42 NEORNITHES RATITAE chap. 



its surface, some in marshes and superficial deposits generally, 

 and others in caves, hollows of rocks, or cooking places of the 

 former inhabitants. Footprints have been observed in the sand- 

 stone ; portions of muscles, ligaments, and even of skin have been 

 discovered ; and, most remarkable of all, feathers have been met 

 with of fresh appearance and unfaded colours. Pebl^les used to aid 

 digestion, and eggs, both whole and fragmentary, complete the list. 



Moas had comparatively small heads, and also small orbits and 

 eyes ; the bill varied, as will be seen below ; the legs were stout, 

 though not always equally so, a hallux being usually present ; 

 the w"ings were extremely reduced, or even wanting ; the furcula 

 was absent, and the aftershaft of the larger feathers was of great 

 size. The neck is supposed to have been partially l^are, while 

 the webs of the rounded feathers were disunited and more or less 

 downy below. Some of the latter were black, with red-lirown 

 bases and white tips, others were blackish-brown or yellov/ish. 



Professor Parker, in his recent memoir,^ proposes three Sub- 

 families, Dinornithinae, Anomalopteryginae, and Emeinae ; 3IegaI- 

 apteryx, which lie omits, possibly representing a fourth. The 

 first of these contains only one genus, Dinornis, with wide convex 

 sternum, comparatively slender limbs, broad skull, and long, wide, 

 deflected beak ; the height of D. maximas, the largest of the whole 

 group, being estimated at about twelve feet. The second Sub-family 

 comprises three genera, Pachyornis, IfesojJteryx, and Anomalopteryx, 

 forms of small or moderate height and varying bulk, with less 

 broad skulls and pointed beaks, tlie sternum ranging from long and 

 narrow to wide and flat. The third possesses a single genus, Umeus, 

 in which the limbs are heavy, the strongly-built skull is narrow, 

 and the beak short and broad. Pachyornis elephantopus has extra- 

 ordinarily stout, short legs, while Anomalopteryx parva, perhaps 

 the smallest Moa known, is said to have been about the size of 

 a turkey. The validity of some genera and species is, however, 

 questionable. Most writers think that the female w\as larger 

 than the male. Mr. De Vis has described a fossil femur from 

 Queenslaud as D. qiieenslandiae^ but it may belong to the Dro- 

 maeidae. According to native testimony the habits were sluggish, 

 but the birds were dangerous to approach ; they lived in pairs and 

 fed upon green shoots and roots of ferns, making a nest of a pile 



J Tr. Zool. S'oc. London, xiii. 1895, pp. 373-431. 

 - P. Soc. Queensland, i. 1885, pp. 23-28. 



