July 22, 1911 -] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
141 
Migrations of the Maoris. 
New York City, July 14. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Mr. Keily’s letter about the Maoris 
interests me greatly, but on certain points I must 
say a few words: 
The chronology of the Polynesian settlement 
of Aotearoa (New Zealand) has been most care¬ 
fully worked out by my distinguished fellow 
worker, S. Percy Smith, president of the Poly¬ 
nesian Society, in his book, “Hawaiki, the Origi¬ 
nal Home of the Maori,” of which a third re¬ 
vision went to press this year. As far back as 
850 of our era he finds that Maku visited New 
Zealand and found it already peopled. In 1150 
is yet another record of Polynesians in that land. 
Sundry voyages between New Zealand and east¬ 
ern Polynesia were effected between 1250 and 
1325. In 1350 New Zealand was settled by the 
fleet of many canoes. The Arawa was one of 
the vessels of this great fleet, therefore it vio¬ 
lates history to speak of it, as Mr. Kelly does 
in the closing paragraph, as centuries before 
Columbus, for it antedated him by a scant cen¬ 
tury and a half. 
The Polynesian race has been traced back to 
an ancient residence in Indonesia. Its dislodg- 
ment was effected at two widc'y separated epochs. 
The former I have very well determined at about 
the Christian era, the latter about a thousand 
years later. The last definitive statement of 
that problem is in my volume, “The Polynesian 
Wanderings” (Carnegie Institution of Washing¬ 
ton). The proofs of the final statements of my 
results are based on a large volume of philologic 
research which fills an appendix larger than the 
text itself. 
So far as relates to the American coast of the 
Pacific, there have been two theories. One was 
that the source of the Polynesians was Ameri¬ 
can, the ancestral home being variously identi¬ 
fied in Peru and in Central America. This argu¬ 
ment rests most distinctly on the sweet potato, 
particularly on its Polynesian name kumara, which 
seems to be akin to the Tagalog kamote in the 
Philippines and thus to the Aztec kamotl. This 
theory has been quite abandoned, so completely 
given up that I have not deemed it worthy of 
statement in my book. The other theory was 
that Polynesians reached the Americas from the 
easterly islands. This also is now abandoned; 
in fact, there never was any sound argument in 
its favor. 
In my first note I have shown that the Arawa 
was not one of the first canoes, but was practi¬ 
cally among the last to reach New Zealand. 
In my book I have had to deal at great length 
with the problem of this navigation without com¬ 
pass or chart. We know the type of the vessels, 
double canoes with sails fit for ocean-going. 
Each of these vessels could carry its hundred 
or so passengers and could eat up into the wind. 
Their great defect was the difficulty of provision¬ 
ing them, and this defect produced a system of 
voyaging without which we should be at an utter 
loss to prick their course upon the chart. 
Each of these voyages was an Odyssey. 
Stocked with such food and water as they had 
the room to carry, they followed the coast, 
wherever there were coasts, and voyaged until 
their food was nearly gone. Then they landed 
and established temporary food colonies until 
the land yielded them a crop which would carry 
them still further until more food was required. 
Wherever the soil would grow crops, and the 
people occupying the new territory were not too 
strong, there would probably be plenty of water. 
Small islands having presumably a less popula¬ 
tion than large ones might be chosen for these 
stopping places, where the sojourn would last 
over a single crop season. 
I cannot here trace the routes marked out in 
my book, but these people journeyed from island 
to island, until at last they spread themselves 
over all of what we now know as Polynesia. In 
some p'aces the crop settlements became fixed 
colonies, other islands which may once have 
been temporarily inhabited are now found un¬ 
occupied. 
Now as to the great argument, the seals. I 
have been engaged with Polynesia for years at 
every season of the year, and never once have 
I seen so much as a single seal in the sea be¬ 
twixt the two tropics. That does not promise 
well for seal migration as setting pace for Poly¬ 
nesian migration. Seals have been seen very fre¬ 
quently at Juan Fernandez and Mas-afuera, and 
the Gallapagos. These determining points are 
within the flow of the co'der currents from the 
arctic and antarctic waters toward the equator, 
and I presume that this would be a migration 
factor which would govern the route to be taken 
by these animals. Furthermore, in none of the 
islands of the tropical Pacific from which the 
Maori set sail does a single language record the 
existence of the seal by giving it a name. In 
fact, they did not know it, had never seen it. 
Mr. Henry’s idea is entirely too fanciful to stand 
at all. William Churchill, 
Birds and Cats. 
Las Animas, Colo., July 7.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: On the west side of my house with 
branches brushing against it are a cottonwood 
and a black locust tree. In one is the nest of 
an Arkansas flycatcher; in the other a kingbird. 
I have protected these nests from our numerous 
cats by flattening a length of stove pipe, cutting 
a hole in the center the size of the tree trunk, 
then cutting through from the center to the out¬ 
side and placing it around the tree just below 
the lower branches. The branches of these trees 
almost interlock and the occupants live in con¬ 
stant warfare. In the cool of the evening, when 
the kittens are playing under these trees, it is 
alarming to see these birds sweep down upon 
them, almost touching them, for their mother 
watches them closely and often strikes a bird 
with her paw as it makes one of its dives. These 
birds secure their food in the same way—on the 
wing—and millers seem to be their favorite game. 
It will be an anxious time when the young are 
ready to leave the nest. 
The bobolinks breed in myriads on the Colo¬ 
rado plains. A day or two since I stepped over 
one of these nests from which the male bird 
flew. Is it usual for the male to occupy the 
nest? In the spring the males of these birds 
come in flocks a week or ten days before the 
females appear. They fatten their young in the 
wtieat fields after July 1 and leave for the 
South ear.y in the tall. 
Can a robin hear the worms moving in the 
ground? I have noticed them cocking their 
head sidewise, apparently listening, then dig with 
their bill until they secured the worm. 
I he other day white on my way to the stable 
I was intercepted by our maltese cat which has 
a family of kittens. She appeared much dis¬ 
tressed. She would run between my legs to de¬ 
tain me, look up at me and keep up a constant 
meowing. I saw that she was unusually agitated 
and it occurred to me at once that something 
was wrong with her kittens. Signifying that I 
was willing to follow her, she started off through 
the weeds and led me to where we had com¬ 
menced to dig a well. The hole was six or seven 
feet deep and in the bottom was one of her 
kittens sure enough. I heiped it out and the 
old cat showed her appreciation by rubbing her 
body against my legs and purring contentedly. 
Was this an evidence of instinct or reason? 
F. T. Webber. 
Value of Grosbeaks to Agriculture. 
“Present investigations prove that the services 
of the grosbeak in destroying insect pests are in¬ 
valuable. Each kind pays especial attention to 
certain pests which, if unchecked, would cause 
enormous loss. Few of our birds are to be 
credited with more good and with fewer evils 
than the grosbeak and none more clearly de¬ 
serves protection by the practical farmer.” So 
says very truly a recent Farmers’ Bulletin, issued 
by the Department of Agriculture. 
There are seven species of grosbeaks in the 
United States, of which two live mainly in cold 
and mountainous regions far from cultivated 
lands. The other five are all useful birds. 
The rose-breasted grosbeak is now known to 
be a great destroyer of potato bugs, and we very 
well recall when we first saw mention of this 
habit by the bird. Mrs. Violet S. Williams, of 
Iowa, perhaps in 1877 or 1878, mentioned this 
habit describing the bird so well that it was un¬ 
mistakable. The rose-breasted eats some green 
peas, but destroys injurious insects enough to 
more than make up for this. The Colorado 
potato beetle, the cucumber beetle, the Rocky 
Mountain locust and a variety of caterpillars 
and bugs are its favorite prey. The cardinal 
redbird, which ranges further to the southward, 
is also a destroyer of vast numbers of locusts, 
beetle worms and other forms of insect life, 
which do great harm to the crops. The same 
thing may be said of the black-headed grosbeak, 
the blue grosbeak and the gray grosbeak. The 
last two are peculiarly enemies of the boll-wevil 
and the cotton worm. 
Mastodon’s Bones in Indiana Ditch. 
The bones of a prehistoric mastodon are being 
unearthed in a big ditch on a farm eight miles 
northwest of Anderson, Ind. The New Era says 
the jawbone, containing four teeth, was taken 
out Tuesday in the presence of County Surveyor 
Smith. The teeth measured four inches across, 
while the jawbone is almost three feet long. The 
Bones are well preserved. 
