/ 78 Bird-Song : and New Zealand Song Birds 
Trilling in the seventh (month), trilling in the eighth (month). Trill you 
ever forth as you fly 
The following message to the homes of lads and lasses: Kui, Tcui, Tcui, whiti 
wliiti ora. 
As its home was supposed to be in the Maori fatherland, it 
was known as “the bird of Hawaiki”; and it has been thought 
possible that the migratory flight of the cuckoo from the mid- 
Pacific Hawaiki encouraged the adventurous seafaring Maori 
to come so far south as New Zealand, in search of the land 
made by the bird (JP, Vol. 16, 1907, p. 93). It is said that at 
a certain point on the voyage of one of the canoes of the great 
Maori migration from Hawaiki to New Zealand, the captain 
liberated his two pet birds, but no explanation is given. Pre¬ 
sumably they would rise, and seeing the land that was in¬ 
visible to those in the canoe, make for it, and so guide the 
voyagers thither (JP, Vol. 16, pp. 92-3). There are, also, cir¬ 
cumstantial details in an old story shewing how a pet 
hvharauroa was used as a messenger to a chief who had left 
Hawaiki and settled at Rangi-atea (JP,Vol. 22, 1913, pp. 202-3). 
Stowell says that their coming over the sea, and landing 
exhausted at Maunganui Bluff, has often been observed by the 
Maori; and the bird is said to carry in its claws a small pebble, 
usually white, the size of a farthing, which it licks during 
flight when thirsty, to satisfy the craving for water. He 
states that the stones have often been picked up on the bluff, 
or taken from the newly-arrived exhausted bird. The kaka, 
when flying any great distance, is similarly said to carry a 
piece of bark for the same purpose; and the Maori imitated 
the bird; for when undertaking long journeys on foot, m 
summer or autumn, they would place a leaf, preferably of 
mahoe, between the lips, and lick or suck it when thirsty. I 
can vouch that this was quite satisfying,” writes Stowell, 
“and that we could cross streams without wanting to stoop 
and drink.” The boys at Gallipoli, too, prevented aggravation 
of thirst by keeping a pebble in the mouth. The migration 
pebble and the bark were called “0,” which means P r( ^ 
vision for a journey.” The 0 and the migration of the bn* 
