158 Transactions. — Zoology. 



it "tarepo."^:= Three years later (1842) he says that the 

 Maoris of Waingongoro, near Wauganui, called the bird 

 "moa." Mr. J. W. Hamilton says that in 1844 the Euro- 

 peans knew very httle about the existence of moa-bones, 

 and very few had at that time been found ; bu^ the Maoris 

 always knew them when they saw them.f It is evident, 

 therefore, that the Maoris had a tradition that these bones, 

 vdiich they used for fish-hooks, had belonged to birds which 

 they called " moas." 



Mr, W. Colenso, in a very valuable and thoroughly scientific 

 paper on the subject,]: distinctly recognises that the ancestors 

 of the Maoris knew the moa, but says that this knowledge 

 dates from "very long ago, in almost prehistoric times, long 

 before the beginning of the genealogical descent of the 

 tribes, which, as we know, extended back for more than 

 twenty-five generations;" for the moa is rarely mentioned in 

 their poetry or proverbs, and even then the allusions are 

 largely mythical. But the name "moa," he says, is incor- 

 porated in many words handed down from early a^ncestors — 

 firstly, as names of places, such as Moawhiti (startled moa), 

 Moakura (red or brownish moa), Moarahi (big moa), Otamoa 

 (moa eaten raw), Moawhango (hoarse-sounding moa), and 

 others: secondly, in names of persons, as Hinemoa, " hine " 

 meaning daughter of rank, or young lady : and, thirdly, as 

 ordinary words — for example, Maimoa (Come-hither moa), 

 used as the name for a decoy-bird ; Moamoa (small round 

 stones the size of marbles), perhaps a reminiscence of moa 

 gizzard-stones. There is also a tradition among the Maoris 

 of the East Cape district that the moas were exterminated 

 by a fire known as the fire of Tamatea ; and Mr. Colenso 

 remarks that Tamatea is a very ancient name in New Zealand 

 mythological history. He was a descendant of Toto, and, with 

 his children, came to New Zealand in the canoe Takitumu. 



Mr. Mautell says that "the extermination of the moas must 

 have taken place within a very short period after the Maoris 

 reached the Islands, as the allusions to the birds in their most 

 ancient traditions are very slight and obscure." § Major W. 

 G. Mair, who takes great interest in science, has a thorough 

 knowledge of the Maori language, and has been for many 

 years collecting Maori tales, says, " In all these thousands of 

 pages of Maori lore which I have written from the mouths of 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. v., p. 97. In a letter to Sir E. Home in 1844 

 he says, "kakapo or tarepo " (Trans. Zool. Soc, vol. iii., p. 32). 

 Mr. W. Travers says that " tarepo " was the native name for the extinct 

 goose Cnemiornis (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. viii.,p. 75, footnote). 



t Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. vii., p. 122. 



I Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xii., p. 63. 



§ Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. i., p. 18. 



