576 MOA 



generally accepted in that sense. The earliest published notice of 

 the Moa seems to be that of Polack, whose New Zealand, a narrative 

 of his travels and adventures in that country ' between 1831 and 

 1837, appeared in 1838, the preface to the work being dated from 

 London in the month of July of that year. Herein he observes 

 (i. p. 303) " that a species of the emu, or a bird of the genus 

 Struthio, formerly existed in the latter [North] island I feel well 

 assured, as several fossil ossifications Avere shewn to me when I was 

 residing in the vicinity of the East Cape, said to have been found 

 at the base of the inland mountain of Ikorangi " ; stating also that 

 "the natives added that, in times long past they received the 

 tradition, that very large birds had existed, but the scarcity of 

 animal food, as well as the easy method of entrapping them, had 

 caused their extermination." ^ In another passage Polack •\\Tites 

 (i. p. 345), " Petrifactions of the bones of large birds supposed to 

 be wholly extinct, have often been presented to me by the natives." 

 And again (i. p. 346), "Many of the petrifactions had been the 

 ossified parts of birds, that are at present (as far as is known) extinct 

 in these islands, whose probable tameness, or want of volitary powers, 

 caused them to be early extirpated by a people, driven by both hunger 

 and superstition (either reason is quite sufficient in its way) to rid 

 themselves of their presence." 



There can be little doubt that the first Moa-bone seen in Europe 

 was the shaft of a femur brought by Mr. Kule to Sir Eichard Owen, 

 who exhibited it to the Zoological Society on the 12th of November 

 1839 ; but, though indicating its Struthious affinities, neither in the 

 abstract of the memoir he read {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1839, pp. 169-171), 

 nor in the memoir itself as published in 1842, Avhen the fragment 

 was beautifully lithographed by Mr. Scharf {Trans. Zool. Soc. iii. pp. 

 29-32, pi. 3), was any scientific name assigned to the bird of which it 

 had formed part. At two meetings of the same Society in January 

 1843, Sir Richard having received further information from Messrs. 

 Cotton and Williams, well-known missionaries in New Zealand, 

 returned to the subject and exhibited various bones transmitted by 

 the latter to Buckland, proposing for the bird to Avhich they belonged 

 the name of Megalornis novce-zealanclise ; though, finding this generic 

 name to have been already used in another sense, that of Dinornis 



^ The amount of traditional evidence as to Moas which has come down to 

 modern times has been variously stated by different investigators, and some of it 

 is not unlikely to have been supplied to meet the demands of zealous enquirers. 

 Still none can doubt that there is enough to prove the survival of the birds until 

 after the country was peopled by man, and the legends describing them contain 

 little that can be deemed fabulous. Nevertheless all are agreed that one of the 

 most ancient of the Maori poems contains a saying which may be rendered " Lost 

 as the Moa is lost, " shewing that its extirpation was accomplished when that 

 composition was made. 



