40 



To hear Pigeons calling in the night is a ' tatai mate,' an evil omen. The classical or mythological name 

 of a Pigeon is ' Eupe.' This was the other name of Maui-mua, a famous Polynesian demi-god, who trans- 

 formed himself into a Pigeon. 



Pigeons were also taken by the mutu, which is like unto a small mutu-kaka, and was used in a similar 

 manner. 



In the tahei method of snaring, when a great number of pigeons were found caught in the snares, the 

 fowler would remark, * Me te rau rangiora '—like white leaves of the rangiora— alluding to the white plumage 

 of the birds. Or, if many koko were found ensnared, he would then say, ' Me te rapa-rapa tuna '—like eels 

 hanging from the spits. 



In a letter to myself from Buatahuna, this same writer says : "An albino Pigeon was killed 

 here lately. It was not pure wdiite, except on the under-parts, but it was of a pink colour, and 

 very pretty. I regret that the bird was too much knocked about to be worth accepting." 



Mr. Dall, who is a very intelligent observer, wrote to me from Collingwood, saying that 

 a Wood-pigeon, apparently a male, had established itself with a flock of tame pigeons. "It 

 rests on the neighbouring trees, but comes down to feed with the Blue-rocks, consorts with 

 them, and seems disposed to mate with one of them." 



Mr. George Fraser, native-born and a good observer, says he is satisfied that our Wood- 

 pigeon breeds twdce in the season. He has found no less than seven nests of this species 

 at different times— all flimsy structures— with the eggs showing through them from bekw. 



Some writers still insist on treating Hemiphaga spadicea as a New Zealand bird. Although 

 included in Mr. G. B. Gray's " List " of 1862, there is no evidence that this bird was ever found 

 in that country. It formerly inhabited Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island, but was long ago 

 extirpated. Mr. Cheeseman says that the earlier settlers on Sunday Island (Kermadec group) 

 found a large fruit-pigeon very abundant on their first arrival ; but its numbers were gradually 

 thinned, and it was finally exterminated, partly by the settlers themselves and partly by the cats 

 introduced by them which had run wild. They describe it as being greatly similar to the 

 New Zealand species and, as the identity holds good as to all the other land birds now existing 

 there, this may, I think, be accepted as a fact. 



Mr. T. W. Kirk describes in the ' Ibis ' (1898, p. 297) an abnormal specimen shot at Kaikoura 

 in June, 1887, and presented to the Colonial Museum by Mr. H. Inglis :— 



Head, neck and breast normal colour, but of a duller shade. Hind neck and front portion of 

 scapulars and wing-coverts rich brown, profusely interspersed with white ; hind portions of scapulars and 

 wing-coverts white, the feathers in some places tinged and edged with slaty-grey; shafts of feathers 

 deep brown, almost black ; wings slaty-grey, much bestrewn with white, the feathers in most instances 

 edged with coppery green, shafts normal colour; rump white, but with bluish-grey feathers profusely 

 intermixed ; tail-feathers white, but margined all round with bluish-black, shafts black ; beneath, these 

 feathers are white, but so thickly spotted with brown as to appear of that colour ; the two outer shafts 

 nearly white ; abdomeu and lower tail-coverts white ; sides and lining of wings silvery grey, in places almost 

 white ; bill and feet normal colour. 



