White. — Remarks on M<><i Feathers. 88 



Art. XI. — Remarks on the Feathers of two Species of Moa. 



By Taylor White. 



[Read before the Hawke's Bay Philosophical Institute, lith December, 1885.] 



Plates II. and III. 



The accompanying plate (No. II.) contains copies of three Moa 

 feathers, and pieces of egg-shell, found with others in a cave on 

 the shores of Lake Wakatipu, Otago, and mentioned in vol. viii. 

 of " Trans. N.Z. Inst.," p. 98. 



The feathers are drawn to scale. The larger one is pure 

 white, and was the only white feather amongst those found, and 

 also the longest. 



The feather to the right is iu colour like the majority of 

 those found, some of which were an iuch longer, others longer 

 and slighter ; others again much smaller, and nearly all double- 

 shafted. 



In colour, the shaft and centre has a bright transparent 

 yellow, as of gum or resin, changing to dark purple brown on 

 the outer margin of feather. They have probably all been 

 duplicated, the duplicate feather being joined to the principal in 

 what I may call a quill socket, which corresponds with the 

 depth to which the feather entered the skin of the bird ; the 

 duplicate feather being slightly shorter, and one-third less in 

 width than the principal. 



The left-hand feather represents a third type, which were 

 not so numerous, and all of medium length ; they were mostly 

 wanting or denuded of the duplicate shaft. In colour, a dark 

 reddish or chestnut purple ; the shafts, more opaque than the 

 above-mentioned, were of a lighter and redder colour than the 

 outer and tip. 



These were most likely breast feathers. 



The colour of the bird must have been of a most delicate 

 mixture, a foundation of shining yellow outwardly, shaded with 

 dark purple brown, the breast a chestnut purple; and, to locate 

 the white feather, say white on the after part of the back, which 

 cannot rightly be called the tail, as the rump would be covered 

 with drooping hair-like feathers. 



The bird would, from the slender make of the feathers, have 

 the appearance of being covered with long flexible hair, and not 

 with immovable armour, showing only the outer colour of the 

 feather as in ordinary birds. From this flexibility, I infer that 

 the golden colour of the centre part of the feather would be 

 visible in the plumage. It was probably about 3 feet 6 inches 

 in height ; and, from a metatarsus found in the same cave, is 

 considered to have been D. casuarinus. 



