Page:Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury 1915.pdf/38

 switch. The calls were imitated generally with the aid of a leaf placed between the lips. Sometimes by this method a skilful Maori would get fifty to sixty birds in an hour, and on a still day would call a tui from a distance of at least a quarter of a mile. Being, of course, close observers of the habits of birds and animals the Maoris made those habits the base of the snares they devised for catching them. The pigeons, for example, drank very frequently at the streams in the hot weather, so the Maoris would cover all the water holes in a stream save one or two of the most attractive. Around these they would place sticks with flax snares attached, and often secure dozens of pigeons in a day. In going over their snares if a white man had taken a pigeon or two out they knew it at once, and searching about for his footprints, soon discovered who the thief had been. It was very simple. When a pigeon gets snared he struggles to get free, and in doing so sheds some feathers. This escaped the attention of the white man, who thought that by setting the snares again he would deceive the Maoris, who, however, seeing the feathers, knew beyond doubt that a bird