88 Rev. W. Colenso on some enormous Fossil Bones 



per names for every portion of land and water, whether hill or 

 dale, lake or running stream ; and their never being at a loss in 

 describing distant or unfrequented parts of their own country, some 

 one or other present among the " listening crowd M having either 

 visited the places spoken of, or received a narration from some 

 one who had. Now, as no New Zealander is to be found who can 

 positively state that he has actually seen such a bird, and as 

 every nook and corner of the land is well known to the natives, 

 I conclude that the animal in question no longer exists in New 

 Zealand. In recording this opinion, it will be seen that I pay 

 no attention whatever to the strange and fearful account given of 

 the Moa by some natives, a relation which carries with it its 

 own proof of being false ; as I know full well the powers of the 

 New Zealander for romance, of which description of stories they 

 have not a few among them. The account, too, furnished the 

 Rev. W. Williams from the two American settlers, I also, in 

 like manner, reject ; but only as far as the bird whose bones we 

 have before us is concerned. A very large and peculiar bird 

 may exist in the mountainous district of the Middle Island ; in 

 fact, we know that several large birds well known to the natives, 

 though hitherto unknown to science, live on the high hills in the 

 Northern Island. But I cannot persuade myself to receive one 

 man's relation as perfectly correct in every particular, against the 

 united testimony of those persons from among the different tribes 

 of the Northern Island with whom I have conversed on the sub- 

 ject; that person, too, an unscientific man, receiving his relation 

 from others, who, by their own account, were not only powerfully 

 operated on by fear, but who are also from that country in the 

 " far west " whose natives are proverbially famed for their " long 

 yarns." 



In thus, however, disposing of that part of the question rela- 

 tive to the present existence of the Moa, we have still to inquire, 

 at what period of time is it probable that this bird existed ? And 

 here, I think, we have to consider, first, the situation in which 

 the bones are found ; and secondly, any additional evidence which 

 native tradition may be able to afford us. 



The Moa bones, as far as I have been able to ascertain, have 

 hitherto been only found within the waters and channels of those 

 rivers which disembogue into the southern ocean, between the 

 East Cape and the S. head of Hawkes' Bay, on the E. coast of 

 the Northern Island of New Zealand. And, as I have before 

 observed, they are only, when wanted, sought for after floods 

 occasioned by heavy rains, when, on the subsiding of the waters, 

 they are found deposited on the banks of gravel, &c. in the 

 shallowest parts of the rivers. These rivers are, in several places, 

 at a considerable depth below the present surface of the soil, 



