182 Bird-Song : and New Zealand Song Birds 
away. The natives say, that always before the wind is about 
to blow from the south the kohaperoa ceases its song* ; and does 
not. commence again till the west wind blows, or till a breeze 
springs up in the north. He knew the shining cuckoo to be 
a bird of passage, but writes (YN, p. 64) -the natives assure 
us that it retires in winter into the holes of trees, or into the 
cie\ices of the rocks, and does not fly away for winter 
quarters to other and warmer climates. It only remains here 
during about three months of the high summer.” 
Taylor’s remarks on it have been inserted under the shining 
cuckoo; but of the long-tailed one he says further (TI, p. 405) : 
-Its appearance is a token for the planting of the kumara, 
and its departure, that it is time to dig them up. Some have 
an idea that this bird hibernates under the water. The Taupo 
natives think that it creeps into holes, where it turns into a 
lizard, and loses its feathers; on the approach of summer, it 
crawls out of its hole, its feathers then begin to grow, the 
tail drops off, and it again becomes a bird. In its lizard form, it 
is called he ngaha, but in Wanganui, he piri rewa, or tree lizard. 
The natives say, that always before the wind is about to blow 
from the south, the kohoperoa ceases to sing, and does not 
commence till the west wind blows, or till a breeze springs up 
from the north. When a child is deserted by its parents, it is 
said to be Te parahaka o te koikoea ’—‘An egg left in 
another s nest [ ? the reject of the koekoea]. Yates was pub¬ 
lished twenty years before Taylor. The proverb quoted by 
Taylor is given in another form by Grey (GK, p. 25) He potiki 
na te koekoea, “The offspring of the long-tailed cuckoo”—as 
applied to an illegitimate child. 
It is curious that the myth of bird-hibernation should spring 
up in Aew Zealand soil as in that of the Old World; or perhaps 
it would be curious were it otherwise; it is one of those touches 
of nature that make the whole world kin. The mvth would 
appear, however, to have originated among the inland dwellers, 
if the dwellers in the northern sea-washed peninsula did actually 
ever see the arrival of birds. 
