44 
being on the west coast and Auckland on the east coast, the tide is, of course, rising in one harbour 
when it is falling in the other. The Curlew feed on the mud-flats after the ebbing tide, and the best 
plan is to choose the time when the flight commences from one coast to the other. This is at the 
moment of low water at either side. At that time the shooter takes up his station behind a fence 
and watches for the flight of Curlew. If the day be stormy, so much the better ; for then the birds 
hy low. If the shooter has taken up a good post, he will have a full hour’s good fast shooting ; and 
this will be the case at each turn of the tide. Last week was my first day this year, and in 
twelve shots I got nine and a half brace of Curlew. This was not very good sport ; but the birds 
hew rather high and were not as closely packed as usual.” 
It is a common thing to see birds with a single leg, or with a broken or truncated bill. Captain 
Mair saw one with both legs shot away. It kept with the flock, supporting itself on the stumps of 
the tarsi when walking, and crouching on the ground when at rest, but mainly using its wings for 
purposes of locomotion. The maimed and injured birds, of which each flock contains many towards 
the close of the shooting-season, habitually keep apart from the main flock, confining themselves to 
the high beach, and are known to sportsmen as the “ sick brigade.” 
At Katikati on the east coast, when their ordinary resting-places on the mud-flats are submerged 
by the high spring tides, these birds take refuge on the tops of the low spreading mangrove bushes ; 
and thousands together may sometimes be seen in this position. 
While resting on sand-banks at high tide, they always stand in the water so as to conceal the 
unfeathered tibia, and sportsmen say that they do this in order to keep themselves cool. 
Great individual variation is observable, especially in the length of the bill and legs. There is 
also much difference in the plumage. The largest birds (probably aged ones) are generally much 
lighter than the rest of the flock, and are distinguished by the Maoris as the “ kuaka-karoro.” In 
the autumn generally about the proportion of one third of the birds in every flock present the rufous- 
brown colouring on the underparts, which is more or less conspicuous, and sometimes extends over 
the entire plumage. These birds are called by the Maoris “ pohokura,” in allusion to their bright 
colour, and both these and the “ kuaka-karoro ” are said to be always the fattest in the flock. 
I have never met with a Maori who could tell me anything about the breeding-habits of this 
Godwit, and it has become a proverb amongst them : “ Who has seen the nest of the Kuaka V’ 
For many years the egg of this bird was equally unknown in other parts of the hemisphere; 
but on the I8th January, 1868, Mr. Dali obtained two specimens at Kutlik, Alaska. “ These differ,” 
Mr. Hartiug states, in the ‘Fauna of the Prybilov Islands ’ (p. 27), “as much from each other as eggs 
of this species do from those of other species. The ground-colour of one is greenish olive-grey, of the 
other pale olive-grey. In the former the markings are all subdued neutral tints apparently in the 
shell ; in the latter the markings are nearly all on the surface and quite bright chocolate-brown. 
In both cases the markings are numerous and of indeterminate shape, mostly small and generally 
distributed, though tending to aggregate at the larger end, where alone they lose their distinctness in 
coalescing to form a splashed area.” 
As already mentioned in the Introduction, this species breeds in the high latitudes of Eastern 
Asia ; but a few stragglers appear to remain with us all the year round. I have in my possession an 
egg obtained on the Island of Kapiti (Cook’s Strait) which I am unable to refer to any other bird ; 
it is of a regular ovoido-conical form, measuring 1-95 inches in length by 1‘45 in breadth, and the 
colour is a dull stone-brown, with numerous obscure markings, as if under the shell, over the entire 
surface, which is finely granulate, but changing to pale brown, with a polished surface, at the 
smaller end. 
