562 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



piercing eyes (rather large ones), a small beak, having from each side 

 red comb, with a very small crest of a comb on the centre of tlie head ; 

 altogether, I should say, in height 12ft. Being only about 100ft. from 

 him, and looking down, as he was below us and therefore foreshortened, 

 he stood still looking at us, as if surprised. My mate said, ' We must 

 have a slap at him, and we will fire together. Are you ready? ' ' Yes.' 

 ' Then let fly ! ' The bird took to his heels towards the end of his 

 pleasure-grounds — the grass -plat — dived down, and entered an open 

 clearance in a thick mass of bushes, no doubt his place of roost. We 

 did all we could to get near him, but the scrub, bushes, and other 

 impediments hindered us so that we had to give it up." From what Mr. 

 Clark says further on, the natives regarded the bird as very uncommon. 

 In conclusion, I may say I feel sure we are very far from knowing all 

 the wonders of this magnificent country yet, and there is a splendid 

 opening for the bold explorer, as I believe other animals exist that are 

 at present unknown to us. I am, &c., 



Mount Eoskill. Fred. A. G. Cotterell. 



Mr. Clark's statement would give a date for the existence 

 of the bird corresponding with that mentioned by Mr. Eees, 

 and with that which all the old Maoris hereabouts always 

 named, as that of the extermination of the moas in this part 

 of the colony. 



Mr. William Stanley, formerly of Motueka, tells me that, 

 when his family went to reside at that place, there were so 

 many moa-boues in the caves thereabouts that it seemed as 

 if each cave must have been occupied by several birds, either 

 at the same time or in succession, but that, in a few years, 

 these bones all decayed and crumbled away. This would be 

 between the years 1840 and 1850 ; so that the moas had 

 apparently existed in that part of the colony certainly during 

 the present century. 



Mr. Alexander Murray, of Wanganui, states that he came 

 to Wellington in 1841, being at that time a lad of about sixteen 

 years of age. In September, 1812, he and his father were 

 sawing timber for Mr. Gollan, in a gully on the eastern side of 

 Wellington Harbour. There were a number of men (probably 

 twenty or thirty) so engaged, and they lived, some in tents 

 and some in huts, close to where they were working. Early 

 one morning all hands were aroused by a loud roaring cry, 

 evidently close at hand, and some of them turned out to try 

 and ascertain its cause. It was too dark to see anything, but 

 they heard some large object moving off through the bush. 

 When the Maoris were informed of the circumstance they said 

 that the cry must have proceeded from a moa, which they 

 described as a large bird, far taller than a man, and that 

 it had, no doubt, been alarmed by the camp-fire. Mr. Murray 

 says that this was the first time that he ever heard of the 

 existence of such a bird. 



During the discussion on Captain Mair's paper, Mr. Mas- 

 kell spoke of the immense number of moa-bones scattered on 

 the surface of the ground in the South Island when the 



