

Cowan. — Notes on some South Island Birds. 337 



Art. XLII. — Notes on some South Island Birds, and Maori 



Associations connected therewith. 



By J. Cowan. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 18th November. 1005.] 



While in the extreme south of the South Island this year, 

 engaged in collecting historical Maori matter from the very few 

 well-informed Natives who have survived to these days, I 

 gathered one or two notes regarding certain southern birds 

 which may be of some interest, seeing that the particulars have 

 not hitherto been placed on record. My chief informants were 

 members of the Ngaitahu Tribe living at Colac Bay (or Oraka), 

 on the shores of Foveaux Strait — elderly men who have been 

 sealers and bird-hunters for the greater part of their lives, and 

 who are more reliable on matters of natural history and bush- 

 craft than the other southern Natives. They are also in part 

 descended from the ancient Ngatimamoe, who ceased to exist 

 as a tribe protably over a century ago. 



My first note refers to the Notornis mantelli, the rara avis 

 called by the Maoris the " taJcahea." The name of this bird is 

 spelled " takahe " in Buller's " Birds," and all other works in 

 which it is mentioned. The Maoris inform me that this is wrong ; 

 there should be a final a, as I have spelt it here. The takahea is 

 undoubtedly the most interesting of all our native birds ; it has 

 almost, if not quite, vanished from existence. The last-known 

 living specimen was captured in 1898 on the shores of the Middle 

 Fiord of Lake Te Anau. It is possible that a few specimens of 

 this most ancient of feathered creatures may still roam the 

 great forests of Fiordland, between Te Anau and the west coast. 

 It is not necessary here to describe the bird further than to 

 say that it is not unlike a pukeko or swamp-hen in general 

 appearance and plumage, that it has short wings useless for 

 purposes of flight, but armed below the carpal joint with a sharp 

 spur or claw, and that it has a very strong and peculiarly arched 

 red bill. 



In former times, according to Te Paina and Kupa Haereroa, 

 of Colac Bay, takahea were plentiful around the shores of Lakes 

 Te Anau and Manapouri, and the Southland Maoris were accus- 

 tomed to make annual expeditions for their capture. At this 

 period the shores of these great lakes were inhabited by the 

 Maoris, and villages stood at a spot called Owhitianga-te-ra (the 

 Place of the Rising Sun), at the foot of Te Anau, at the points 

 where the Waiau River enters and leaves Manapouri, and else- 



