Hamilton. — On the Feathers of a Small Moa. 233 



variety of colours, in its length, and in its ocellated appearance, 

 its great beauty ; altogether it was exactly like that of the 

 feather of the peacock. Hawea, the native who gave this 

 story, wrote afterwards to say that he had talked over the 

 matter with some friends who had recently come from Whaka- 

 punake, and they had said that the celebrated moa on the 

 mountain near their home had twelve of these beautiful round- 

 eyed feathers like those of the peacock. 



I have no doubt that this wonderful feather was really a 

 peacock's feather derived from some trader or sailor, and that 

 the information given by Hawea will not help us to picture any 

 of the moas. In one of Dr. G. A. Mantell's papers he says, 

 quoting a letter from Mr. W. B. D. Mantell, " And if the native 

 traditions are worthy of credit the ladies have cause to mourn 

 the extinction (?) of the Dinomis. The long feathers of its 

 crest were by their remote ancestors prized above all other 

 ornaments : those of the white crane, which now bear the 

 highest value, were mere pigeon-feathers in comparison." 



I once heard from Mr. F. C. Sturm, who was a very early 

 settler in Hawke's Bay, a story of his quest of a reputed moa- 

 feather many, many years ago. The possessor was a chief 

 living some distance inland from Wairoa. After reaching the 

 place the chief produced a bundle of mats, and, after carefully 

 unrolling a number of them, came to a finer and more 

 valuable mat, which contained the ivaka in which was the 

 " moa-feather." Judge of my friend's excitement and dis- 

 appointment when the treasure turned out to be the red horse- 

 hair plume from a dragoon's helmet. 



Mr. John White, in a letter to Mr. Travers (23rd July, 

 1875), ■■'- says, "I forgot to say in my last letter that I have 

 seen many old chiefs who have seen the moa-feathers worn 

 in the heads of the old chiefs when the relators were boys. 

 These men describe them as in some instances about 2ft. 

 long, some 18in., some 12in., some 6in. long, with the down 

 from the top of the quill to within the width of a man's hand 

 at the top, the top being flat like the feather of the tail of the 

 peacock. I think that I have in my MSS. the names which 

 these feathers were called." 



In the Otago Daily Times of the 5th April, 1873, is the 

 following: " Bef erring to the statement that live moas have 

 been seen recently in New Zealand, Mr. Ebenezer Baker, 

 Clerk to the Besident Magistrate's Court in Wellington, 

 informs us (Wellington Post) that some years ago he found a 

 moa's feather perfectly fresh near Tolaga Bay. It was about 

 18in. long, and apparently of the underpart of the wing. The 

 feather was a long while in his possession, and was admitted 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. viii., p. 81. 



