Coromandel Life Magaizine 2017 Winter

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OUR TUI MAKES HISTORY
Charles Hursthouse, in his “New Zealand:
or; Zealandia, the Britain of the South”
(1857), observed in his ornithology chapter:
There are about fifty varieties of land
birds; and, as some are free and fine
songsters – and as others indulge in
great cry and clamour, they impart
considerable liveliness and animation to
the outskirts of the woods.
The most common and certainly the
most facetious individual of the ornithology, is the Tui (Parson-Bird).
Larger than the blackbird and more elegant in shape, his plumage
is lustrous black irradiated with green hues and pencilled with silver
grey, and he displays a white throat-tuft for his clerical bands. Parson
bird though he be, the Tui is no sullen anchorite mortifying the flesh.
He is a bird of the convivial rector order, fond of honey; and taking
tythe of all the fruits his rich living affords.
Joyous Punchinello of the bush, he is perpetually in motion. He can
sing, but seldom will; and preserves his voice for mocking others.
Darting from some low shrub to the topmost twig of the tallest tree,
he commences roaring forth such a variety of strange noises with
such changes of voice and volume of tone, as to claim the instant
attention of the forest. Should another Tui chance to be near, he at
once flits down for a sham fight; throws a somerset or two, and then
darts into his bush, only to
come forth the next minute
with exhibition number two.
Caught and caged, he is still
the merry ventriloquist, mocks
cocks and cats, attempts the
baby, and has been known to
frighten a nervous little dog
off the premises. To add to
his merits, he becomes such
fine eating in the season of
poroporo berries, that an
alderman might quit turtle and
dare the seas to eat a tui stew.
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Cook describes it in 1773:
“The feathers of a fine mazarine blue.... Under its throat hang two little
tufts of curled, snow-white feathers, called its poies, which being the
Otaheitean word for ear-rings, occasioned our giving the name to the
bird, which is not more remarkable for the beauty of its plumage than for
the sweetness of its note. The flesh is also most delicious, and was the
greatest luxury the woods afforded us.’
The engraving above is one of the earliest European depictions of a tui
and was drawn during Captain Cook’s second voyage (1772 - 1775) by
Polish-born scientist Johann Reinhold Forster’s son Georg.
Christened by
Captain Cook the
poe-bird, this beloved
native bird is widely
known as ‘tui’, its
Maori name.
Early colonists often
referred to it as
the ‘parson bird’
because of its white
neck feathers and
‘sermonising’ habits.
POE-BIRD
Keulemans, John Gerrard
1842-1912 -Tui or Parson
bird, adult and young. (Plate
X. 1888). Public domain.