White. — On Extinct Birds of the Chatham Islands. 167 



parrakeet, Platycercus nova-zealandice, &c.)* And this word 

 " kaka " is said to be found in our English name " cockatoo," 

 from the Malay kaka-tua (or tuwha), and comes to us through 

 the Portuguese. Moreover, Dieffenbach visited the Chathams 

 in 1839-41, and obtained a specimen of a nearly extinct rail, 

 of small size (Cabalas dieffenbachU) , the native name of which 

 he gives as moe-riki — i.e., "the small moe " (not meho, but 

 evidently the same word, for Mr. Shand mentions no rail to 

 correspond with this otherwise) ; and in New Zealand "moho" 

 is the name of a species of flightless rail or coot, also called 

 " takehe " (Notornis mantelli), a bird larger than the pukeko 

 (Porphyrio vielanotus) but of similar-coloured plumage and 

 markings; and in Maori "moho" is the name for dark-blue 

 colour, as if the bird's plumage was taken as the standard of 

 that colour, and Dieffenbach' s rail is not of that colour. Forbes 

 found the remains of a large coot, or waterhen, at the Chat- 

 hams, which he supposes almost identical with similar remains 

 found in far-away Mauritius {Fulica iiewtoni) ; also the bones 

 of a large rail {Aphanapteryx) ; a raven-like crow {Palceocorax 

 moriorum) ; the kea (or mountain-parrot of New Zealand), so 

 named from its call-note by the Maori, and not " kaka " some- 

 thing, by the rule laid down above (Nestor' notabilis) ; the 

 lesser owl (Spiloglaux novcs-zealandice) ; the small hawk (Harpa 

 ferox) ; and of the woodhen, or weka (Ocydromus australis) : 

 " they lay in association with Dieffenbach's woodhen (Cabalus 

 dieffenbachU), a bird so rare that since 1840 only three speci- 

 mens have been obtained." Bones of the tuatara lizard (Sphe- 

 nodon punctatum) were also obtained. 



In New Zealand there was at one time, and it was known 

 to the early colonists, a small rail, the banded rail (Ballus 

 philippensis) , considered identical with a rail found at the 

 Philippine Islands. It was called moho-tatai, moho-pa-tatai, 

 and moho-pereru : " tatai," the sea-coast, on the " moho," of 

 the seashore. 



Mr. Shand's description, given above, of the method adopted 

 in catching the meho-nui (or large meho) or moho, is singularly 

 borne out or corroborated by the verbal form of moho in the 

 Maori language — as, whaka-moho, " to steal softly upon any 

 one " ; and to this we might compare whaka-kiwi, " to look 

 aside, to regard obliquely." No doubt this was a habit of the 

 kiwi (Apteryx) when listening for the movement of worms or 

 underground insects. A place near Wanganui called Ara- 



* The parrakeet provided the standard of the colour green to the 

 Maori, so kaka-riki = green, also a green lizard (Naultinus elegans) ; and 

 New Zealand has another parrot form in the kaka-tara-po or kaka-po 

 (night-parrot), the flightless parrot [Strincjops habroptihis). It is possible 

 that the kea, or keha, the sheep-eating parrot, was originally named 

 kaka-kea. 



