titi then the baskets were fitted over the bottom of the bags. Blades of bark were then inserted between the baskets and the kelp bags, to cover the whole container from top

to bottom. The bags were finished off with lengths of binder twine, tied about six to eight inches apart, to keep the bark in place. The use of kelp bags was the old method of stowing the titi. The present-day technique is to pack them into ten-inch diameter tins and then into wooden crates. The titi season commences on 1 April with the ‘na-nauing’, when the young mutton-birds confine themselves to their burrows for about three weeks. During the na-nauing season the mutton-birders have to catch the young titi by inserting an arm into the burrow to extract the young titi by its neck. The two legs are held in one hand while the other hand squeezes its stomach to make the titi vomit the oil it contains. If this is neglected, the oil is likely to be smeared over its down, making the titi hard to pluck. A good mutton-birder could bag well over 200 titi, and one or two catchers could get near the 300 mark. The na-nauing season ends when the young titi comes out of its burrow during the night to begin casting its down in preparation for its departure from the titi-islands. The period when the titi leaves its burrow during the night is known to the mutton-birders as ‘torching time’. The mutton-birders set out to catch the titi armed with a torch and a club to hit the young birds on the back of the head. It is during this period that the birds are out of their burrows by the thousands, and Mr and Mrs John Wixon dressing mutton-birds at South Cape, Poutama Island. The old homestead once occupied by the Goodwillie family. The 3ft high ‘titaki’ grass grows only on the Mutton-bird Islands. Sheep can live on this grass. can be slaughtered by the hundreds, but it is a wise policy to kill just the right amount so they do not get too cold to pluck. Some big catches are taken during the torching period and the mutton-birders work hard, well into the early hours of the night. The torching time terminates with what is known to the mutton-birders as ‘Waterloo Night’. The occasion is indicated by the continual chirping of the young titi throughout the night. By daylight the titi have vacated the mutton-bird islands to begin the yearly migration to islands off the northwest coast of Alaska in the Northern Hemisphere. When the summer is nearing its end in northern Alaska, the titi begin to migrate back to their nesting haunts south of Rakiura (Stewart) Island, arriving back early in November to clean out their nests in preparation for the egg-laying which produces the young titi that augment the depleted banking accounts of the mutton-birders. The preparation of the titi is a most arduous task First the titi have to be plucked, and a good plucker is a most useful person to a mutton-birder's party. The titi are next dipped in hot water and odd pieces of down are rubbed off with the palm of the hand. They are then hung out to harden before being split and cleaned. Before the titi are packed into the tin containers they are dry-salted to keep them from deterioration. Another method of preserving titi is to ‘tahu’ them. This is done by cooking the titi with their own oil or

lard, and when the titi are packed into the tins they are covered over with the oil in which they were cooked. The titi preserved in this manner make very luscious and delicious eating. I would like to finish with a few hints on how to prepare the titi for the table.