274 Transactions 



out of breath, its fundamental orifice opens and emits a booming sound. 

 Such is the cry of the matuku." 



The bittern is now scarce in this district, but few are heard. 



Mimiro. — See Miromiro. 



Miromiro ; syn., Mimiro, Tarapo {Petroica toitoi ; Pied Tit). — These 

 little birds are still fairly numerous in the forests of Tuhoeland. The sexes 

 are known by their different colours, the male bird having black and white 

 plumage, while that of the female is of a dingy pale (koma) colour. The 

 female bird is called tarapo. 



There are two items to record in reference to the miromiro. When Maui, 

 the famous hero of Maori myth, went in search of his mother, he reached 

 Paerau, where he found the folk of that place busily engaged in planting 

 their crops. Maui transformed himself into a bird, a miromiro, which biixl 

 perched itself on the whakamarama (crescent-shaped handle) of a ko (digging- 

 implement) and sang a tewha, or planting-song. After divers adventures, 

 Maui assumed the form of a kereru, or pigeon, and finally found his mother. 



Again, the miromiro bird was often employed to carry love-messages to 

 a sweetheart or absent wife or husband. There was a certain amount of 

 ritual pertaining to this practice. Certain charms, termed iri or atahii, 

 were recited, and it is said that they were very effective. The bird would 

 go forth and find the desired person, however distant, and perch itself on 

 him or her. At once such person would be seized with a great desire to go 

 to the sender of the bird messenger. Runaway wives or husbands were 

 often brought back by such means, the bird being the active medium em- 

 ployed. I am informed that the above statements are quite true — and who 

 am I that I should doubt them ? 



" Ma te kanohi miromiro " is a saying preserved by Sir George Grey. 

 (It will take a sharp eye to see or find something mentioned — an eye as 

 quick as that of the miromiro.) 



Missionary Taylor states that the miromiro " generally flies about graves." 

 After having known this bird for nearly fifty years, I have come to the 

 conclusion that it gets along very well when there are no graves handy. 



Moa. — This creature is no longer met with in the forests of Tuhoeland, 

 I may observe, but it has at one time roamed far and wide over the steep 

 forest ranges of this district. Moa bones have been found near the sum- 

 mit of the Tara-pounamu Range, at an altitude of quite 2,500 ft. above 

 sea-level, and probably 2,700 ft. These were found by road-workmen at 

 the base of a rimu tree, on a steep sideling. A leg-bone was sent to the 

 Auckland Museum. Natives report moa bones as having been seen in caves 

 or rock shelters in the wild forest country at the head of the Tauranga River 

 (called the Waimana by us), and near the summit of Maunga-pohatu — viz., 

 at Nga Whatu-a-maru. A moa skeleton was found in a chasm near Awa- 

 awaroa, at Wai-kare Moana, by Mr. McGrath. 



Native tradition speaks of the moa having lived on the Poho-kura Block 

 in times long past away, and also of a lone 7noa that lived on the Tawhiu- 

 au Range, at Galatea. Presumably these upland moa were mountaineers, 

 for they certainly roamed in very rough high-lying country. 



The word moa is often found to occur in place-names, but whether or 

 not these names have any connection with the bird it is now impossible to 

 ascertain : thus, Moa-whara is a place-name on the upper Whakatane 

 River ; Tapuae-moa, a place near Te Teko ; Moa-nui, a place on the Waio- 

 eka River ; Whanga-moa, on the shores of Roto-kawa ; while rau-moa is 

 a plant-name. 



