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earthworms, insects of all kinds, fruits, berries, green herbs, &c. He was supplied daily with a dish 
of fresh water, and was accustomed to bathe in it with evident delight. At one time he occupied 
the same division of the aviary with a pair of Australian Ring-Doves which had commenced to 
breed. The Doves were allowed to bring up their first brood in peace ; but when the hen bird 
began to build a second time, she was closely watched by the Piopio, and immediately the first egg 
was deposited he darted upon the nest and devoured it. The innocent little Ring-Dove continued 
to lay on in spite of repeated robbery, and had at length to be placed beyond the reach of her 
persecutor. During the day the Piopio was unceasingly active and lively ; at night he slept on a perch, 
resting on one leg, and with the plumage puffed out into the form of a perfectly round ball, the 
circular outline broken only by the projecting extremities of the wings and tail. Every sound seemed 
to attract his notice, and he betrayed an inquisitiveness of disposition which in the end proved fatal ; 
for having inserted his prying head through an open chink in the partition, it was seized and torn off 
by a vicious Sparrow-Hawk in the adjoining compartment of the aviary. 
In the wild state this species subsists chiefly on insects, worms, and berries. I have shot it on 
the ground in the act of grubbing with its bill among the dry leaves and other forest debris. Its 
flight is short and rapid. It haunts the undergrowth of the forest, darting from tree to tree, and 
occasionally descending to the ground, but rarely performing any long passage on the wing. It is 
very nimble in its movements ; and when attempting on one occasion to catch one of these birds 
with an almost invisible horsehair noose, it repeatedly darted right through the snare, and defeated 
every effort to entrap it. 
In my former edition of this work I stated that the Piopio was at that time comparatively 
common in all suitable localities throughout the southern portion of the North Island, but was 
extremely rare in the country north of Waikato. I mentioned also that a specimen which I shot in 
the Kaipara district in the summer of 1852 (doubtless a straggler from the south) was quite a novelty 
to the natives in that part of the country ; that it was recognized, however, by an old Maori, who 
called it a “ Korohea,” a name quite unknown in the south, and who stated that in former years it 
was very abundant in all the woods. I ventured then to express a belief that the bird whose 
biography I had undertaken to write would soon be equally scarce elsewhere. And so it has proved, 
for the North- Island Piopio is now one of our rarest species, and is certainly doomed to extinction 
within a very few years. 
In the Bay of Plenty district it has never been heard of since the time of Hongi’s famous invasion 
(about the year 1820). A little wooded spur near Te Puke settlement, behind Maketu, frequented 
by a pair of these birds at that troublous period has ever since borne the name of Piopiorua ; and to 
the present day the old men talk of the ominous appearance in their district of this “ manu aitua ” at 
the time that the bloodthirsty warrior landed in his war-canoes and spread terror and destruction 
with his newly acquired firearms *. 
The last accessible place in which I met with it was Horokiwi, about 25 miles from W ellington. 
* Captain Mair, who took a prominent part throughout the late Maori War, and finally won the New-Zealand Cross by his 
gallant conduct at Ohinemutu, informs me that on one occasion, when in close pursuit of Te Ivooti and his followers in the 
Urewera country, he unexpectedly came upon a pair of these birds in the bush, and, at the risk of scaring his nobler game, could 
not resist the temptation of shooting both specimens of so rare a species. This was at a place between the Whakatane and 
llangitaiki rivers. Daring very many years spent in the Bay of Plenty he has never seen or heard of the Piopio in that district 
or in the Botorua country ; but he once heard its unmistakable note in some low bush at the northern end of Lake Taupo. In 
February 1880 he shot a pair at Taumarunni, near the junction of the Wanganui river with the Ongarue in the Tuhua country, at 
a point about 250 miles by the river from the town of Wanganui. This pair had been known to the natives as inhabiting that 
particular locality for several years. In the hope of securing them he travelled more than fifteen miles through the bush. He 
found them perfectly tame, answering his call and hopping round him, apparently quite heedless of his presence ; but his efforts 
to ensnare them were all in vain, the bird always darting through the loop and escaping. 
