Kiwi

The term "kiwi" can be referred to the "kiwi bird" or the "kiwi fruit".
Was the fruit named after the kiwi bird?
Or the bird named after the kiwi fruit?
Let's find out...




According to this legend...
Long time ago, there lived a peculiar species of birds.
They have short brown feathers, long sharp beak and no tail.
These birds could not fly and easily become victims of other predators.
They were of the size of a domestic chicken, yet lay an egg at a time which is six times larger than a regular chicken egg.
Unknown to most people, these birds are monogamous in their relationship for their entire lives.
During the mating season from June to March, the pair will call out to each other and meet at their nesting burrows every three days.

The male birds are the ones who incubated the eggs.
One particular season, the female bird laid an egg.
To lay an egg takes so much of that poor bird as bearing the egg leave little spaces in her stomach that she is forced to fast.
The male bird felt pain for his mate and visited her as often as he could.
When one day, she finally laid the egg and he happily incubated it for 63 days.
The female bird would be the one out searching for food.

Finally, the egg hatched.
The male bird was overjoyed and eager for the female to come back.
But she never did.
Few days later, he brought his little one out to search for food, and hopefully for his beloved and the baby's mother.
They found her stuck between some roots of a tree and were clueless on how to get her out.



Suddenly, a red-faced monkey came, broke the roots and took his mate away.
The male bird tried chasing after the monkey and the monkey climbed up the tree.
They watched in horror as the monkey tore up his wife and ate her.
It was too much for the baby to watch.
The baby suffered shocked and eventually fell sick and died.
When it died, it curled up itself.
The male could do nothing, and watched as the loves of his life of being taken away by the sadistic truth of nature.
As mentioned, these birds led monogamous lives and there is no way he can start over again.
So every night, he makes noises to the moon, as if calling back his loves.
He occasionally nudged his dead baby, as if trying to wake it up.

Tane Mahuta, the god of the forest heard his cries one day and came up to him.
The male bird complained of the fate of its kind, being so weak with no special capabilities.
The god felt deep sympathy for him and said he could do nothing much, as this is life.
However, the god turned its dead baby into a fruit and soon, many of these birds-look-alike fruits start growing in the forest.
This move may not entirely help the species, but at least confuse the predators.
The male bird can only accept the gift granted by the god of forest.
But nothing can change the fact that both his wife and baby is gone and he would remain lonely forever.

These birds are being named "Kiwi" because of the sound they make; - "kee-weee".
The locals named the fruits after the birds because of its similarities in terms of appearance.


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I have a confession to make.
I made up the legend.
But the facts were true though.

I write about this because I have sudden liking for kiwi fruits.