PqflBHHH 9HBNHBBaBDflNMH0HBSV^H9HIHBB8MMi ^g^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^g^^^^^g^g^^^l^gjj^^^^^ggj^^^gg^^l^^jgg^^^^^^^^l^ggl^^p^ 



183 



I was recalled to practical matters by a sudden and violent ferment among the Kuaka. Frequently they 

 rose with a mighty rustle of beating pinions. After circling about in the air in an agitated and undecided 

 manner, they settled again. At length, just as the sun was dipping into the sea, an old cock uttered a 

 strident call, clarion clear, and shot straight into the air, followed by an incalculable feathered multitude. 

 Higher and higher rose the host until it was but a stain in the sky. At this stupendous altitude — in a moment 

 of time, as it seemed — the leader shaped his course due north, and the stain melted into the night. It was very 

 impressive. There was something of the solemnity of a parting about it. 



In this manner, and for ten days, flocks of Kuaka continually arrive at and depart from Spirits Bay. At 

 the expiration of that time the fleeting scene is closed, nothing remaining but a few scattered feathers to show 

 that it once existed. We are not able to follow it in its flight but conscientious observers have noted its 

 progress up the coast of Asia, and they tell us that in the first days of June the Kuaka has reached a latitude 

 in frigid Siberia as high as 74 degrees north. With the coming of August — having meanwhile reared its 

 brood — it begins the voyage to its southern home. As the young birds are at this time incapable of an 

 extended flight, it returns much more leisurely than it went. On the way back, it touches at many of the 

 numerous clusters of islands in the three zones of the Pacific Ocean. The spring sunshine at the end of 

 October welcomes the wanderers home to Te Reinga. The following April, at the same time as that of the 

 previous year, even upon the same day — and this is a circumstance full of interest, for the advent and depar- 

 ture of migrants is in every other case regulated by the forwardness or lateness of the season, as the case may 

 be — the Kuaka again collects upon the sands of Spirits Bay, to fly away to Asia. 



A contributor to that journal, under the nom tie plume of " The General," and the heading of 



' The Kuaka's Mistake,' writes thus thoughtfully : — 



The account of the migration of the New Zealand seafowl, the Kuaka, . to its breeding place in the 

 northern parts of Asia, as given in last Saturday's Supplement of the ' Herald,' is of singular interest. Well 

 may Sir Walter Buller say that in the whole romance of natural history there is nothing to be compared with 

 this astonishing migration. That its instincts should lead the bird to brave the tropical heats extending over 

 the whole torrid zone, in order to reach the cold region beyond in northern latitudes, while it could find as 

 much cold as it wants nearer home by steering south to the Antarctic regions, seems at first sight an instance 

 of animal instinct blundering. The observers and scientists do not appear, however, to have thought out the 

 reason of this strange and unreasonable migration. But it seems to me that the phenomenon, wonderful 

 though it is, is easily enough explained, and that it is dependent on the fact that the centre of distribution of 

 this, as well as all other winged life, was in the Northern Hemisphere. Assuming this generally accepted 

 theory of the genesis of animal life to be correct, the early progenitors of the Kuaka, somewhere about the 

 Persian Gulf, were accustomed to seek their nesting place in those cold latitudes which were nearest them in 

 the Northern Hemisphere. Then, as they and their descendants pursued the gradual system of colonisation 

 further and further south, until eventually they reached the coasts of New Zealand, not merely instinct, but 

 the experience of the older birds led them to continue the northward migration as the annual period for 

 migration came round. I daresay that if we had only some way of reaching the intelligence of the Kuakas, 

 they would be glad to hear that they could find the desired cold latitudes in the south, and so save themselves 

 all that needless flight over half the globe. But just like ourselves, who have carried with us to these 

 southern climes the customs and traditions of the habitat of the Anglo-Saxon race in the far north, these 

 little birds inheriting the prejudices and traditions of their fathers continue to fly away from Te Eeinga 

 instead of turning about, as sensible and well-instructed birds might have done, and making a start from the 

 BLurT. 



Captain Hutton, in his interesting paper on ' Our Migratory Birds,'* makes the following 

 remarks on this part of his subject : — 



The shore-birds, such as the curlews, plovers, sandpipers— known as the Limnicolce — wander much further, 

 and travel down the shores of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, often crossing the equator into the Southern 

 Hemisphere before halting.- One such stream leaves eastern Siberia and, passing through China and Japan 

 —where it picks up the Southern Snipe and the Red-capped Dottrel— continues to fly through the Malayan 



* Trans. N. Z. Inst., vol. xxxiii., pp. 251-264. 



■ 



£'3 



