THE GIANT BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 661 



islands. These Luge extinct birds were, of course, among the first 

 subjects of investigation ; and soon a decided and very remarkable 

 difference of opinion appeared. It was known from the first that the 

 native inhabitants were accustomed to speak of these birds under the 

 designation of moa, the name that in the other islands of Polynesia, 

 from the Navigator group to Hawaii, was applied to the common 

 domestic fowl, which was not known in New Zealand. The first 

 inquirers, including Owen's missionary correspondents, had assumed, 

 as a matter of course, that the Dinornis had existed in very recent 

 times, and perhaps was not even yet extinct. But a class of skepti- 

 cal investigators arose, who took a very different view. The leader 

 of this school was Mr. (now Sir Julius) Haast, a distinguished geologist 

 and naturalist, the author of a valuable work on the " Geology of the 

 Provinces of Canterbury and Westland," and of many other treatises, 

 in which, admitting the coexistence of man and the moas at a very re- 

 mote period, answering to our prehistoric time — as man and the mam- 

 moth are known to have existed together in Europe — he denies that 

 the present race of Maoris had ever known those great birds. In his 

 view these creatures represented in New Zealand the gigantic quad- 

 rupeds which inhabited the northern hemisphere during the Post- 

 pliocene or Quaternary period. If any of them survived that epoch, 

 they had become extinct at an early day, and long before the ancestors 

 of the modern Maoris had found their way to New Zealand. 



Mr. Haast's view had in itself a certain plausibility, and it was 

 maintained by himself and his followers with much firmness against 

 many objectors, who brought forward a strong array of facts on the 

 opposite side. The controversy has at length drawn the attention of 

 one of the most eminent of European zoologists, Professor de Quatre- 

 fages. In an elaborate and very interesting paper on " Moas and 

 Moa-Hunters," which has recently appeared, he sums up the con- 

 troversy with judicial thoroughness, reviewing carefully all the pub- 

 lished data, from the time of Owen to the latest contribution to the 

 " Transactions of the New Zealand Institute," and comes to the con- 

 clusion that the earlier inquirers were right, and that Mr. Haast's view, 

 in the form in which he proposes it, can not be sustained.* Indeed, 

 the mere facts themselves, as they are set forth in this admirably lucid 

 exposition, are overwhelming in their force, while the scientific skill 

 with which they are marshalled, and the wealth of illustration which 

 enforces the conclusions, are such as might be expected from the 

 accomplished author. 



He shows that many eggs and fragments of eggs of the moas have 

 been discovered ; that many feathers belonging to different species of 

 these birds and to various parts of the body have been gathered in 

 different places ; and that even portions of the skeleton have been 

 found which had muscles, tendons, and pieces of skin still adhering, 

 * "Les Moas et les Chasseurs dc Moas," par M. A. de Quatrefages, pp. 43. 



