The Resourceful Scout.

Of using bird notes when scouting in warfare only one illustration leaps to my mind. Before the fall of Para-kakariki pa, on Banks Peninsula, Whakuku said: “If you hear my voice sounding from high up on the hill, then you will know the pa is guarded; if my voice sounds low down, the pa is not guarded.” He imitated the male and female voices of a pair of wood-hens, and his comrades heard the signals and acted on them.

Scouts used other devices besides bird calls to let the main body know what to do. The river Manuherekia (“the tied bird”) is said to have received its name because a scout (or scouts) tied a wounded kaka (brown parrot) there to mark a crossing place. Other contrivances to guide those following, were to break branches and let them hang down, or to pluck fern fronds and place them on the track to indicate direction. Another way in open country was to use the arms as a human semaphore, while in the war-fare on the Otago Peninsula the famous Tarewai used a weapon as a sort of heliograph.