338 Transactions. 



where in the vicinity. Some of the numerous wooded islands 

 in Manapouri were also favourite camping-places of the Maoris, 

 who snared birds in the woods, caught wild ducks in the lagoons, 

 and fished for eels by torchlight in the sandy bays, spearing them 

 with the wooden triple-pronged matarau. 



In winter the takahea were driven down from the mountains 

 by the snows, and they were then found around the shores of 

 the lakes, feeding chiefly on the sweet swamp-grass pouaka. 

 One of the spots much frequented by the bird, according to the 

 Murihiku Maoris, was a lagoon (or hapua) known as Te Wai-o- 

 Pani, on the south-west shore of Te Anau. This lagoon is backed 

 by a high cliff, on the top of which is a plateau with a pakihi or 

 natural clearing, rich in fern-root, one of the food-staples of the 

 olden Maori. This clearing, a perfect and safe retreat for a 

 broken tribe, is said to have been one of the Ngatimamoe places 

 of refuge when that unfortunate tribe was almost exterminated 

 by Ngaitahu, and the remnant driven into the vast forest wilder- 

 ness of Fiordland, called by the Maoris Te Rua-o-te-Moko, 

 where they finally became extinct. The pakihi was accessible 

 only by a very precipitous route up the face of the cliff. The 

 white man, say the old people of Murihiku, has not yet discovered 

 this well-hidden spot. Here the takahea was sometimes found. 

 It was hunted with dogs, and when attacked showed vigorous 

 fight. It would strike out with its feet and bite with its strong 

 short beak, hissing like a bittern. The Natives describe its reso- 

 nant metallic night-cry as resembling the sound made by two 

 pieces of greenstone when sharply struck together. 



Another remarkable flightless bird, fortunately not so scarce 

 as the takahea, is the member of the Apteryx family commonly 

 called by naturalists the " roa." The Maoris say that the proper 

 name of this bird is the " fakou'eka." The tokoweka is now 

 plentiful on Resolution Island (Taumoana), the Government 

 avifauna sanctuary in Dusky Sound. 



Of our summer visitors the migrant pipiivharauroa, or shining 

 cuckoo, is particularly well known to the southern Maoris. The 

 pipiivharauroa is, of course, not confined to the South Island ; 

 it is famous amongst the Maoris all over the colony, but par- 

 ticularly on the coasts. It arrives with its South Sea Island 

 cousin the long-tailed cuckoo (koekoea) about October, and leaves 

 our shores again for its winter quarters in northern Australia 

 and New Guinea about the end of February. Like the English 

 cuckoo, the pipiwharauroa is regarded as the harbinger of spring. 

 The Southland Natives call it " Te Manu-a-Maui " (Maui's Bird), 

 because its notes when heard in the spring are a signal to begin 

 the planting — Maui being the tutelary deity of the gardens and 

 cultivations. Its sweet and frequently repeated notes, heard 



