Cotenso.—On the Colour Sense of the Maoris. 53 
or dark markings ; these would be collected and preserved, and talked over, 
and decided by the older men to belong to the parrot, sparrow-hawk, 
common hawk, long-tailed cuckoo, wood-hen, bittern, ete., etc. And here 
I may mention (as being probably but little known), that each separate 
feather (primaries) of the wing, and also of the tail, bore its own distinct 
and proper name. Distant trees, whether standing alone, or in clumps and 
thickets, or growing with others in the forests, were also accurately known 
by their colour—their peculiar and specific hue of green. So were distant 
plains, and marshes, and open hills of a country wholly unknown to us; 
which, sometimes, lay before us, stretching out some miles away! Such 
would be sure to form an interesting theme to all of us; particularly to my 
Maori companions, who (poor fellows) always had to traverse those 
unknown and trackless wilds,—hills, plains, and marshes,—with bare feet 
and legs; not to mention our often not knowing where sunset would find 
us travelling, and so compel us to halt for the night. From their general 
hues alone the Maoris could accurately tell whether those far-off unknown 
places were covered with a vegetation of fern! or flax,2—dwarf kahikatoa* 
or mangrove,—toctoe* or raupo,>—wiwi® (species) or toetoeupokotangata,’— 
or, if of grasses, whether patiti® or raumoa. 
A remarkable instance of their detection of a change of colour in the 
distant and unknown landscape, I may briefly relate,—especially as it com- 
pletely bothered us all at first sight! It happened in 1845, when I first 
visited the South Taupo country from Hawke’s Bay. On this occasion we 
were without a guide ; we had advanced some way into the interior, and 
had just sighted the high open lands of Taruarau, when the strange general 
hue of their vegetation bearing a slightly reddish cast immediately attracted — 
our attention. That country was then wholly unknown to all of us, and so 
was its vegetation; moreover, it was trackless. Among my party were 
some Maoris who had travelled much with me throughout the island, but 
we had never before noticed anything like that. Some of the party said 
one thing, and some another, and there was a long and earnest discussion 
carried on, while we were slowly journeying thither, as to what it could 
possibly be. Arriving there we found the reddish colour to be caused by a 
low red sedgy Cyperaceous plant, with long narrow grass-like leaves, a 
species of Uncinia,* which gave the prevailing reddish hue to She vegetation 
round about. 
1. Pteris esculenta ; 2. Phormium: 3. Leptospermum scoparium: 4. Arundo conspicua : 
5. Typha angustifolia :\ 6. Juncus (sp.): 7. Cyperus ustulatus: 8. " ieaaiates rms caine 
grasses: 9. Bpletfex hirsutus. 
In imens of. this plant'-to, Buuiend, 1 had: vane hades which 
Boott, in describing it, also adopted. I see that Dr. Sir J. Hooker (in the Hand-book of 
the New Zealand Flora), speaks of it as being “ red,” and, also, ce wae ee 
but it is much more red when living, 
