98 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



we have seen, apart from sucli we have no traces of the animal in question 

 (save fragmentary and mythical ones) left ui their language. 



Additional Remarks. 

 A few other additional remarks I would also offer ; gleaned, I may say, 

 by the way we have come in our enquiry :— 



1. The very peculiar names {Bau-o-piopio and Kowhakaroro) repeatedly 

 given by the chief Hawea to that " one Moa's feather" he had seen: — 

 observe (1.) that such is not that of the bird itself; it is not here called a 

 Eau (or Piki) Moa=the plume or fine feather of the Moa ; while such is 

 commonly the case with the feathers of other birds which are prized 

 for head decoration, — which are always named after the bird itself; as, 

 Eau (or Piki) huia=the plume or fine feather of the huia, — Eau (or 

 Piki) kotuku=the plume or fine feather of the kotuku (white crane), — 

 Eau parera=the plume of the duck, etc., etc. (2.) That the term Rau-o- 

 piopio would properly mean — feather, or plume, of (the bird) Piopio ; and 

 there is a bird of that name known to the Maoris ; or, rather, I should say, 

 there are three ! all widely differing fL'om each other :—(«.) the New Zealand 

 thrush {Turnagra crassirostris) ; — (b.) a small reddish bird ; — (c.) a bird 

 (unknown to me) said to have been a kind of gromad game and largely 

 used as food, but now extinct !* Of these three birds I only know the first 

 one, having both seen and heard it in the forests on the west side of the 

 Eua^ine mountain range, although it is a South Island bu'd, and but 

 rarely met with so far north as Hawke's Bay ; it is also called by the 

 M.a,ovis korokio, and koropio ; by this last name it is best known in these 

 parts. As the first of these three bii'ds (the thrush) is not unfi-equently 

 mentioned by the Maoris in then- songs, owing to its cry [piopio), and also 

 in their- proverbs, I have made special enquiry, whether the said " one 

 feather" bearing its name could have belonged to it ; but met with a du-ect 

 negative. Neither have I succeeded any better in all my endeavours to 

 learn why that one feather should have obtained those two long names. 

 (3.) The other term for that one feather, '' Koichakaroro," hsis, cui-iously 

 enough, a peculiar meaning, that is etymologically, — a reference to another 

 bird, the karoro, or large white and brown gull (i.e., it may have had some 

 such meaning). One meaning of the word kowha is, — favourable consider- 

 ation, kind gracious words or dealings, a kind parting word, regret, a gift, 

 souvenir, etc. And the karoro, with its long and melancholy cry, is also 

 mentioned in their legends, as causing them, the old Maoris of ancient 



* Nearly all that I know of this bird is from a letter from a Maori chief, written in 

 1873, in which he says: — "The foreigner introduced the dog and the cat, which com- 

 pletely destroyed the food-birds of tliis island, — the weka, the kiwi, the kaakaapoo, the 

 piopio, and many other birds." 



