NATURAL HISTORY NOTES IN NEW ZEALAND. 178 
where I resided, but the birds to which they belonged must have 
been extinct for untold generations—long before the country was 
clothed in the dense vegetation of the present era, otherwise it 
would have been a clever bird, so huge and wingless, to fight its way 
through the tangled forests. That the Moa lived within the scope 
of the traditions of the Maori would at first appear probable, as they 
have references in native song to the “lost Moa bird.” Unfortunately 
they refer to the wing of the bird being broken by a spear-thrust 
from one of their ancestors. But no wing-bone of the Moa has ever 
been found so that their tradition is exploded. Sir Julius Von 
Haaste has concluded that no human eye ever saw the remarkable 
biped of New Zealand in post-glacial times. In 1898, a miner named 
Coad, whilst working a dredge in Otago, secured a moa’s egg, with- 
out a crack or a scratch. He was offered and refused £75 for the 
specimen which measured 73 inches x 53 inches. 
A bird of the Rallide family, called by the natives Moho and 
scientifically known as ‘“ NororNIs MANTELLI,” was, even by Sir 
Walter Buller, thought to be extinct. But about seven or eight 
years ago a beautiful specimen was captured on the West coast of the 
South Island. Ata great price it was secured by the Government, 
and is now preserved in one of the National Museums. In appear- 
ance it is like a gigantic coot. In the impenetrable fastnesses of the 
West Coast swamps and bush it is thought likely that other specimens 
of Norornis still survive. 
Other species of Rallide which still exist are given by Buller 
to the number of ten. Of these, one can only look upon the three 
wekas or wood-hens as varieties, but, singular to relate, the North 
Island and the South Island—separated by about 12 miles of water 
—present varieties of several birds, which, differing very slightly, 
are classed by scientists as different species. Buller gives three species : 
OcypomMus EARLI - - North Island Weka. 
O. AUSTRALIS - South Island Weka. 
O. FUSsCUS - Black Weka. 
