46 NATURAL UIHTuny OF BIRDS. 



rciliiceJ to nici'o liairs, and tliey disappear entirely upon aVjout half the Bpecimen. 

 TliiTi' the papilhe are niueh smaller and are dislitielly separated from eaeh other. 



With the data furnished liy the skeletons and the other remains now in the differ- 

 ent museums, we are enabled to give a ])retly reliable pieture of these birds, whieh 

 jirobably became extinct before civilized men discovered their native land, siii'plying 

 the wantiii!^ details from their nearest allies amon;^ the living droma-ognathuiis birds. 

 They are described as re])reseutiug the general form of the cassowary, but upon a 

 much larger scale, particularly in regard to the hind extremities, while the anterior 

 ones Were still more abortive. Like the cassowary, they had the greater )iart of the 

 neck naked, but were destitute of the bony crest, in tiiis resjject resembling the emu. 

 Very i)rob.ibly the legs were nakeil, ;incl the body was covered witli silky ])lunies, in 

 which dai'ker or lighter ainl more or less reddish tints of lirown predomiiiateil, varie- 

 gated with black and white, at least in some sj)ecies. 



To Mr. John White, who devoted more than thirty-five years in collecting all 

 j)ossii)lc information from the Maori, the natives of Xew Zciland, and to various other 

 gentlemen (among them Sir George Grey), the scientific world is indebted for much 

 valuable information concerning the habits of these birds, derived from the folk-lores, 

 songs, and jiroverbs of the natives. Thus the Maori have a proverb, " as inert as a moa," 

 which indicates that these birds were sluggish and stujiid animals; and the following 

 life history has been drawn from similar sources. They were essentially sedentary, and 

 went about in i)airs, accompanied by their young. No doubt thej- st)metimes dis|)uted 

 the field on which they were seeking the same food, for the Maori still, in speaking of 

 a struggle between two pairs of combatants, say: "Two against two, like tlie moas." 

 Their nests were formed of various dried grasses and fragments of ferns, simjily 

 brought together in a heap. They ate various species of plants growing upon the 

 borders of the woods and marshes, the young shoots of certain shrubs, etc.; but their 

 principal food ajijiears to have been the root of a species of fern {Pteris escuknta), 

 which they dug up either with the be.ik or with the feet. To assist in the grinding of 

 the food swallowed, the moas, like many other birds, ate small ])ebblcs, which, when 

 rounded and polished Iiy friction in the stomach, and thus rendered unfit for further 

 service, they di.sgorged, just as do the ostrich and the emu. These "moa-stones" are 

 found in trreat numbers, often in small hea]>s near skeletons, in a ])osition indicating 

 the place of the gizzard, thus j)roving that the bird died on the .sjiot where the skeleton 

 is now found. 



Being the only large indigenous warm-blooded animal, the n)oa was. of course, 

 eagerly hunted by the Maori, although ^Ir. White writes that they were afraid of it. 

 as ;i kick from the foot of one would break the bones of the most powerful br.-ive ; 

 hence the ])eopIe made strong spears of maire, or manuka wood, six or eight feet 

 long, the sharp end of which was cut so that it might break and have six or eight 

 inches of the s|>ear in the bird. IJefore the chase, the hunters engaged in jirayers, 

 invoking the assistance of those s]>ii-its to whom they altrilmted the pi>wer of sending 

 good oi- ill t'orluiic, Mijiplicating, for instance, the "mist of the hills where the chase 

 was ti> take |ilace so to act that the fat of the birds may flow like the drops of dew 

 which falls from the leaves of the trees at the dawn of a summer day; or the god of 

 silence to keep the moas free from apprehension and fright." Some of the hunters 

 would then conceal themselves behind the scrub on the side of the track (many of 

 which are still visible, being about sixteen inches wide, and of a seemingly fresh 

 ap])earanee), while others drove them from the Lakes towards the ambush. " Here the 



