MAORI NATURE NOTES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XX, Issue 221, 6 September 1930, Page 8

MAORI NATURE NOTES

FOR TRIBUNE READERS (Copyright—J.H.S.) Readers of the “Tribune” who are interested in the flora and bird life’of New Zealand, by cutting out these Maori Nature Notes each day as they appear and filing them .in a suitable scrap book, may compile a book of reference which will be to them a source of pleasure and instruction in the years to come. PATIKI (dark cloud near the Southern Cross) familiar to every one as the flounder; but why such a name should bo applied to this graceful swift gliding water sprite is a mystery. The Maori recognised and aptly named four or five varieties. As with the Pakeha, they regarded it as a great delicacy. In shallow rivers it rests on the sandy shoals and never leaves the bottom. Boys who lived in the vicinity of their haunts can never forget tho ex eitemeut of spearing them or the enjoyment of a fried patiki straight from tho fresh water, Model'll fishermen might well revert to the method of securing breakfast for the family. Netting from the sea yields a rich harvest, but they cannot compare with those caught in clear fresh water. To know and take advanago of tho proverb, “E hoki ana to patiki ki tona puehu” (the flounder will return to tho cloud of mud he has stirred up), was to succeed in making good catches.