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performance for fully twenty minutes and apparently for mere sport. Then some movement alarmed 
the bird, and in an instant she had disappeared amongst the mangimangi. 
It is somewhat curious that whereas the male bird never descended to the ground, his mate 
seemed to delight in doing so, hopping about with outstretched wings, and uttering every now and 
then her peculiar note. On the slightest alarm, however, she would hide herself and remain 
perfectly quiet. The male appeared to be always on the alert, keeping a strict guard, and giving the 
signal at the least sign of danger. The instinct of caution must be strongly developed in this bird, 
to manifest itself thus in the most secluded part of a lonely island, where probably the face of man 
had never appeared before. 
I have already remarked upon the shy and retired habits of the female. Twenty years ago, 
when the bird was comparatively common in the valley of the Hutt, and at Makara, near Wellington, 
although frequently out with the gun I never succeeded in shooting more than two of this sex ; and 
whilst the bright-plumaged male bird was being constantly brought in to the local birdstuffers I 
never saw a female in their hands. One of those shot by me was too much shattered to be of any 
use ; the other is in my old type collection in the Colonial Museum at Wellington. There is a 
specimen from the Little Barrier in the Auckland Museum ; but this sex is a desideratum in all the 
other local museums. There is one old and dingy skin in the British Museum (obtained by leicy 
Earl in 1842), and another (from Sir William Jardine’s collection) in the new University Museum 
at Cambridge, but no other English or foreign museum can boast a specimen of the female Hihi. 
My own private collection was equally deficient till I induced Mr. Reischek, in 1884, to make 
another visit to the Little Barrier in quest of it. In this further search he succeeded, although the 
rarity of the bird may be inferred from the fact that he was fifteen days on the island and did not 
even hear the Hihi till within the last three days of his stay. As already stated, the bird frequents 
the deep wooded ravines in the highest part of the Barrier, and to reach this ground he had to 
perform a toilsome journey of two days, on foot, being accompanied all through by his trusty dog, 
who had in places to be hoisted up with a rope. In the end his efforts were rewarded by his finding 
a family party of five — an adult male and female with three birds of the year, curiously enough, all 
males. At first the male birds alone were visible. They seemed much interested in the movements 
of the dog, and hopped about in the branches above him, peering down in a very inquisitive manner. 
The female bird had secreted herself on the ground and kept perfectly silent. Once or twice she left 
her place of concealment, and darted off uttering on the wing her peculiar rapid snapping note. 
For two hours this watch was continued before there was an opportunity of shooting her. 
The Maoris state that formerly this bird was very plentiful in the Rotorua district, where it was 
known under the name of Kotihe ; and that, at a certain season of the year, it was accustomed to 
come out of the woods to feast on the berries of the tupakihi ( Coriaria sarmentosa ), on which 
occasions numbers were killed for the oven, sometimes as many as a hundred being taken in a day. 
They were caught in the same manner as the Korimako, by means of a tuke or pewa, baited with 
flowers, as described at page 89. If the birds proved to be matakana, or shy, the hunter would at 
once move his snare to another place, it being perfectly well recognized that these birds were often 
fastidious and had to be humoured. 
The fine old Wanganui chief, Topine Te Mamaku, who was almost a centenarian when I last 
saw him, told me that in his young days this bird was very plentiful in the Upper TV anganui district 
so much so that one of the chiefs of that period always appeared on public occasions in a gorgeous 
feather robe which was largely ornamented with the canary-yellow feathers from the wing ot the 
Hihi. Considering how very minute these feathers are, it may be imagined how many were 
sacrificed in order to make this colour conspicuous in the historic mantle, which Topine called, by 
way of distinction, the kahu-hihi. 
