to the removal of the restriction on the sale of powder (in 1857) and to the increased number of white settlers, and perhaps also to the spread of diseases brought by introduced birds, the kukupa, once so plentiful, is now every season becoming more difficult to find. Before the introduction of guns, and for many years after owing to the restriction referred to above, the chief methods of taking the kukupa were by the spear and noose.

The spear named rawhi was of great length, the best being made of kapara, the gum-preserved core found in some decayed kahikatea and rimu trees after the sap-wood had rotted away. An old Maori once described to me the method of making them. Very great care was taken to select a piece of kapara so straight in the grain that when struck at one end with a toki (stone axe) and a wedge driven in it would split open from end to end. The long pieces thus obtained were roughly trimmed and taken to the kainga, where, by weeks and weeks of patient chipping and scraping they were made round and smooth When completed they were about 25 ft. in length by 1 ½ in. in diameter. A piece of the hard black substance found in an old dry ponga (tree-fern), about 10 in. long, ⅝ in. wide, and ⅜ in. thick, was smoothed, sharpened to a point, with one or more barbs worked on it, and then neatly bound to the end of the shaft. If accidentally broken, it was quickly and easily replaced. Sometimes the spears were made of manuka, in shorter lengths, two of which, from 12 ft. to 15 ft. in length, were bound together, one end being pointed and barbed. Occasionally the spear-points were made out of the bone of the sperm-whale.

Now for the mode of hunting the kukupa and using the spears. One or more trees of the miro (Podocarpus ferrugineus), loaded with fruit, and regularly visited by the birds, were selected. Several long poles were placed against the tree, or an adjacent one by preference, to serve as a ladder, up which the hunter could easily and quickly climb. If required, a cover was fixed in the tree to conceal the Maori from the birds. All being ready, he climbed up, got under his cover, and waited patiently. Presently a flock of, say, twenty pigeons would settle in the miro. Amongst the flock there is always a quarrelsome cock bird, generally in poor condition, called a tu-te, continually disturbing the others (tu-te is literally a person who nudges another with the elbow). The tu-te is always the first bird speared, so that the other birds may feed undisturbed. The spear is rested on a branch exactly in line with the birds, and is pushed up very gently until the point is within 18 in. of a bird. It is then suddenly thrust up, so that the bird is transfixed. The spear is then quickly lowered, and the bird killed and dropped to the ground. The man goes on quietly working, and in a short time bags the greater part of the flock.

When pigeons are noosed, the method usually followed is as under: The top branches of trees frequented by the birds are lopped or broken off, and straight rods of manuka tied across in several directions. To these the nooses were fastened. Great numbers of pigeons were caught in this manner. Nooses were also placed on the margin of a forest-creek where pigeons were in the habit of drinking. Sometime a kumete (trough), hollowed out of a log 6 ft. to 8 ft. long, and filled with water, was put in a suitable place, and nooses tied over and around it.

Another method was adopted for taking small birds. A long stick, called pae, was tied in a slanting position about 4 ft. above the ground; shelter or concealment was provided near it, behind which a man stood armed with a long straight manuka stick called whiu (literally a whip). With a leaf in his mouth, usually the leaf of the turutu (Dianella intermedia), he would make a “peeping” sound resembling the call of young birds. Fantails,