180 Bird-Song : and New Zealand Song Birds 
meaning tne u,. OJ a mru . 
cour.se, mean# long. So here is annar 
from the So , T™>? br ° ught originally 
rom the South Sea Islands—a further 
iridicatiton that the earliest Maori ar 
rivals in ^ew Zealand had known the 
cuckoo before they reached this count-y. 
or st,U further confirmation (though 
this test standing by itsell is not at all 
o be relied upon) is the statement that 
■he bird was found in Hawaiki, the tradi- 
rf onai home of the Maoris from which, 
fhey enugrated t'o New-Zealand. * 
taking all the evidence into review, it 
would seem that the learned among the 
ancestors of the Maoris knew of the 
widespread distribution of the long tailed 
cuckoo, and of its custom of disappear¬ 
ing at certain times from its haunts; but 
they failed to -observe or deduce its 
migratory and parasitical habits, and so 
invented a theory to fit the known facts. 
Which is a thing we sometimes do our¬ 
selves—indeed, this article is not 
altogether guiltless in that respect. 
Bui that the Maoris nad some inkling 
of the oddity of the koekoea's upbring^ 
ing is proved by a saying they apply to 
a child whose Either has abandoned it: 
“ See, the offspring of the koekoea ” (or 
sometimes,- “ of the pipiwharauroa 
A very old man of the Tapnika tribe at 
Te Puke recently told me that the father 
of the koekoea was the sun, that it was 
when born a * ngaram-papa, and after¬ 
wards became a bird living a solitary life 
in the thickets, having no rest, and be¬ 
ing altogether a mysterious creature. 
Despite their dislike of the ngarara- 
papa (which m them was not, however, 
so terribly fearsome a thing as was the 
kakariki, or green tree lizard), the 
Maoris used the tail feathers of the koe¬ 
koea as an adornment for the hair. Ncw- 
a-Jays, the feathers are thrust into the 
hat baud and worn that way. Neither 
the pipiwharauroa nor the koekoea was 
used as food, but for different re.v-oc.s— 
the pipiwharau, n because c- 
uine affection the Maoris bore 
liciUiiU UJL ouuanci »vai mm 
the koekoea because of 
abhorent 
its 
koea 
was 
re.v o 
' :,n-— 
li e 
gen - 
to 
this 
ease, 
and 
supposed 
origin 
