White. — On Eemains of the Moa in the Forest. 505 



of material which I do not know in situ ox detached, but 

 would describe them as a pale-coloured indurated slate, a 

 grey, blue, or drab colour, or white with a shade of a darker 

 colour difficult to explain ; and they range in size down to 

 that of a large pea, or, rather, small bean, for they are none 

 of them round, showing that the action of the gizzard is not 

 rotary, but what a sailor would describe as " a rubbing fore 

 and aft." Some of these stones are of a square form ; others 

 long, and having only three corners. Most of them are so 

 finely polished that on placing one near the tips of the fingers 

 on the open hand they immediately slide inward to the palm, 

 and my hand is by no means smooth, owing to the frequent 

 use of the axe. I have little doubt the bird would have pre- 

 ferred a quartz stone if procurable, for even the fowl is very 

 particular in its choice, and can be seen to pick up a pebble 

 and pinch or, as it were, nibble it in the bill, and if it prove 

 deficient it is at once laid aside, but if it stands the test it is 

 swallowed. 



I have no knowledge of any proof that the moa lived in the 

 tangled forests of New Zealand, and always supposed them to 

 inhabit grassy plains or fern-clad hills. That they fed on fern- 

 root I have evidence in collecting the fibres of fern after they 

 left the bird. There are remains of moa to be found on the 

 open land of the coast some fourteen miles distant, and this 

 bird might have travelled up the watercourse in a dry 

 summer ; but, in that case, how would he do for a drink ?— 

 for I have during one hot season seen the water near by com- 

 pletely dried up. 



To me this find is remarkable owing to the place being in 

 the virgin forest, and also because I have never heard of the 

 gizzard-stones being found in conjunction with the bones of 

 the bird which carried them. Still, on the other hand, we 

 know that if the most of the bones are undecayed, and remain 

 in the exact place where the bird died, the stones, which do 

 not suffer from decay in like proportion, must therefore be still 

 in juxtaposition with the bones, unless removed by the hand 

 of man. The aboriginal man might possibly have considered 

 the inside of the moa a great delicacy ; in that case the gizzard 

 would be taken away, and the stones would not be found 

 in situ. 



