354 TransacUons. 



Art. XLV. — The Discovery of Moa-remains on Stewart Island. 



By Professor W. B. Benham, D.Sc, F.K.S., Otago University. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 7th December, 1909.] 



Some time last year I was informed by Mr. F. W. Murdoch, of Half-moon 

 Bay, that he had discovered the bones of a couple of moas, one larger than 

 the other, in the sandhills at Mason Bay, on the west coast of Stewart 

 Island ; and recently he gave a more detailed account of the find to Dr. 

 Cockayne and to myself, in letters, from which the following quotations are 

 made. 



The interest of Mr. Murdoch's discovery lies in the fact that this is the 

 first occasion, so far as I have been able to ascertain, that actual evidence 

 of the existence of moas on the island has been produced or recorded, though 

 he states that he has known for some time of fragments of their bones lying 

 about Maori middens. 



He writes, " The two skeletons, or remains of skeletons, were lying close 

 together, only a few yards apart, about 400 yards inland from the beach. 

 The gizzard-stones of the larger bird were in evidence, scattered about, 

 but I did not notice any with the small skeleton. Truth to tell, I had not 

 much time at my disposal : it was getting well on towards evening, and 

 I had nearly the whole of that beach to traverse to reach the hut, the bones 

 being near the south end of the beach. Nearly all the bones of the larger 

 bird were there, I should think, with the exception of one of the long leg- 

 bones. The greater part, of the skull was there : it I brought home, and a 

 portion of the breast-bone. ... I think that some old-time Maoris 

 must have also found those bones, for near by were lying two flakes of stone 

 — not worked stone, but just the ordinary long flakes they used as knives or 

 saws. The missing bone was probably appropriated by them to fashion 

 into fish-hooks and needles." He suggests that the two birds died at about 

 the same time — they were not killed by the Maoris. " I really think they 

 were mother and chick. The old bird died " [first] " and the young one 

 died later of starvation." 



Mr. Murdoch readily complied with my request to be allowed to make 

 an examination of the bones which he had collected — viz., the femur, tibio- 

 tarsus, tarso-metatarsus, the back of the cranium, and two terminal 

 phalanges (or claw-bones). The leg-bones are in a good state of preserva- 

 tion, white and firm, through brittle at the ends ; but the cranium is much 

 weathered, and is less satisfactory for identification purposes. 



Measurements of the bones, and a comparison with named specimens 

 in this Museum, show that the Stewart Island bird is Euryafteryx {Emeus) 

 crassa, Owen, a species fairly common on the South Island, and very 

 closely allied to E. ponderosa, Hutton. Of the latter Hutton* writes (p. 638), 

 " The leg-bones differ from those of E. crassa more in thickness than in 

 length " ; and the figures given below agree very closely with those given 

 by him on page 650, loc. cit., and on page 132, Trans. N.Z. Inst., xxiv. But, 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., xxviii, 1895. 



