A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

A river shag and a sea shag meet on the shore. Both catch fish, but the river bird unsuccessfully dives ten times in the sea and disparages its host’s waters. At the river, both repeatedly emerge with fish. The sea bird returns home and summons the ocean birds to destroy the freshwater, land and forest birds; those groups gather to defend themselves.

The narrated battle gives the sea army a first rank of albatrosses, gannets and large brown gulls. River birds withstand their attack and drive them into retreat, while hawk and sparrow-hawk pursue. Owl and parrot encourage or taunt through cries that Colenso renders as speech. The petrel called tītī and the bird called taiko become prisoners, explaining within the fable why they raise young in the woods. A concluding feeding proverb and the collector’s uncertainty about taiko identification remain separate from the battle’s personified speech and military action. This version does not make the two initiating shags siblings or give them human transformations.

River and sea shag contrastBirds assemble armiesDefenders defeat sea birdsCaptivity explains woodland nesting
01

Origins & earliest records

William Colenso, Contributions towards a better Knowledge of the Maori Race, Part I (1878), §3.2, pp.101–103.

02

Records & interpretation

The complete published fable and attached explanatory notes distinguish narrated animal speech from the collector’s linguistic and natural-history commentary.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Contributions towards a better Knowledge of the Maori Race, §3.2, pp.101–103

    William Colenso, collector and translator · 1878

    Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 11:77–106. Complete selected fable and its notes read from retained volume OCR; no newly inspected original page pixels in this pass.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Primary colonial-era collected narrativeColenso 1878 §3.2, pp.101–103Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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