,8,,. THE HISTORY OF THE MO AS. 591 



with these bone-deposits at Hamilton and Glenmark. One is the 

 very large proportion of bones of young birds from one-half to three- 

 quarters grown ; and the other is the absence of Moa egg-shell. 

 These two facts seem to show that the birds perished in the autumn 

 or winter, when the birds of the year were not full grown, and when 

 the females did not contain any hardened eggs. Also, it is evident 

 that dead Moas could not be washed into swamps under the present 

 climatic conditions, and the explanation of the puzzle must lie in the 

 fact that in Pleistocene times, when these bone-deposits were formed, 

 the climate was very different from what it is now. At that time the 

 eccentricity of the earth's orbit was very great, and when winter in 

 the Southern Hemisphere happened in aphelion, long cold winters 

 were followed by short and very hot summers. It seems probable, 

 therefore, that the early winter snows killed large numbers of Moas 

 and other birds on the hills, that their bodies were floated down by 

 summer floods and avalanches caused by the melting snow, and that 

 they were deposited in hollows at the foot of the hills. As the 

 Pleistocene period passed away the climate got more equable and 

 the surviving Moas once more increased and multiplied, until they 

 were ultimately exterminated by the hand of man. 



All are now agreed that the Moas were exterminated by the 

 ancestors of the Maoris, and the only question upon which opinion is 

 still divided is, How long was this ago ? The case seems to me to 

 stand thus. In the North Island there are several names of places 

 in which the word Moa is incorporated, but in the great number of 

 Maori tales and poems which have been collected by Europeans the 

 allusions to the bird are very slight and obscure, generally, indeed, 

 fabulous. There is also one very ancient poem called " The Lament 

 of Ikaherengatu," in which the phrase " Ka ngaro i te ngaro a te 

 moa " (Lost as the Moa is lost) occurs, which certainly shows that 

 the bird was not in existence when the poem was composed. The 

 so-called traditions of its habits appear to be, in large part at least, 

 late deductions from these words and phrases, and we must conclude 

 that, in the North Island, the Moa was exterminated by the Maoris 

 soon after their arrival in New Zealand ; that is, not less than 400 or 

 500 years ago. ^ 



In the South Island there are no names of places containing the 

 word Moa ; but here remains have been found — either skeletons 

 lying on the surface or bones with skin and ligaments still attached — 

 which give the impression that the birds were living here not more 

 than ten or twelve years ago. Now the bones which are said to have 

 strewn the surface so abundantly when the first settlers came, had all 

 disappeared in fifteen years ; so it is plain that either some change in 

 the surrounding conditions caused the bones to decay, or that none 

 of the bones which were so abundant in 1861 were more than fifteen 

 years old. But as we cannot believe that Moas were abundant in 

 Otago in 1846, we must fall back on the opinion that the fires lighted 



