668 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



one leg and striking forward with the other, Sir W. Buller said 

 that this was the practice of all the struthious birds ; and his 

 words were corroborated last February by Mr. Bramley, the 

 former curator of the Botanical Gardens at Wellington, who 

 told me that he had had his clothes thus torn by a cassowary, 

 which was formerly in the Gardens, when it was being shipped 

 away ; but how should a Maori have known of this practice 

 unless acquainted with the bird? There is also a corre- 

 spondence between the Maori and European statements as to 

 the general colour of the bird, and the hairlike appearance of 

 its plumage, and an agreement, in both cases, with that of 

 cassowaries, which could hardly have arisen except from the 

 narrators having really seen the birds which they professed to 

 describe. 



I think it would be well if some member of the Westland 

 branch of the New Zealand Institute would take the trouble 

 to collect the various notices which have been printed from 

 time to time respecting moas being seen on the west coast of 

 the South Island, and any other information on the subject 

 that can now be obtained there ; as the subject is an interest- 

 ing one, though, perhaps, not of any practical value. 



Art. LXVII. — Note on a Curious Maori Flute in the Col- 

 lection of the late Dr. Shortland. 



By Sir Walter L. Buller, K.C.M.G., F.K.S. 



{Read before the Wellington PJiilosophical Society, 21st February, 



1894.2 



N the collection of Maori things left by the late Dr. Short- 

 land, and now in the possession of Mr. John D. Enys, of 

 Penryn, Cornwall, there is an interesting Maori flute of a kind 

 I have not before seen. It is, so far as I can judge, made out 

 of a very straight branch of tupakihi (Coriaria sarmentosa), the 

 pith of which has been removed to form the hollow^ the open- 

 ing at the top being ingeniously closed by letting in a piece of 

 soft wood. It is of the colour of well-seasoned oak, and mea- 

 sures 22-5in. in length, with a maximum width of l-5in. As 

 might have been expected, it is elaborately carved in its entire 

 length. At the top there is a double-faced Maori head with 

 well-marked tiivhana, and with a pair of _pawa-shell eyes so 

 placed as to suit either face. From the open mouth of this 

 uncouth head proceeds the stem of the flute, artistically 

 bounded by a festooned edging in relief, intended, no doubt, to 

 represent the human lips. Halfway down, or about the middle 



