Taniwha and Taonga

There were birds too heavy to ever fly, with no animals around to make them try. Then along came the rats, cats and egg-eating stoats, and the morning singers went down their throats. Farms were fenced and the bush was cleared, birds lost their homes and some disappeared. Wrens, yellow heads and flightless rails, lizards, and weta and paryphanta snails... and the Victorian collectors Holy Grail…? Huia were hunted for their lovely tail.