Manaia (mythological creature) Manaia (mythological creature) The Manaia is a mythological creature in Māori culture, and is a common motif in Māori carving and jewellery. The Manaia is usually depicted as having the head of a bird and the tail of a fish and the body of a man, though it is sometimes depicted as a bird, a serpent, or a human figure in profile. Other interpretations include a seahorse and a lizard. The word "manaia" is cognate with the founding Samoan term "fa'amanaia", and relevant to the Niuean "fakamanaia", both meaning to make a decoration or embellishment. The Manaia is traditionally believed
Common bleak young bleak, though the pointed upward turned mouth of the bleak is already distinctive at young stages. Young roach and ruffe have a wider body and a short anal fin. The bleak occurs in Europe and Western Asia: north of the Caucasus, Pyrenees and Alps, and eastward toward the Volga basin and North-Western Turkey. It is absent from the major southern peninsulas and most of British Isles except southeast England. It is however locally introduced in Spain, Portugal, and Italy. The bleak lives in great schools and feeds upon small molluscs, insects that fall in the water, insect larvae, worms,