of an unknown species of Bird. 85 



too, had not any bones in their possession ; though such, they 

 said, were very commonly seen after heavy floods. The following 

 day I passed close by the mountain where this Moa had resided for 

 so many years, but noticed nothing more than usual (although 

 I availed myself to the utmost of the use of my pocket telescope), 

 save that this part of the country had a much more barren and 

 desolate appearance than any I had hitherto witnessed. 



I returned in the autumn to the Bay of Islands, without 

 gleaning any further information relative to the Moa. 



It should however appear (from information which I have 

 recently received from the Rev. W. Williams), that very shortly 

 after my leaving Poverty Bay, a Moa bone was brought him by 

 a native which he immediately purchased. The natives in the 

 neighbourhood hearing of a price being given for such an article 

 as a bone, which they had ever considered as of little worth, were 

 stimulated to exertion, and a great number, perhaps more than 

 a hundred persons, were soon engaged in the field, actively 

 searching after Moa bones ; the result was, that Mr. Williams 

 soon had the pleasure of receiving a large quantity of fossil bones, 

 some of which were of an enormous size, and in a good state of 

 preservation. The bones, though numerous, were not in any 

 great variety, chiefly comprising such as I have already men- 

 tioned, i. e. those of the femur and tibia, together with those of 

 the tarsus, the lower part of the dorsal vertebrae, and a portion of 

 the pelvis. Altogether, the bones of nearly thirty birds, appa- 

 rently of one species only, must have been brought to Mr. Wil- 

 liams. From the great difference in the sizes of some of them 

 when compared with each other, Mr. Williams came to the con- 

 clusion, that the animal to which they once belonged must have 

 been very long-lived. Whilst, however, I do not perceive how far 

 this inference is to be correctly deduced from the mere difference 

 in the size of the bones, we know that longevity is common to 

 very many of the feathered race, particularly to those of the 

 larger kinds. One of the bones, a tibia*, measured 2 feet 10 

 inches in length, and was proportionably thick. Two others 

 measured, each, 2 feet 6 inches in length. Another, a section 

 of a femur, measured 8 inches in circumference in the smallest 

 part ! On putting together the bones of the leg and thigh 

 (although none of them exactly fitted), and making the neces- 

 sary allowance for the portions deficient of the processes of the 

 joints, the intermediate cartilages, and lower tendons and integu- 

 ments of the foot, we obtain at least six feet of the lower ex- 

 tremities of a bird ; which, supposing its upper parts to accord 

 in size with the lower ones, must have measured in altitude when 



* This has been sent by Mr. Williams with several others to Prof. Buckland. 



