534 Proceedings. 



Captain Mair said that traditions indicated that the hokioi was a 

 very large bird of prey, and that it could not have been the frigate-bird 

 that was intended. 



The Chairman was still inclined to think it was the frigate-bird, 

 which was a true bird of prey — in fact, the vulture of the ocean. 



Mr . Bruce, in reply, was glad to find that his communication had so 

 much interest. He might remark that, if the description of the colour of 

 the hokioi given in the vaiata was to be taken as reliable, it could not 

 have been the frigate-bird that was intended. 



2. " On the Antiquity of the Moa," by Captain G. Man. 



Abstract. 



The author referred to the large amount of information collected 

 bearing on the moa. He considered that the probable extinction of the 

 moa could only be fixed approximately after all the evidence had been 

 exhausted. He quoted numerous Maori traditions and accounts given 

 him by old natives, showing the several localities — five or six in number — 

 where, fifteen or sixteen generations ago, solitary moas were reputed 

 to exist. He gave the history of two pikis, or head-dresses, made from 

 moa-feathers, and named Te "Eauamoa and Te Rauopiopio, which were 

 famous in former times, and to which there are numerous allusions in 

 songs and proverbs. He pointed out the extraordinary and fabulous 

 accounts given by the natives, which proved that it was impossible that 

 their immediate or even remote ancestors could have possessed any 

 intimate or reliable knowledge of the moa ; that among the vast number 

 of histories of blocks inquired into by the Native Land Court hardly any 

 allusion had ever been made to moas. He gave instances of the extra- 

 ordinary preservation of human bodies under certain conditions after 

 death, and suggested that the specimens of moa-remains found in an 

 almost fresh condition had probably been preserved in some such manner. 

 The conclusion he came to was that the moa was exterminated at least 

 twelve generations ago. 



Mr. Field said he could produce evidence to prove that the moa was 

 in existence in these Islands not more than fifty years ago. There were 

 numbers of natives who knew all about the moas, and who had eaten them. 

 They described how they killed men by striking out in front with the foot. 

 He believed the chief cause of their disappearance was that the wild pigs 

 had destroyed their eggs. He had seen undoubted moa-feathers. He 

 described how the bones were cut with a sharp instrument, evidently a 

 tomahawk introduced by Europeans. He would send down all the evi- 

 dence he could collect bearing on the subject. 



Sir W. Buller stated that struthious birds are in the habit of striking 

 downwards with the foot, lifting it towards the breast. As to the head- 

 dress of moa-feathers said to have been in possession of the late Rev. R. 

 Tavlor, this relic was now in the collection of Mr. Henry Harper, of 

 Wanganui. He (the speaker) had recently examined it. The plumes were 

 only cassowary-feathers, and the mounting was split bamboo or rattan 

 from the islands. 



Mr. Tregear said that the legends read by Captain Mair were some of 

 them quite new and valuable. The remarks regarding the feather plumes 

 quite bore out what he thought formerly as to the Maori not knowing the 

 Dinornis. " Rauamoa" evidently meant " a plume belonging to (a man's 

 name) Moa," and " Rauopiopio " showed that it was a plume of the bird 

 piopio. This piopio was not the thrush (Turnagra hector i), but a lost 

 bird; certainly not Dinornis. The real feathers of the Dinornis had all 

 been discovered by naturalists or geologists, and were not found in pos- 

 session of Maoris." When Maoris of to-day had legends to tell concerning 

 the moa they were all of such preposterous and mythical character that 

 they proved "the truth of what the old chiefs of fifty years ago alleged— 



