The Sacred Huia

by T. V. Saunders

It is over 60 years since I gazed with wonder and admiration upon the most sacred of all New Zealand forest-dwelling birds—the huia. It is presumed to be extinct, with the last authentic data being collected in 1907.

There still linger in my mind affectionate memories of the most tapu (sacred), and most treasured manu (bird) of the feathered kingdom to the Maori people.

To the Maoris, only chiefs and rangatiras of high rank and distinction were privileged to adorn themselves with its remarkable whitetipped tail feathers (piki huia).

My thoughts still wander backwards to my first sighting of the huia, and with a saddened heart I think of the passing into oblivion of the birds through the ruthless killing indulged in by both Maori and Pakeha.

The fortune hunters of that period received up to about £2 a bird. My first glimpse of the huia came about when Mr Charles Matthews, the owner of the Wai-o-rongo-mai station invited Heta Te Miha and Aporo Hare, two well known elders of the Pirinoa and Palliser Bay area to hunt for huias for themselves and their tribes. I was very keen to make the trip and I asked the elders if they would take me along with them. To my delight they both agreed to take me.

Early one morning in May 1902, we made the long trek in a light waggon with a draughthorse in the shaft, along the eastern side of the Wairarapa Lake, then along the western shores of the lake in a southerly direction to Wai-o-rongo-mai station. On our arrival at the homestead, Mr Matthews instructed one of his shepherds to pack our belongings to a camp which had already been prepared for us. We spent the rest of the day making our camp comfortable, and just as we were about to have our tea, the dog we had taken along with us began barking at a wild pig he had cornered.

One of the elders shot the pig which we dressed to augment our meat supply.

Early the next morning we climbed a nearby ridge where the two elders took turns at whistling the huia call, but their whistling was in vain, for no answering call was received from the birds. The next morning we climbed up another ridge, where the same routine as on the first day was carried out, but our efforts were again in vain.

That evening, when we were sitting around our camp fire, Heta Te Miha related to us the following legend about a female huia.

‘Long, long ago, some time after the great canoe migration to Aotea-roa (New Zealand), there was a high-ranking chief who was in the habit of going up into the mountains to set snares for birds. One day when he went to gather in his catch he was surprised to see a strange bird held in one of his snares. Of course, the stranger was the huia.

‘The chief was full of admiration for the beautiful bird he had captured and he plucked two feathers from its tail and wore them in his hair. Perhaps this was the first occasion the huia feathers were worn as a head decoration.

‘Before liberating the huia, the chief bestowed upon it a magic spell and mana (power) with the command that the bird was to appear before him when it was wanted. ‘Now it happened that on one occasion when the chief requested the bird to appear, it was nesting time for the huia and its tail feathers were ruffled and in a bad state. The chief was very angry and asked the bird why its tail feathers were in such a bad condition. The bird told him that it was through sitting on its nest.

‘The chief then said: “I will provide you with a means that will enable you to keep your tail feathers in good order when I next call on you.” He took hold of the huia, which was a female, and bent its beak into a circular shape. He then commanded the huia that every time it sat on its nest, it was to pick up its tail feathers with its circular beak and lift them clear of the nest.’

‘This campfire story provides an ingenious explanation for the long beak of the female huia, and doubtless gave satisfaction in the telling—another illustration of the legendary power of a great ancestor.

It was on the third day of our huia hunt that we made contact with the huias, when after the elders had been whistling for about half an hour, they were rewarded with an answer to their calls from far to the south of the ridge on which we were located.

Closer and closer we heard the answers to our whistling. Suddenly the fluttering of wings

amongst the trees heralded the arrival of the birds, a female and male huia, which finally settled on a nearby miro tree.

I gazed with wonder and admiration, for the first time in my life, at the most beautiful forest bird of the feathered kingdom.

A feeling of pity and regret passed through me, that such lovely and handsome birds as the huias were to be slaughtered just for the sake of their tail feathers.

By the end of the week the two elders had bagged six huias and decided to call the hunt off. We had our belongings—which included some wild pork to augment our meat larder at home—packed out to the Wai-o-rongo-mai station by the shepherd, the elders thanked Mr Matthews for his hospitality, and we made the long trek home to Pirinoa. Needless to say, the elders were well pleased with the result of the huia hunt.

General Description of the Huia

Of all our forest birds, the huia may be considered outstanding in point of view of bodily colour alone, quite apart from the remarkable glossy-black tail feathers with their white tips, and there were generally 12 feathers to a huia's tail.

The general bodily colour was dark blue merging to black, with an overall greenish sheen covering its body and head. One of the most beautiful features of the huia was the bright golden-orange wattles compressed beneath its lower jaw, these wattles being generally a little more than an inch across and of an ovalish shape. The different species were recognised by their beaks, the male's beak being straight and about three or more inches long, with the female's beak circular and about six inches long.

The male used its beak, short, thick at the base but tapering to a sharp point, to open up the huhu grub holes in the half-rotten trees to make it easy for its female to fish out the huhu with her slender curving beak. The huhu and other grubs and insects, berries and fern roots were the main diet of the huias. The female was a larger bird than its companion, its measurement being about 20 to 22 inches in length, while the male was 18 to 19 inches long.

In comparison, the huia would have been a shade smaller than the ordinary magpie.

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As I have spoken to many of our younger Maori generation about the huia bird, I was rather shocked to learn that some of them had no knowledge of the huia, so I have decided to make known through ‘Te Ao Hou’, the record of the huia as I have seen it in its natural surroundings.

Kia Ora,

T. V. Saunders.