Bbattie. — Nature-lo7-e of the Southern Maori. 65 



The Moa. 



As a rule, my informants frankly admitted they knew nothing about 

 the moa. One man, however, said the last moa was killed on the Waimea 

 Plains about five generations ago, and gave some very plausible details. 

 There is just a possibility that one of the smaller kinds of moa may have 

 smwived long after the big birds became extinct, or that a very large 

 hiivi was 'killed, but I do not place absolute reliance on the tradition. 



One man said, " Just a few chains below the Mataura Falls is Te- 

 kohaka-a-moa ^(the nest of the moa). It is a round depression on a flat 

 rock, and the old people thought it resembled a moa's nest. They also 

 found moa bones about it. Near Clinton is the hill Te-kohaka-a-p'ouakai 

 (the nest of the pouakai). The pouakai was one of the kinds of moa that 

 lived in this land. A small sea-bird is now called pouakakai: but do not 

 mix the name. The imuakai has not been seen for many generations ; 

 the pouakakai is quite common yet." From this it appears that the 

 southern Maori recognized that there were different species of Dinornis. 



The late Tare-te-Maiharoa, than whom there was no greater authority 

 in recent years, was positive the moa was extinct when the Maori came, 

 A.D. 1350. They were killed out in the South Island by the Waitaha, who 

 called the birds pouakai. The name moa Avas given by the latest comers 

 who saw the bones lying about. "The Moriori of the Chatham Islands," 

 said Tare, " were related to the Kati-Mamoe, but left New Zealand very 

 long ago." 



This accounts for the poua bird of Moriori traditions. It is simply the 

 moa of New Zealand, which was probably on the point of extinction or 

 already extinct when that people left this country. The last Maori note 

 I have on the moa runs, " I have heard a song which says the moa was 

 killed out by karakia (tau-whaka-moe-tia) because it was a dangerous bird^ 

 but how long ago I cannot say." 



Insects.' 



I understand that the question has recently been raised whether • the 

 flea was brought into New Zealand by European ships. I did not know 

 of this inquiry in time to ask my Maori friends what they knew of the 

 matter, but may say that on Kuapuke Island there is a place known as 

 Te Awatuiau (Flea Channel). Shortland in 1843 said tuiau was the 

 southern name for the flea, the northern name being puruhi. One old man 

 noticed a statement that the Maori name of the mosquito was ivaeroa. and 

 said to me, " Its name in the North might be waeroa, but in the South it 

 was always known as keroa.'" Noticing some insects as I was conversing 

 with an old Maori, he supplied me with the following names : " Our name 

 for the bluebottle-fly was rako, and for its eggs and maggots iro. Spiders 

 were pukau-werewere, and grasshoppers tukarakau. The daddy-long-legs' 

 name was te tatau-o-te-whare-o-Maui (the door of the house of Maui), 

 but I do not know how it got this name. A green kind of butterfly, a 

 sort of cricket, was called kikiwaru, while the black and spotted butterflies 

 are mokarakara. [He pronounced this mokalakala.] Then we used to 

 have pekapeka (bats) in plenty, but I have not seen any of them for a 

 long time." The sandfly was called namu, and there is a place* near Waiau 

 mouth called Kai-namu (eat sandflies) because these pests were so numerous 

 as to get into the mouth with the food that was being eaten. I have a 

 further note that in the South the name of the ant was upokorua. 

 3— Trans. 



