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According to the Ati-Awa accounts, there have been only three warlike incursions of the Ngati-Ruanui tribe into their territories, even from the most ancient times, notwithstanding that the two tribes had boundaries in common, which boundaries ran through the forest country the whole way, and therefore divided the bird preserves on each side of an undefined line. As a rule the ancient Maoris looked with great jealousy on any encroachments on their forests, which, indeed, were great sources of animal food in the way of rats and birds—and, in modern days, of wild pigs.