Cowan. — Notes on some South Island Birds. 339 



oftenest around the seashore and in the coppices which compose 

 the outer fringes of the forest, are sometimes interpreted by 

 the Maoris as " Ku-i, hu-i! Whiti-whiti ora /'.' concluding with 

 a long " Tio-o ! " " Whiti-whiti-ora " may be translated as 

 meaning " safely crossed," in allusion perhaps to the bird's safe 

 arrival after its long flight across the ocean. Its song is also 

 construed as a command to the Asmara-planters — 



Ko-o-i?.. koia, koia ; 



Tiria, tiria, tiria ; 



What i what in, whatiwhatia 



bidding the people dig away, break up their mother earth and 

 prepare the soil for the reception of the seed kumara. 



There is a very ancient planting-song called " Te Tewha-o- 

 Maui " (" The Chant of Maui "), used on the occasion of kumara- 

 planting in the Hot Lakes District, particularly on the Island of 

 Mokoia, in Lake Rotorua. It is rather curious to find that a 

 portion of exactly the same song is heard in the extreme south, 

 where the Murihiku Maoris put it into the mouth of the pipi- 

 wharauroa. Legend says that it was from Maui (who was credited 

 with being able to effect remarkable " lightning changes," after 

 the manner of the heroes in the " Arabian Nights ") that the 

 Maori ancestors first heard the Asmara-planting incantations. 

 The demi-god transformed himself into a bird and sang this 

 teivha as he sat perched on the handle of a ko or digging-imple- 

 ment. So that this song (which is too long to quote here) was 

 brought from the old home of the Maoris in the islands of Poly- 

 nesia, and is therefore of great antiquity. 



Straying again for a moment to the North Island — there is 

 a Maori monthly newspaper published at Gisborne called the 

 " Pipiwharauroa " after this interesting bird. Its Maori corre- 

 spondents take poetic flights that are quite in keeping with the 

 name of the journal. They address the paper as " My dear 

 little bird," and enjoin it to bear their words all over the Island 

 upon its wings. And the editor, too, is not without poetry in 

 his soul, for he heads his list of subscribers (sadly dilatory ones, 

 I am sorry to see) with the words " Nga hua Icareao mo ta tatou 

 manu," which means " Supplejack-berries to feed our bird." 



A beautiful bush-musician in the South Island — which we 

 unfortunately seldom or never hear in the North — is the bell- 

 bird (korimako or makomako). In Otago, Southland, and Stewart 

 Island the Natives call it the " koparapara." It is very delightful 

 to a bird-lover from the North Island to note the plentiful num- 

 bers and the tameness of the bell-bird in such places as Akaroa 

 (where it has developed a taste for pakeha plums and pears and 

 cherries, and for the flowers of the Acacia), and in most of the 

 wooded parts of Otago, Southland, and Stewart Island. 



