128 J. Cassidy—A Chat about the Tui of New Zealand


“ On what does the Tui feed ? ” do you ask ?


Insects, nectar, and berries. When the berries are over and the

winter has yet some time to run insects form the bird’s mainstay.

As a rule they are prodded out of the trees, but one ornithologist

(Waite) noted when at Auckland Islands that the Tuis were taking

insects on the wing.


The kinds of berries provided by the New Zealand forests are

extremely numerous. Perhaps the best known and the most con¬

spicuous are those of the mahoe, coprosma, supple-jack, maire, mako,

and karaka.


The nectar-producing flowers are also in plentiful supply in the

lovely forests, and, amongst the favourites of the Tui, may be mentioned

as most conspicuous the rata, kowhai, rewarewa, and fuchsia, while

scrub and swamp provide enormous quantities of flax flowers

(Phormium). The soft spikes of the kiekie are also considered edible

by the Tui (so Buller).


In these days, when conscience is, perhaps, better awakened, the

Tui is protected by law from those who would eat its flesh or export

it for its skin, which formerly was used in millinery, many skins being

imported by London. The protection ■ by law of this beautiful bird

amply repays the favour, as its work, as a destroyer of insects

inimicable to plant life, including the blue-gum scale, and by its cross-

pollinating of forest trees, has rendered it a valuable practical

economist.



The Maoris and Tui


The Tui was domesticated by the Maori, who kept it in cages and

taught it to talk and to sing. No other bird was thus taught by the

Maoris. It is said that they trimmed the end of its tongue. The Tui

being imitative and a competent mimic easily produced all kinds

of noises and sounds, including pig-squealing (the Maoris kept many

pigs), the whistle of a shepherd for his dogs, and also the calls of many

birds. It sneezes, coughs, and gurgles and introduces such notes into

its musical songs. It would thus appear to have anticipated modern

music vagaries.



