HuTTON. — On the Moas of Nciv Zealand. 141 



is no evidence for supposing any of them to be the ancestors 

 of the moas. Mesenibriornis, of South America, appears to be 

 related to the Anatidae. 



In the Cretaceous period all the birds were very different 

 from living ones, and, although flying birds and flightless birds 

 existed even then, the flightless loirds were adapted for swim- 

 ming, while the Eatita3 are a group specially adapted for 

 terrestrial life. It is true that the Cretaceous birds had skulls, 

 so far as we know, on the present Eatite type ; but that 

 pattern appears to have been at the time common to all birds. 

 There were no distinct Carinatae and Eatitae, only the Proto- 

 carinatge of Professor T. J. Parker. The Eatitae must have 

 branched off from the Proto-carinatae at an early date, but 

 23robably not before the close of the Cretaceous period. The 

 Grallae of Bonaparte, together with the bustards, form another 

 group, also adapted for terrestrial life, which branched off 

 from the Carinatae at a later period. 



Advent of the Moa in Ncio Zealand. 



That the moas have been a long time in New Zealand is 

 evident, Numbers of bones have been obtained from old 

 Maori cooking-places,''' which are, of course, recent; and still 

 greater numbers have been found in swamps and caves, some 

 of which are of Pleistocene age. At the Patangata Swamp, 

 Te Ante, near Napier, the bones were partly in a stiff blue 

 clay and partly in an old forest-bed lying on the clay, and 

 were covered by 8ft. or 10ft. of silt ;t while others occurred 

 lying on the surface of the drained lagoon, and may have been 

 younger. The swamp at Glenmark, which had to be dramed, 

 may possibly belong to the Eecent period, but below the swamp 

 there is a series of beds of river-shingle, peat, and silt, covered 

 by the loess deposit so common in Canterbury, which is no 

 doubt Pleistocene, and from this peat-bed a large number of 

 moa-bones have been obtained. | At Hamilton, in central 

 Otago, the principal deposit of bones was a small dry peat 

 basin excavated out of a bed of clay, and below the clay, which 

 was 6ft. thick, there was another small peat basin, also full 

 of moa-bones. § Considerable changes have taken place in the 

 physical geography of the country since these peat basins were 



* Murison, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. iv., p. 122; Haast, I.e., vol. vii., 

 pp. 86 and 91 ; Tliorne, I.e., vol. viii., p. 83 ; Hutton, I.e., vol. viii., p. 103 ; 

 Eobson, I.e., vol. viii., p. 95, and vol. ix., p. 279; Mantell, I.e., vol. xxi.) 

 p. 440; G. A. Mantell, " Petrifactions and their Teachings," p. 101. 



t Hamilton, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxi., p. 314; Park, Rep. Geol. 

 ExpL, 2887-88, p. 88. 



X Haast, " Geology of Canterbury," p. 442. 



§ Booth, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. vii., p. 123, and vol. ix., p. 365 ; 

 Hutton, Quar. Jcnr. Geol. Soc, vol. xli., p. 213. 



