CorgNso.— On the Moa. 99 
days, to lament when they heard it ;* so that I ean well perceive how those two 
words put together would form an appropriate name, among such a poetical 
and imaginative race, for such a feather only so used, viz., the last melancholy 
parting gift of the karoro. But still this may be fanciful on my part. 
2. That “ one feather ” is also plainly and fully described by Hawea as 
closely resembling the tail-feather of the peacock. Now, here three things 
are observable :—(1.) That such is not the case with any Struthious bird 
known, especially with the remaining New Zealand one, the kiwi (Apteryx, 
sp.); (2.) that, curiously enough, a similar glowing description is also 
given of another extinct New Zealand bird of large size, viz,, the hokioi ; 
which bird, however, had been really seen by the old Maoris of the 
generation just passed away, and by them particularly described. It was 
said, by an intelligent aged Maori, seven to eight years ago, when writing 
of this bird :—'* Our forefathers saw that bird of former days, the hokioi ; 
we of this generation have never seen it, for it has become extinct, but 
only of late. According to what our forefathers have handed down to us, 
the hokioi was a very strong bird, especially on the wing; it was very 
much bigger and stronger than the hawk, with which, however, it was 
always at feud. Its habitat was on the mountains, never in the lowlands. 
It was seen by our fathers when flying, on its days of coming down, or 
flying abroad; but this was not every day, because its home was in the 
mountains. Its appearance or colour was red and black and white, having 
plenty of feathers; some of which were also bright yellow, like the colour 
of the flowers of the kowhai tree (Edwardsia), and some were glistening 
green, like those of the small parroquet; it had also a beautiful tuft, or 
plume of feathers on its head. It was a very big bird indeed.” (8.) If 
that ‘‘one feather" was not a stray feather from the recently extinct 
bird hokioi, which also lived away in the mountains,+—it may have been a 
feather from a Peacock, brought hither by those whaling ships from Sydney 
or Tasmania, which came here often early in this century to refit, etc., and 
who would have quickly known how very much handsome feathers were in 
request, both in New Zealand and in the other South Sea Islands; of 
which, indeed, the barter had been commenced in the very time of Cook,t 
and of which those who came after him in those seas, of course knew. 
Here I may also remark, that the old Maoris who first saw the Euro- 
peans, as a rule, named the new and strange things (especially animals) in 
* It was the hearing the melancholy wailing of the karoro flying in the Upper 
Rangitikei River, that caused the chief Kahungunu to burst out into his passionate 
lament. (Vide, p. 91, ante.) 
2 + Vide Hawea’s statement of that “ one feather" having been found in the 
district, blown down by the wind to the branches of a white pine tree. (Ante, p. 83.) 
1 Vide “ Cook's Voyages,” second voyage, Vol. I., p. 318; and in other places. 
