G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 197 



year the ground is filled with the larvae of the giant beetle, 

 which throws up little mounds of earth, these being often so 

 numerous as to give the plains, where the grass is very closely 

 cropped, the appearance of being covered with mud. These 

 insects are picked out in great numbers by flocks of the South 

 American lapwing, or plover (Vanellus cayennensis), upon 

 which the gulls, not being endowed with a probing bill, wait 

 assiduously, each plover having its attendant gull quietly 

 standing by it. At the instant when one of these larvae is 

 extracted, and is seen in the bill of the plover, the gull darts 

 with sudden fury upon it, and a chase ensues, the robber fol- 

 lowing closely, and screaming all the time until the prize is 

 dropped. The flight of the gull is then instantly checked, 

 and, hovering a moment to watch the fall of the worm, he 

 drops suddenly upon it, and, swallowing it greedily, he re- 

 turns to resume his position, and again watch by the side of 

 his victim. This same species of gull is in the habit of fre- 

 quenting the slaughter-grounds near the city, and mingling 

 among the cattle and the men, without manifesting the slight- 

 est fear, ready at any time to pick up the clotted blood and 

 entrails, and yet seldom, if ever, receiving a speck to stain its 

 pure white breast. 11 A, Jem. 3, 1871, 6. 



EXTINCTION OF THE MOA. 



The question of the antiquity of remains of giant birds 

 found in New Zealand, and known among the natives as the 

 moa, received a few years ago an additional zest by the dis- 

 covery of a skeleton containing portions of the ligaments, 

 skin, and feathers still attached. This forms one of the treas- 

 ures of the museum at York, and was found in the interior of 

 the province of Otago. 



Dr. Hector, in a communication to Nature, announces the 

 discovery of a second specimen of the same character, being 

 the cervical vertebra of the moa, apparently of the very largest 

 size, upon the posterior aspect of which the skin, partially 

 covered with feathers, is still attached by the shriveled mus- 

 cles and ligaments. He also informs us that all the facts con- 

 nected with the discovery of this moa in New Zealand tend 

 to show that their extermination was due largely to human 

 agencies, and that there seemed to be a special class of na- 

 tives, known as moa-hunters, who were occupied in their pur- 



