De Quateefages. — On Moas and Moa-Jiunters . 25 



From time to time, and in different localities, there have 

 been found stray moa-feathers, belonging to different parts of 

 the body, and even portions of skeletons to which still adhered 

 muscles, tendons, and fragments of skin, as well as feathers, 

 in a remarkable state of preservation. ( 24 ) Later on I will 

 refer to the conclusions which may be deduced from the 

 above-stated facts. I only mention the subject now for the 

 purpose of completing the description of these birds. 



Captain Hutton has examined feathers found in two 

 localities associated with moa-bones. These feathers belonged 

 to the same species. They were as fresh, and the colours 

 were as bright, as if they had only just been plucked out. 

 But, with the exception of one which he figures, they were all 

 broken. f 5 ) Their total length is about 6-^in. The tube is 

 only about lin., and has two very slender shafts, the barbs of 

 which, although provided with barbules, remain disconnected. 

 These barbs, at first very short, attain a length of about an 

 inch, and the plume terminates in a rounded tip. For two- 

 thirds of their length from the base the colour is a reddish- 

 brown, which passes gradually into black, whereas the rounded 

 extremity is of the purest white. Captain Hutton observes 

 that the general effect of these characters appears to establish 

 a close connection with the American and Australian brevi- 

 pennates rather than with the African ostrich. ( 2G ) Besides, 

 one can understand that all the moas had not the same kind 

 of plumage. Mr. Taylor White's discoveries have confirmed 

 on this point all that might have been expected. In the cave 

 of Mount Nicholas he found feathers of a pale brownish- 

 yellow, darker along the edges. Some were of a blackish- 

 brown. Feathers coming from another cave, near Queens- 

 town, were of a reddish-brown, and marked by a dark-brown 

 streak towards the extremity of the shaft. (- 7 ) We know, 

 therefore, at least partially, what the plumage was in, at any 

 rate, three species of moa.(-"j The feathers I have just 

 described were, no doubt, from the middle or hinder region of 

 the body. The rare specimen described and figured by Dr. 

 Hector shows the modifications which the anterior dorsal 



(24.) "Address on the Moa" (extracts), by the Hon. W. B. Mantell 

 (Transactions, vol. i., p. 19). " On some Moa-feathers," by Captain 

 F. W. Hutton (Transactions, vol. iv., p. 172). ". On Recent Moa-remains 

 in New Zealand," by James Hector, M.D., P.R.S. (Transactions, vol. iv., 

 p. 110). Similar facts are frequently mentioned in other papers to which 

 I shall have occasion to return further on. 



(25.) Loc. cit., pi. ix. 



(26.) Loc. cit., p. 173. 



(27.) Loc. cit., p. 114, pi. v., with five figures. 



(28.) "Notes on Moa-caves in the Wakatipu District." by Taylor 

 "White, Esq. (Transactions, vol. viii., p. 07). 



