White. — On Moa and Toa. 345 



and older branch of the Polynesian race long resident in New 

 Zealand. These people, or some of them, were Morioris, akin 

 to those first found in the Chatham Islands. These large birds 

 were already known by the name of " moa," the same name 

 by which the ancestors of the Polynesian had known the 

 cassowary and emu in other lands. 



In some of "the islands" Gallics domesticus is called 

 *' moa," while at other places its name is " toa," but whether 

 the two words are variants one of the other I find no evidence. 

 " Toa " is also a warrior or fightmg-man, and, as fighting is 

 one of the chief characteristics of the domestic cock, the 

 name may be considered applicable to that bird ; but this may 

 be a mere coincidence. 



In Maori language we have the verbal form ivhaka toa moa, 

 " to perform a derisive dance in presence of the enemy." The 

 literal translation of this is "to make to do, the warrior, of 

 the moa," or "to do as the dancing moa," for "toa" also 

 means " to romp or gambol." 



I have somewhere read of the ostrich at times indulging in 

 a kind of dance with one or more of its companions, but for- 

 get my authority for this statement. A.t the same time we 

 must allow that the domestic cock makes considerable demon- 

 stration on approaching an antagonist, such as advancing 

 sideways and every now and again picking up imaginary food 

 or pebbles, bits of stick or straw, and what in colonial expres- 

 sion ie " putting on side " and " bounce." But this can hardly 

 be considered as any kind of dance. At many islands — 

 Samoa, for instance — the word " toa" is a fowl,* but it also 

 means the ironwood-tree {Castiariua equisetifolia) . Why the 

 fowl and the tree should be of the one name is remarkable, 

 and worthy of consideration. 



Some thirty years ago I went over to Australia to hunt up 

 a witness in a law case. When travelling in that country I 

 was greatly struck by the beautiful and extremely graceful 

 habit of growth in the so-called " she-oak " i^Casuarina). This 

 tree had nothing resembling the leaves of ordinary trees, but 

 long, thin, flexible, succulent, drooping, twig-like foliage, which 

 at once recalled to memory the long streamers of the water- 

 weed which I knew years ago in England's streams by the 

 name of " mares' tails." The foliage of the Australian " she- 

 oak " gives a more even and graceful rounded droop than that 

 of our weeping willow, which is such a striking feature in the 

 " improved " landscape of our adopted country. In Australia 



* I am informed by Mr. W. G. Ball, for some years resident in Samoa, 

 that " toa " in Samoan means " cock," and also " warrior " ; " moa," be- 

 sides being the general word for fowl, also means — (1) The end of a 

 bunch of bananas; (2) fleshy part of mollusc ; (3) child's top; (4) epi- 

 gastric region ; (5) the middle (of a road or river). 



r' 



