De Quatkefages. — On Moas and Moa-hunters. 47 



Genus Euryapteryx. 



E. rheidcs (Shag Valley, prevailing; Point Cave, 49-01). 

 E. gravis (Shag Valley, few ; Point Cave, 33-03). 



Thus, about two-thirds of the known species of moas have 

 been found in the debris of the native feasts. 



If the Maoris had hunted the moas only according to the 

 modes described by Mr. White, it is very probable that Euro- 

 peans would have been able to see some species of the large 

 brevipennates. But they employed much more effective means. 

 They placed slip-knots in the moa's path, running into which 

 the birds were snared. ( 120 ) They also organized large hunt- 

 ing-parties in which the whole population acted as beaters. 

 The birds were driven into a lake, where -hunters, in canoes, 

 killed them without difficulty. ( 121 ) Finally they went as far 

 as to set fire to vast tracts of forest, in which the birds must 

 have perished in hundreds, and often, no doubt, without any 

 profit to those who lighted the fires. Thus is explained the 

 fact mentioned by Mr. Taylor and many other writers, who 

 speak of extensive areas covered with little mounds composed 

 of moa-bones.( 122 ) It ought to be mentioned that the Maoris 

 were rather fond of the eggs, as almost everywhere there have 

 been found immense numbers of broken egg-shells. 



Thus hunted down and prevented from reproducing them- 

 selves, the moas were bound to disappear. But their extinc- 

 tion is certainly recent. In arguing to the contrary — in con- 

 tending that the total destruction of these large birds goes back 

 to an epoch as ancient as our European Neolithic times — Dr. 

 Haast was mistaken. He has been carried away by analogies 

 of a purely geological character, perhaps more apparent than 

 real. 



In any case, one would not be able to establish a true 

 parallel between the zoological facts presented in Europe and 

 in New Zealand. The New Zealand Quaternary fauna was 

 altogether of local origin. It is different with us. The mam- 

 moth and the rhinoceros were emigrants which had been 

 driven by the cold of the northern regions of Asia towards 

 warmer countries. ( 12 ') The extinction of these species must 

 have been hastened by circmnstances quite different from those 



(120.) Eev. Mr. Taylor, quoted by Mr. Travers (Transactions, vol. viii., 

 p. 77). 



(121.) Roberts, loc. cit. 



(122.) Taylor, loc. cit. 



(123.) Murchison, Dc Yerneuil, Keyserlink, and D'Archiac regard the 

 mammoth and the rhinoceros with divided nostrils as having lived in 

 Siberia in the Tertiary epoch. According to Lartcte the reindeer was 

 their contemporary. 



