What’s in a Name?
Image from TeAra.govt.nz – “The Encyclopedia of New Zealand”
I’ve commented before on the imaginative poverty of the early colonists. I can understand the yearning for the familiar by strangers in a strange place, but only the British could look at a bird with plumage this striking and a call this haunting, and decide that the most appropriate name is “blue-wattled crow”
Image from the awesome nzbirds.com
The Maori name, Kokako, is a much better match for the birds’ loveliness. Fortunately, that seems to be the most widely used name these days. Unfortunately, the kokako is now so rare that the only Pakeha with cause to use either name are tree-hugging pinkos who make special trips to the handful of “mainland islands” and actual islands where they’re still holding on.
Like me.
Back at the beginning of September I got to tag along on a field trip to two areas with remnant populations. It took a special trip at dawn to a spot where the local conservation officer knew there was resident male, but we heard one on the last morning of the trip. I’m still waiting to catch a glimpse of one, but just to have heard that call waft through the bush on a frosty morning as the rising sun glided the rimu crowns was an experience to treasure.
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