232 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Art. XXVI. — On the Feathers of a Small Species of Moa 

 (Megalapteryx) found in a Cave at the Head of the 

 Waikaia River ; with a Notice of a Moa-hunter's Camp- 

 ing-place on the Old Man Range. 



By A. Hamilton. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 19th June, 1894.] 



The history of the rooa is one which will always have great 

 attraction for the student of natural history in New Zealand ; 

 and year after year fresh details come to light, which, though 

 perhaps small and trifling in themselves, assist in realizing the 

 outward form and semblance of a family of birds as strange 

 and grotesque as any that have ever existed. Every one is 

 now familiar with the numerous restorations which have 

 appeared in books, but should a specimen ever be captured in 

 the flesh I am afraid the reality would scarcely match the 

 figures we have drawn. Having recovered so many practically 

 complete skeletons, the general forms of several genera are 

 known ; but whether they should be clad in black like the 

 cassowary, in silver-grey like the rhea, or in brown like the 

 emu, is quite uncertain. It is only quite lately that Dr. T. J. 

 Parker has recognized facts which in all probability show that 

 the heads of some individuals were topped with a crest of 

 feathers. It is quite possible that the neck and head may 

 have been adorned with caruncles or wattles, brilliantly 

 coloured. 



Maori tradition, which ought to be full of references to the 

 appearance of the moa, does not help us much. In Sir George 

 Grey's "Poetry of the New-Zealanders " (p. 138) is given a 

 song which Mr. Colenso translates as follows (Trans. N.Z. 

 Inst., vol. xii., p. 87) : — 



Produce and begin the talk of old, 



The story of the very earliest times 



Of the great ancient men : 



Thus let it be ; begin with the very beginning of all — 



With the chief Kahungunu ; 



So that the bird's plume now present, 



That is to say, of the moa, 



Shall be stuck into the hair of my principal chief. 



Mr. Colenso made diligent inquiries of old Maoris regard- 

 ing the plumage of the moa, but, with the exception of the 

 beautiful feather said to have been found at Whakapunake, he 

 could hear nothing reliable. This one was said to be like that 

 of the peacock ; it did not differ a bit in its glossiness and 



