162 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



will have been modified by association and contact with the 

 higher civilisation, and the continuity of race will be assured. 

 The suggestions which have been briefly outlined here may 

 apj)ear of little moment in face of the fact that the native 

 race is slowly passing away ; but the cure has been pointed 

 out equally with the cause, and it remains for those who are 

 intrusted with the oversight of the native race in this country 

 to see whether the recommendations are worthy of considera- 

 tion and adoption before it is too late. 



Art. XI. — On the Poua and Other Extinct Birds of the 

 Chatham Islands. 



By Taylor White. 



[Read before the Hawkers Bay Philosophical InstittUe, 12th October, 



1896.] 



In this paper I will endeavour to prove that the large, mythi- 

 cal, and extinct bird the poua, traditionally spoken of by the 

 remaining survivors of the Moriori people who inhabit the Chat- 

 ham Islands, was not allied to the moa {Dinornithida) , but 

 was a species of swan, and belonged to the family Anatidce. Up 

 to this date I believe it is correct to state that no find of moa- 

 bones has been made at the Chathams, so we have no warrant 

 to assume that the poua was a moa. Some persons have sug- 

 gested that the fabulous bird of the southern Maori, the 

 pouakai, might be similar to, or of the same species as, the 

 poua, and it has been asserted that the former bird was a large 

 eagle or bird of prey. 



Assuming that the poua was a swan, its history might be 

 related thus : It was a large bird of aquatic habits, whose 

 favourite resort was the waters of Te Whanga (the harbour?), 

 a large sheet of water separated from the sea by a sand-bank. 

 Periodically this inland water gains a volume which causes it 

 to burst through the shingle-bank and connect itself with the 

 sea, until, by the shingle-bank being again cast up by the sea, 

 this brief connection is dissolved. This poua (or swan) con- 

 sumed great quantities of a plant which possibly was similar 

 to that which w^e name duck-weed, and which floated in great 

 profusion on the waters of this lagoon, and was called by the 

 Moriori, " koko " ("koko?" is the name given by Mr. H. O. 

 Forbes) . 



In the autumn season most, if not all, of the Anatidce 



