558 Transac tions . — Miscellaneoits . 



Art LII. — Discoveries of Moa-hones. 

 By H. C. Field. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 24th February, 1S92.'] 



In October, 1890, when visiting at my eldest son's house, 

 at Waikanae, I found the remains of a very large moa within 

 about six or seven hundred yards of the house. They con- 

 sisted of the large hinder portion of the back, the tip of the 

 lower jaw, and fourteen vertebrge, as well as the upper bones 

 of the legs. The bones had been exposed by the drifting- 

 away of the sand in which they had been buried, and of the 

 leg-bones only the tops were visible, so that I had to scrape 

 away the sand with my hands to remove them. In fact, the 

 large backbone was held down by them, and thus was much 

 damaged by being trampled on. The rib-bones were also 

 there, but so broken by the feet of the stock, which go to 

 drink at the adjoining lagoon, as not to be worth picking up. 

 The bones were so large that I felt almost doubtful whether 

 they could be those of a bird. The large backbone is 14^in. 

 long by 8fin. in extreme width, and the leg-bones 13^in. long 

 by 6fin. in circumference at the smallest part. Along with 

 the bones, and within a yard or two of them, were bits of 

 hoop-iron, broken bottle-glass of two colours, two bits of 

 earthenware of different patterns, and two bits of clay tobacco- 

 pipe. There were also a number of pieces and flakes of 

 stone. Though such things are often found thereabouts in 

 company with moa-bones, it obviously does not follow that 

 they have been deposited at the same time. They may have 

 been dropped when the sand was at a higher level, and have 

 sunk to that of the bones as the sand drifted away. In fact, 

 owing to the long residence of whalers in that locality, the 

 whole ground is more or less strewn with such articles. 



On the 9th of this month (October, 1891) I visited the 

 spot again, thinking that possibly the long bones of the legs 

 might have become exposed. I saw that they had evidently 

 been so, and that some one had carried them away ; for I 

 found the lower leg-bones, all the toe-bones, and the long thin 

 bones from beside the large bones of the legs. On inquiry of 

 my son and his men, I learnt that Mr. S. H. Drew, of Wanga- 

 nui, who was at my son's place at Easter, had picked up some 

 large moa-bones, and I naturally supposed that they were the 

 tibiae of my bird. I learn, however, that his bones belong to 

 a smaller iDird, and were found in quite a different direction 

 from the house. Thus there have been the remains of two 

 moas found within a few hundred yards of each other at 



