De Quateefages. — On Moas and Moa-hunters. 43 



laying their ambuscades? and does not their state of pre- 

 servation attest the fact that they could not have been unused 

 for centuries '? 



VIII. 



But the most decisive proof in favour of the recent disap- 

 pearance of the moa is furnished by the discoveries, made from 

 time to time, of bones with fragments of flesh, muscles, and 

 integuments still adhering to them. No less than three such 

 discoveries have been made. The Colonial Museum possesses 

 a portion of the neck, but whence it came I have never yet 

 heard. ( 107 ) In 1871 Mr. Low informed Dr. Hector that he 

 had just been given a piece of moa-flesh, covered with fluff and 

 numerous quill-tubes. ( 108 ) About the same time Dr. Thomp- 

 son obtained from a gold-digger, who had discovered them in a 

 cave under a heap of mica-schist, the bones of a moa to which 

 still adhered the ligaments, muscles, and shreds of skin. The 

 portion of the neck to which I have just alluded was part of 

 this find, and was forwarded to Dr. Hector, who figured it and 

 described it with great fidelity. ( 10D ) 



In these various pieces the tissues do not seem to have 

 undergone any alteration ; they are simply shrivelled. The 

 flesh is no way fossilised, and the fibres were easily de- 

 tached.^ 10 ) Dr. Millen Coughtrey, to whom Dr. Thompson 

 sent the specimens which he had collected, made an anatomi- 

 cal examination of the neck, and was able to distinguish the 

 different muscles ; on the right femur he found the fibres and 

 tendons of nine muscles. The other bones only showed the 

 remains of tendons.^ 11 ) 



In answer to the objections against his theory furnished by 

 the foregoing facts, Dr. Haast affirms that the neck-bones 

 described by Dr. Hector are in a state of semi-fossilisation, 

 similar to that of the greater part of moa-bones. He ascribes 

 the existence of muscles and integuments to their accidental 

 position in a bed of dry sand.( 112 ) But how are we to under- 

 stand that the bones could become fossilised whilst the flesh 

 remained intact? Besides, on the first point the learned 

 geologist is plainly contradicted by Dr. Hector, who repre- 



(107.) Haast, "Third Paper," loc. cit., p. 102. 



(108.) Note added to Dr. Hector's memoir, p. 114. 



(109.) "On Recent Moa-remains in New Zealand" (Transactions, 

 vol. iv., p. Ill, and pi. v.). 



(110.) Low, loc. cit. 



(111.) "Notes on the Anatomy of the Moa-remains found at Earns- 

 cleugh Cave," by Millen Coughtrey (Transactions, vol. vii., p. 141). To 

 judge by the details given by Mr. Thomson all the muscles and integu- 

 ments which this cave contained have not yet been collected. See Dr. 

 Hector's memoir, loc. cit., p. 112. 



(112.) " Additional Notes," p. 93 ; " Third Paper," p. 102. 



