200 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Art. XX. — A few stray Notes on the New Zealand Oiol, 

 Athene novse-zealandiae, Gml. — Ruru and Koukou of the 

 Maoris, and Morcpork of the Settlers. 



By William Colenso, F.E.S., F.L.S., &c. 



[Read before the HaxoTze's Bay Philosophical InstittUe, 8th October, 1888.] 



When he heard the owls at midnight 

 Hooting, laughing in the forest, 

 " What is that ?" he cried in terror ; 

 " What is that," he said, " Nokomis ? " 

 And the good Nokomis answered : 

 " That is but the owl and owlet. 

 Talking in their native language, 

 Talking, scolding at each other." 



— Hiawatha, Canto III. 



Several years ago — from 1844 to 1853 — it was my lot to be 

 often travelling on duty in the Wairarapa district. On one of 

 those occasions I wished to reach the Maori village at the 

 mouth of the Pahawa Eiver on the east coast from the upper 

 part of the Wairarapa Valley. In travelling thither we 

 brought up for the night at the edge of a thicket, where my 

 tent was pitched under a tree. My travelling companions 

 and baggage-bearers, being weary with a long day's journey, 

 were soon asleep, while I sat up reading, enjoying the stillness 

 of the night, for it was a beautiful calm and moonlight one. 

 Presently I heard a strange noise, or rather a succession of 

 strange and peculiar unusual noises, such as I had never 

 heard before. These were repeated over and over, in different 

 and strange keys and semi-discordant tones, mixed with shrill 

 hissing, and seemed as if coming from some creatures over my 

 head ; and at last, as I could not stand it any longer, I unlaced 

 the door of my tent and got out. Keeping quiet, and conceal- 

 ing myself and looking up, I saw two owls on a rather bare 

 extended horizontal branch of the tree only a few feet above 

 me, and these were a pair, male and female, carrying on their 

 courtship in the most strange manner imaginable. Such a 

 grotesque sight I never saw before or since. The manner in 

 which they acted ; their pantomimic movements — half sedate 

 and half funny- — the gentleman owl advancing from his end 

 of the branch with his head-feathers trimmed and set up 

 cap-a-pie, and his wings let down, making with them a jarring 

 noise as if he were a little turkey-cock, and at the same time 

 uttering all manner of strange wooing sounds, high and low, 

 short and long ; and then the lady owl, on her part, retreating 

 to the further end of the branch with measured step and slow, 

 turning round, bridling herself up, hissing, and scornfully 

 resenting the behaviour of the other ; also, at times, uttering 



