1877. P. Thomson, `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,' vol. x. art. xliv. p. 330:
"Some odd fishes now and then turn up in the market, such as the Maori-chief, cat-fish, etc."
1878. Ibid. vol. xi. art. lii. p. 381:
"That very dark-skinned fish, the Maori-chief, <i>Notothenia Maoriensis</i> of Dr. Haast, is not uncommon, but is rarely seen more than one at a time."
1896. `The Australasian,' Aug. 28, p. 407, col. 5:
"Resemblances are strange things. At first it would seem improbable that a fish could be like a man, but in Dunedin a fish was shown to me called Maori Chief, and with the exercise of a little imagination it was not difficult to perceive the likeness. Nay, some years ago, at a fishmonger's in Melbourne, a fish used to be labelled with the name of a prominent Victorian politician now no more. There is reason, however, to believe that art was called in to complete the likeness."
<hw>Maori-head</hw>, <i>n</i>. a swamp tussock, so called from a fancied resemblance to the head of a Maori. (Compare <i>Black-boy</i>.) It is not a grass, but a sedge (<i>carex</i>).
1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 169:
"A boggy creek that oozed sluggishly through rich black soil, amongst tall raupo, maori-heads, and huge flax-bushes."
1892. W. McHutcheson, `Camp Life in Fiordland,' p. 34: