662 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



with some feathers, all in a remarkable state of preservation. Nor 

 were these preserved in ice, like the Siberian mammoth ; they had 

 simply been dried in the sand, and the bones had not been in the 

 slightest degree mineralized. Further, the traditions of the natives 

 about these birds are perfectly clear. They describe their size, their 

 shape, their habits, and the manner in which they were hunted. The 

 native proverbs refer to them. It was the habit of the male and 

 female of these birds to go constantly together, and the Maoris speak 

 of fighting " two against two, like the moas.' 2 They had a particular 

 kind of obsidian knife, which they used in cutting up these birds at 

 their feasts. The prayers or incantations which they were accustomed 

 to recite before setting out on a moa-hunt are still remembered. 

 Such a hunt was a serious undertaking, for the monstrous game could 

 crush a man with one blow of the foot. The very paths which were 

 made by the birds through the mountain thickets, and beside which 

 the hunters were accustomed to lie in wait for them, can still be 

 plainly traced. Furthermore, Mr. J. W. Hamilton published, in 1875, 

 in the "Transactions of the New Zealand Institute," his notes of a 

 conversation held in 1844 with an aged Maori, who, as he remembered 

 Cook, must have been then more than seventy-five years old. He had 

 seen a moa, and described it with all the minute precision of personal 

 knowledge. Finally, if these statements should be questioned, we 

 have the decisive fact that the remains of the great feasts of the 

 natives, which have been found in several places, show the bones of 

 the moa mingled with those of the native dog. Now, the New Zea- 

 land dog is the Polynesian variety, used only for food ; and the 

 traditions of the natives are quite clear as to the fact that their 

 ancestors, when they came to the country some four or five centuries 

 ago, brought the dog with them. 



M. de Quatrefages shows, however, that Mr. Haast's opinions 

 have some foundation, though not precisely in the sense intended by 

 him. Of the eleven species of moa, one, and this the largest of all, 

 the Dinornis giganteus, seems to have been extinct before the advent 

 of the Maoris. At least this is the inference which may be drawn 

 from the fact that none of the bones of this species have been found 

 among the remains of their feasts. Of the next in size, the Dinornis 

 robustus, which was but slightly less in stature, the remains have only 

 once been found in this position ; and those of the huge Palapteryx 

 ingens have been thus discovered in only three instances. It would 

 seem, therefore, that the largest of these creatures were either extinct 

 or dying out when man appeared on the scene ; but this appearance, 

 it must be remembered, was a very recent event. The result is, that 

 Mr. Haast's view can only be sustained by reforming his geologic 

 chronology, or rather nomenclature — at least, for New Zealand — and 

 bringing the Post-pliocene era down to our own times. And this con- 

 clusion suggests a consideration of much larger import. If so good a 



