CoLENSO. — Reminiscences of the Ancient Maoris. 455 



This was quite in accordance witla Maori custom, and, I may 

 say, with our Enghsh customs too.) A long altercation took 

 place between them, but Morris was obliged to give way to 

 save his gun. He afterwards called on me and told me of the 

 circumstance, and how much he regretted it. The next day 

 Tareha himself, with a whole posse of his wives and people, 

 came in a canoe bringing me the bird wrapped up in a new 

 garment (Tareha having heard from Morris that he intended it 

 for me) ; but they had plucked out all its prized feathers, and 

 now wanted £1 (or " a golden sovereign") for wdiat remained. 

 For some time I would not take it at all, seeing it was spoiled 

 as a specimen for preserving ; but at last (and to please him) 

 I took it, giving him 4s. for it : and the skin (though deprived 

 of its choice plumes), with head and feet, I preserved with 

 arsenical sotip, and sent it to Professor Owen through Sir W. 

 J. Hooker, as, at that time, I considered it to be a new species, 

 and unknown. Another specimen of this bird was kept in a 

 cage by the Maoris at Porangahau, who had managed to snare 

 it alive in the neighbouring stream. They fed it very sparingly 

 with small fresh- water fish, but placed them in such a shallow 

 saucer-like vessel as strongly to remind me of ^sop's fable of 

 the fox and the stork — that is, of the fox's invitation entertain- 

 ment. It soon, however, died — before that its prized feathers 

 had newly grown. Of course its old feathers were plucked 

 out when it was captured. From the great scarcity of this 

 bird, and its high value, it became proverbial — e.g., " Kotukit, 

 rer^?i^a-to/ii "= Kotuku once (seen) flying. So that the rare 

 visit of any great and friendly chief or welcome visitor was 

 likened to its flying, or rare appearance. 



The one bird they kept for use was the common large brown 

 parrot = fcaa /baa {Nestor meridional is). This was used as a 

 decoy-bird to enable them to catch wild parrots. It was 

 always kept securely fastened by one of its legs, enclosed 

 within a bone circlet, and tied by a short thick cord to a hard- 

 wood {manuka) spear, but allowed to run up and down the 

 spear, a loose loop being at the end of the cord. It was of 

 great service to them in their clever parrot-catching, and 

 sometimes lived to a great age notwithstanding its hard, con- 

 fined, and wretched life. This was the only one of all their 

 bird pets that was pretty common among them, especially in 

 the interior, in the forest districts. 



There are several good old proverbial sayings concerning 

 the parrot — e.g. : — 



" He kaakaa ^cahanui" =■ A noisy-mouth parrot. Applied 

 to a chatterer, or boasting person. 



" iJc kuukiiu ki tc kaainga, lie kaakaa ki tehaere" = A 

 pigeon at home, a parrot abroad. The New Zealand pigeon is 

 a silent bird, and remains quietly sitting on the high trees ; 



