74 



the following reference to its haunts in Canon Stack's history of the now extinct Ngatima- 

 moe tribe of Maoris: "A party [of Ngaitahu] had been sent from Pukekura to Kauone to 

 collect fern-root. One of them, Tane-toro-tika, the son of Taoka and grandson of Manawa, 

 a young chief of very high rank, was surprised and taken prisoner. On being carried to 

 the presence of Te Maui, that chief, seeing him, said : ' This comb-fastening is equal to that 

 comb-fastening,' meaning that the captive's rank corresponded to that of the chief whose 

 remains had been desecrated, and thereupon killed him. Taikawa, a Ngaitahu warrior, imme- 

 diately after the deed, came upon the band of Ngatimamoe, and asked them what had become 

 of their prisoner. When told that they had killed him, he said : ' You have done foolishly, 

 for not a soul of you will now be spared. You will be banished to the haunts of the Moho 

 (Notomis), and in the depths of the forest will be your only place of safety.' ' Taikawa's 

 words were prophetic, for notwithstanding the persistent rumours of wild men in the woods 

 of the west coast, the capture of a Ngatimamoe would be a greater event even than the 

 killing of a Notomis ! 



As this bird has of late attracted so much public attention, and may at any moment be 

 met with again in the South Island, I think I cannot do better than reproduce here the woodcuts 

 of its head which appeared in my Introduction (vol. i., p. lxxv.). 



HEAD OF NOTORNIS MANTELLI — TWO ASPECTS. 



