HuTTON. — On the Moas of Ncio Zealand. 159 



[Maori] witnesses in Waikato, at Eotorua, in the Bay of 

 Plenty, Hawke's Bay, Manawatu, Wanganui, and Taupo, 

 there is not one word about the moa."-" The Eev. J. W. 

 Stack says the same ; and he has pointed out that the saying, 

 " Ka ngaro i te ngaro a te moa " (" Lost as the moa is lost "), 

 or, as Mr. Colenso translates it, "All have perished just as the 

 moas have perished," which occurs in the very ancient Maori 

 poem called the "Lament of Ikaherengatu," shows that the 

 moa was not in existence at the time when it was composed.! 

 On the other hand, the Eev. E. Taj'lor,]: Judge Maning,§ 

 Mr. John White, || Sir George Grey,'^ Sir W. Buller,='=- Lieut. - 

 Colonel McDonnell, if and Judge Monro|| all agree that the 

 present Maoris have plenty of traditions about the moas. Sir 

 G. Grey says that when he came to New Zealand, in 1845, 

 the Maoris invariably spoke to him of the moa as a bird well 

 known to their ancestors ; and Sir "Walter Buller says that 

 their "ancient folk-lore, their historical songs, and their pro- 

 verbial sayings are full of allusions, more or less direct, to 

 the bird." Colonel McDonnell was told that the moa 

 was of a brown colour, with feathers longer and coarser 

 than those of the kiwi ; that it fought fiercely when brought 

 to bay, and struck out with its feet, but was easily killed 

 with clubs. §§ According to Judge Maning they were stupid 

 and sluggish birds, and were killed in great numbers by fires. 

 Periodically they fought with great fierceness. According to 

 Mr. John White the moas did not go in flocks, but lived in 

 pairs with their young. The same writer says that the nest 

 was merely a heap of grass, on the top of which they laid their 

 eggs ; while the Eev. E. Taylor says that the nests were made 

 of refuse fern-root on which they fed. Mr. White says that 

 they lived principally on the young shoots and roots of fern 

 and grass, as well as on the shoots of a shrub with yellow 

 flowers, called korokia {Corokia huddleoides) , which grows on 

 the margins of the bush. They haunted chiefly the edges of 

 the forest, but often visited lakes and water-pools to feed on 

 water-plants. The Maoris used to lie in wait for them near 

 the tracks by which they went to the water, and strike them 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxii., p. 74. 



t Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. vii., App., p. xxviii. 



+ Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. v., p. 100. 



§ Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. viii., p. 102. 



i; Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. viii., p. 79. 

 li Proc. Zool. Soc, 1870 ; Zoologist, 1870, p. 2104. 

 ** Birds of N.Z., 2nd ed., vol. i., p. xxxiii. 

 tt Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxi., p. 438. 

 It Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. viii., p. 427. 



§§ None of the skulls found in Maori cooking-places have been broken 

 Avith clubs. Kawana Paipai's statement that he had himself hunted the 

 moa on the Waimate Plains, Taranaki, is no doubt a romance. 



