26 Transactions. — Zoology. 



region and the neck presented in this respect. ( 29 ) This 

 specimen comprises seven vertebras — the first dorsal and the 

 six last cervical — united by their ligaments, and having pre- 

 served on one side their muscles and other integuments. 

 The author concludes that the neck of this moa was 18in. in 

 circumference at its base. On the portion of the specimen 

 corresponding to the dorsal vertebras one sees the skin covered 

 with large conical elevations or papillae, which almost touch 

 each other, and give to the whole the aspect of a grater. A 

 certain number of these papillae have featbers of a reddish- 

 chestnut colour, with two shafts, and provided with barbs, 

 similar to those mentioned above, the longest of which are 

 more than 2in. in length. The papillae diminish in size, 

 and the feathers in length, on reaching the part overlying 

 the cervical vertebras. The feathers are then rapidly reduced 

 to mere hairs, and they disappear entirely over about half the 

 surface of the specimen. There the papillae are much less 

 pronounced, and are quite distinct from each other. 



Keeping in view these varied data, and the characters 

 which distinguish the brevipennate birds of other regions, 

 we can form a very precise idea of what the large species of 

 moa were. They presented the general form of the casso- 

 wary, but on a much larger scale. ( 30 ) As with the latter, 

 the greater part of the neck was bare, but the characteristic 

 crest was absent, and consequently they approached more 

 closely to the emu. Very probably the legs were bare and 

 the body was covered with silky feathers, where tints of a 

 dark reddish-brown predominated, varied with black and 

 white, at least in some of the species. 



Writings to which I shall have to refer later on enable 

 us to complete the picture, and go to illustrate the manner of 

 life of these strange birds. ( 31 ) The moas were sluggish and 

 stupid creatures, as attested by a proverb still in use.( 32 ) 

 They were essentially sedentary, and walked in couples ac- 

 companied by their young. No doubt they sometimes dis- 

 puted possession of the same feeding-ground, for the Maoris 

 still say, speaking of a fight between two pairs of combatants, 



(29.) Note added to the preceding by Captain F. W. Hutton (id., 

 p. 101). 



(30.) The cassowary is smaller than the ostrich. 



(31.) Letter from Mr. John White to Mr. Travers (Transactions, 

 vol. viii., p. 81). Mr. Travers tells us that his correspondent was engaged 

 for more than thirty-five years in collecting every possible piece of infor- 

 mation about the past history of the moas ; that he had been initiated by 

 their priests into all the mysteries of the native craft, so that he knew the 

 history of their race better even than the natives themselves. 



(32.) Extracts from a letter from F. L. Maning, Esq., relative to the 

 extinction of the moas (Transactions, vol. viii., p. 102). The author 

 translates the Maori proverb by the words " As inert (ngoikac) as a moa." 



