Hakawai
Encyclopedia
Hakawai, also pronounced and spelt Hokioi in the North Island
, with various similar, slightly variant spellings, was the name given by New Zealand
Māori people to a mythological
bird
that was sometimes heard but not usually seen. It is now associated with the nocturnal aerial displays made by Coenocorypha
snipe.
the Hakawai was one of eleven tapu, or sacred, birds of Raka Maomao
, the god of the winds. The Hakawai lived in the heavens and only descended to the earth at night. It was considered to be a gigantic bird of prey
and was described (as the Hokioi) by a Ngāti Apa
chief, to the Governor of New Zealand Sir George Grey
, as:
Hearing the Hakawai was considered to be a bad omen, traditionally presaging war. Ornithologists
in New Zealand have wondered whether the myth related to a real bird, whether extinct or still living, with some ascribing it to a folk memory
of the prehistorically extinct Haast’s Eagle (Harpagornis moorei).
Although mention of the Hakawai occurred in Māori mythology throughout New Zealand, in historic times (i.e. since European settlement of the main islands) direct experience of the Hakawai – through hearing the sounds it made – was largely restricted to the Muttonbird Islands
, several small islands in the vicinity of Foveaux Strait
and Stewart Island
, in the far south of New Zealand. The islands have no permanent human residents but are visited seasonally, from mid March to the end of May, for muttonbirding
– the harvesting of Sooty Shearwater
chicks for food and oil. There the sound ascribed to the Hakawai was described as having two main components, the first part being vocal, a call rendered as “hakwai, hakwai, hakwai”, followed by a non-vocal roar as of an object travelling through the air at high speed. It was heard on calm, moonlit nights and appeared to come from a great height.
genus Coenocorypha, after hearing and recording the aerial display of the Chatham Snipe (C. pusilla), investigated the possibility that the sounds attributed to the Hakawai in the Muttonbird Islands were made by the recently extinct
South Island Snipe
Coenocorypha iredalei, then usually called the Stewart Island Snipe and considered to be a subspecies of the Subantarctic Snipe Coenocorypha aucklandica, a small, unobtrusive, brown bird some 21–24 cm in length.
Miskelly interviewed several muttonbirders who had memories of hearing the distinctive sounds of the Hakawai. He found that its apparent range had steadily decreased over the years to the early 1960s when it was heard no more. The non-vocal sounds made by the Hakawai were described variously as “a sound as if a cable chain was lowered into a boat” a “jet-stream”, a “blind rolling itself up” or “a shell passing overhead”. The reaction to the sounds by those who heard it was generally one of fright.
The decrease towards extinction paralleled that of the South Island Snipe
, of which the Muttonbird Islands were the final refuge, with the islands being progressively occupied by rat
s, feral cat
s and weka
. The last known individuals of the snipe died in 1964 on Big South Cape Island
following the accidental introduction of Black Rat
s there.
Snipe in the genera Gallinago
and Lymnocryptes, as well as the closely related woodcocks Scolopax, make courtship display
flights, at dusk and on moonlit nights, producing mechanical sounds called 'drumming
', 'bleating' or 'winnowing', through the vibration of their modified outer tail feathers caused by the rush of air in the course of a power dive. Of his research in the Chatham Islands
Miskelly wrote:
and:
Examination of museum skins from bird collections
showed such characteristic wear of the tail feathers on male snipe from the Chatham Islands (C. pusilla), islands off Stewart Island (C. iredalei), the Auckland Islands
(C. aucklandica aucklandica
), and the Antipodes Islands
(C. a. meinertzhagenae
). Since then the same kind of tail-feather wear has been found on snipe from the Snares Islands (C. huegeli
), and hakawai displays have been heard in the Auckland and Antipodes Islands, as well as from the newly described Campbell Snipe (C. a. perseverance) on Campbell Island
.
North Island
The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...
, with various similar, slightly variant spellings, was the name given by New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
Māori people to a mythological
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
that was sometimes heard but not usually seen. It is now associated with the nocturnal aerial displays made by Coenocorypha
Coenocorypha
Coenocorypha is a genus of tiny birds in the sandpiper family, also known as the New Zealand snipes, which are now only found on New Zealand's outlying islands. There are currently six extinct species and three living species, with the Subantarctic Snipe having three subspecies, including the...
snipe.
Mythology
In Māori mythologyMaori mythology
Māori mythology and Māori traditions are the two major categories into which the legends of the Māori of New Zealand may usefully be divided...
the Hakawai was one of eleven tapu, or sacred, birds of Raka Maomao
Raka Maomao
In Polynesian mythology, Raka Maomao is the god of wind, equivalent to La'a Maomao and Fa'atiu ....
, the god of the winds. The Hakawai lived in the heavens and only descended to the earth at night. It was considered to be a gigantic bird of prey
Bird of prey
Birds of prey are birds that hunt for food primarily on the wing, using their keen senses, especially vision. They are defined as birds that primarily hunt vertebrates, including other birds. Their talons and beaks tend to be relatively large, powerful and adapted for tearing and/or piercing flesh....
and was described (as the Hokioi) by a Ngāti Apa
Ngati Apa
-Geography:The people of Ngāti Apa live in the Rangitīkei region, towards the south-west of the North Island of New Zealand. Their traditional lands extend between the Mangawhero, Whangaehu, Turakina and Rangitīkei rivers. This area is bounded by Whanganui River in the north-west, and Manawatu...
chief, to the Governor of New Zealand Sir George Grey
George Grey
George Grey may refer to:*Sir George Grey, 2nd Baronet , British politician*George Grey, 2nd Earl of Kent *Sir George Grey , Governor of Cape Colony, South Australia and New Zealand...
, as:
”Its colour was red and black and white. It was a bird of (black) feathers, tinged with yellow and green; it had a bunch of red feathers on the top of its head. It was a large bird, as large as the moa.”
Hearing the Hakawai was considered to be a bad omen, traditionally presaging war. Ornithologists
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
in New Zealand have wondered whether the myth related to a real bird, whether extinct or still living, with some ascribing it to a folk memory
Folk memory
Folk memories is a term sometimes used to describe stories, folklore or myths about past events that have passed orally from generation to generation. The events described by the memories may date back hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of years and often have a local significance...
of the prehistorically extinct Haast’s Eagle (Harpagornis moorei).
Although mention of the Hakawai occurred in Māori mythology throughout New Zealand, in historic times (i.e. since European settlement of the main islands) direct experience of the Hakawai – through hearing the sounds it made – was largely restricted to the Muttonbird Islands
Titi/Muttonbird Islands
The Tītī or Muttonbird Islands are located near Stewart Island/Rakiura in the far south of New Zealand.There are three chains, all of them simply referred to as the Muttonbird or Tītī islands. The northeastern chain is located in Foveaux Strait, to the northeast of Stewart Island, between it and...
, several small islands in the vicinity of Foveaux Strait
Foveaux Strait
Foveaux Strait separates Stewart Island/Rakiura, New Zealand's third largest island, from the South Island. Three large bays, Te Waewae Bay, Oreti Beach and Toetoes Bay, sweep along the strait's northern coast, which also hosts Bluff township and harbour. Across the strait lie the Solander...
and Stewart Island
Stewart Island/Rakiura
Stewart Island/Rakiura is the third-largest island of New Zealand. It lies south of the South Island, across Foveaux Strait. Its permanent population is slightly over 400 people, most of whom live in the settlement of Oban.- History and naming :...
, in the far south of New Zealand. The islands have no permanent human residents but are visited seasonally, from mid March to the end of May, for muttonbirding
Muttonbirding
Muttonbirding is a seasonal harvesting activity, which may be recreational or commercial, of the chicks of petrels, especially shearwater species, for food, oil and feathers...
– the harvesting of Sooty Shearwater
Sooty Shearwater
The Sooty Shearwater is a medium-large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. In New Zealand it is also known by its Māori name tītī and as "muttonbird", like its relatives the Wedge-tailed Shearwater and the Australian Short-tailed Shearwater The Sooty Shearwater (Puffinus griseus) is...
chicks for food and oil. There the sound ascribed to the Hakawai was described as having two main components, the first part being vocal, a call rendered as “hakwai, hakwai, hakwai”, followed by a non-vocal roar as of an object travelling through the air at high speed. It was heard on calm, moonlit nights and appeared to come from a great height.
Investigation
During the 1980s ornithologist Dr Colin Miskelly, who was studying the New Zealand snipeSnipe
A snipe is any of about 25 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill and crypsis plumage. The Gallinago snipes have a nearly worldwide distribution, the Lymnocryptes Jack Snipe is restricted to Asia and Europe and the...
genus Coenocorypha, after hearing and recording the aerial display of the Chatham Snipe (C. pusilla), investigated the possibility that the sounds attributed to the Hakawai in the Muttonbird Islands were made by the recently extinct
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
South Island Snipe
South Island Snipe
The South Island Snipe , also known as the Stewart Island Snipe or Tutukiwi in Maori, is an extinct species of bird in the Scolopacidae, or sandpiper family that was endemic to New Zealand.-Taxonomy and etymology:...
Coenocorypha iredalei, then usually called the Stewart Island Snipe and considered to be a subspecies of the Subantarctic Snipe Coenocorypha aucklandica, a small, unobtrusive, brown bird some 21–24 cm in length.
Miskelly interviewed several muttonbirders who had memories of hearing the distinctive sounds of the Hakawai. He found that its apparent range had steadily decreased over the years to the early 1960s when it was heard no more. The non-vocal sounds made by the Hakawai were described variously as “a sound as if a cable chain was lowered into a boat” a “jet-stream”, a “blind rolling itself up” or “a shell passing overhead”. The reaction to the sounds by those who heard it was generally one of fright.
The decrease towards extinction paralleled that of the South Island Snipe
South Island Snipe
The South Island Snipe , also known as the Stewart Island Snipe or Tutukiwi in Maori, is an extinct species of bird in the Scolopacidae, or sandpiper family that was endemic to New Zealand.-Taxonomy and etymology:...
, of which the Muttonbird Islands were the final refuge, with the islands being progressively occupied by rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
s, feral cat
Feral cat
A feral cat is a descendant of a domesticated cat that has returned to the wild. It is distinguished from a stray cat, which is a pet cat that has been lost or abandoned, while feral cats are born in the wild; the offspring of a stray cat can be considered feral if born in the wild.In many parts of...
s and weka
Weka
The Weka or woodhen is a flightless bird species of the rail family. It is endemic to New Zealand, where four subspecies are recognized. Weka are sturdy brown birds, about the size of a chicken. As omnivores, they feed mainly on invertebrates and fruit...
. The last known individuals of the snipe died in 1964 on Big South Cape Island
Taukihepa/Big South Cape Island
Big South Cape Island or Taukihepa is an offshore island of New Zealand to the west of the southern tip of Stewart Island/Rakiura. The island has no permanent inhabitants but muttonbirders visit the island to catch the Sooty Shearwater, known in New Zealand as a "muttonbird".Māori named the island...
following the accidental introduction of Black Rat
Black Rat
The black rat is a common long-tailed rodent of the genus Rattus in the subfamily Murinae . The species originated in tropical Asia and spread through the Near East in Roman times before reaching Europe by the 1st century and spreading with Europeans across the world.-Taxonomy:The black rat was...
s there.
Snipe in the genera Gallinago
Gallinago
Gallinago is a genus of birds in the wader family Scolopacidae, containing 16 species. This genus contains the majority of the world's snipe species, the other three extant genera being Coenocorypha, with two species, and Lymnocryptes, the Jack Snipe. Morphologically, they are all similar, with a...
and Lymnocryptes, as well as the closely related woodcocks Scolopax, make courtship display
Courtship display
Courtship display is a special, sometimes ritualised, set of behaviours which some animals perform as part of courtship. Courtship behaviours can include special calls, postures, and movements, and may involve special plumage, bright colours or other ornamentation. A good example is the 'dancing'...
flights, at dusk and on moonlit nights, producing mechanical sounds called 'drumming
Drumming (snipe)
Drumming is a sound produced by snipe as part of their courtship display flights. The sound is produced mechanically by the vibration of the modified outer tail feathers, held out at a wide angle to the body, in the slipstream of a power dive. The display is usually crepuscular, or given...
', 'bleating' or 'winnowing', through the vibration of their modified outer tail feathers caused by the rush of air in the course of a power dive. Of his research in the Chatham Islands
Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands are an archipelago and New Zealand territory in the Pacific Ocean consisting of about ten islands within a radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Their name in the indigenous language, Moriori, means Misty Sun...
Miskelly wrote:
”I studied Chatham Snipe on South East and Mangere .Islands during November 1983 to January 1984 and in July 1986, and recorded three different kinds of aerial displays. All these displays were performed at night; the most spectacular display included both a vocal and a non-vocal component. This display was indeed hair-raising when I first heard it. The vocal component was a disyllabic call, repeated five times, identical to one of the ground diplays given by territorial male Chatham Island Snipe. This was followed by a loud roar, similar to a jet passing overhead, as the bird swooped over the 6 m canopy at high speed. The non-vocal component of the call had three stacked bands (0.7 kHzHertzThe hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
, 0.9 kHz & 1.2 kHz) and lasted for about 1.5 seconds.”
and:
” If this aerial display of Chatham Island Snipe is homologous with the 'drumming' or 'bleating' of Gallinago snipes, the non-vocal part of the call is likely to be created by air currents making the tail feathers vibrate as the bird dives at speed. I found indirect evidence of this on two of the 24 adult male snipe that I handled on South East Island in November 1983-January 1984. Their tail feathers had unusual wear. The shafts of all 14 rectrices had snapped off about 5 mm from the tip, creating a V at the tip of each feather. I attribute this unusual feather wear to vibrational stress during the display.”
Examination of museum skins from bird collections
Bird collections
Bird collections are curated repositories of scientific specimens consisting of birds and their parts. They are a research resource for ornithology, the science of birds, and for other scientific disciplines in which information about birds is useful...
showed such characteristic wear of the tail feathers on male snipe from the Chatham Islands (C. pusilla), islands off Stewart Island (C. iredalei), the Auckland Islands
Auckland Islands
The Auckland Islands are an archipelago of the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands and include Auckland Island, Adams Island, Enderby Island, Disappointment Island, Ewing Island, Rose Island, Dundas Island and Green Island, with a combined area of...
(C. aucklandica aucklandica
Auckland Snipe
The Auckland Snipe or Auckland Islands Snipe is a small bird in the sandpiper family. It is the isolated nominate subspecies of the Subantarctic Snipe that is endemic to the Auckland Islands, a subantarctic island group south of New Zealand in the Southern Ocean.-Taxonomy and etymology:The...
), and the Antipodes Islands
Antipodes Islands
The Antipodes Islands are inhospitable volcanic islands to the south of—and territorially part of—New Zealand...
(C. a. meinertzhagenae
Antipodes Snipe
The Antipodes Snipe or Antipodes Island Snipe is an isolated subspecies of the Subantarctic Snipe that is endemic to the Antipodes Islands, a subantarctic island group south of New Zealand in the Southern Ocean.-Taxonomy and etymology:The Antipodes Snipe was first collected by Fairchild in 1887,...
). Since then the same kind of tail-feather wear has been found on snipe from the Snares Islands (C. huegeli
Snares Snipe
The Snares Snipe , also known as the Snares Island Snipe or Tutukiwi in Maori, is a species of bird in the Scolopacidae, or sandpiper family.-Taxonomy and etymology:...
), and hakawai displays have been heard in the Auckland and Antipodes Islands, as well as from the newly described Campbell Snipe (C. a. perseverance) on Campbell Island
Campbell Island, New Zealand
Campbell Island is a remote, subantarctic island of New Zealand and the main island of the Campbell Island group. It covers of the group's , and is surrounded by numerous stacks, rocks and islets like Dent Island, Folly Island , Isle de Jeanette Marie, and Jacquemart Island, the latter being the...
.