jEPlORNirilES. 47 



spears were tlirowii at tliciii, ami the siTul) on the s'uk's of the track Wdnlil catch the 

 spears ami l)r(.'ak tiic jagged cml oi'f, leaving it in the binl. As it had to pass many 

 men, the broken speai-points caused it to yield in power when it had gained the ojjeii 

 fern-country, where it was attacked in its feeble condition by the inost daring of the 

 tribe." The killed bird was cut up with a knife of obsidian, made for tliat exclusive 

 use, and which only served a single time. " What wihl, weird scenes," exclaims 

 Russell, " those deep valleys of the southern Alps must have witnessed, wlien, after 

 tlie successful hunt, the natives gathered about their camp-fires, that lit up their dark 

 tattooed faces, and shone on the strange vegetation around, to feast on the Hesh of moa, 

 or partake of its liuge eggs, roasted on the hot stones of the oven!" 



It will be perceived from many of the facts related above that the extermination 

 of the giant-birds of New Zealand cannot have taken place at a very distant period. 

 Dr. Ilaast, on tiie contrary, has taken the position that the moas were extiin't before 

 the immigration of the ^laori race, which now inhabits tiie islands, occurred, and that 

 these luige birds had been exterminated by an aboriginal ]ieo])le which he calls the 

 "moa-hiinters." This theory has been successfully op])osed by Mantell, Dr. Hector, 

 Ilochstetter, and esj)ecially by iVIr. A. de Qualrefages, from whose interesting memoir 

 (1883) much of the above has been borrowed. We may perhaps not be pre])ared to 

 accept as fully trustworthy the testimony of Ilauinataugi, the old Maori, who in 1844 

 related tiiat during liis childhood he had seen living moa.s, a statement which would 

 bring the year of extinction down to about 1770 or 1780 ; still we cannot doubt that 

 the extinction took j)lace at a comparatively recent date, as it is otherwise imiiossible 

 to account for the discovery of remains of soft tissue in such a condition that tlie 

 muscles could still be dissected; especially if we remember that the climate of New 

 Zealand is mild and moist, conditions favorable to a sjieedy dissolution of the car- 

 casses. We may finally record the view of a man who, more than anybody else, has 

 a right to lie heard in this question, viz., Professor IJichard Owen. As late as 1882 he 

 expresses the opinion that "in the remote, well-woodetl, and sjiarsely jiopidated dis- 

 tricts of tlie southern division of New Zealand, a recovery of a still-existing specimen 

 of moa might be less unlikely than that of the Sbtoruis, also originally recognized by 

 fossil remains." 



Order II. — /EPIOUNITIIES. 



Eleven years after the discovery of Dinornis had been announced by Owen in 

 England, some few remains of a not less gigantic bird from Madagascar reached the 

 museum at Paris, and two days after, on the 27th of January, 1851, Isidore (Jeoffrey- 

 Saint-IIilaire read before the Parisian Academy of Sciences a paper, in which In- 

 described two enormous eggs and jiart of the metatarsus of a bird which he called 

 yEpiornis nuwimiis, meaning "the bird big as a mountain." 



This brought again to mind the old story of the famous Venetian tr.iveler, Marco 

 Polo, who located the rue or roc, the giant bird of the Arabian tales, u|ii>ii !Madagas- 

 car, and related that the Great Khan of the Tartars, having heard of the bird, sent 

 messengers to Madaga.scar, who brought back a feather nine spans long, and two palms 

 in circumfi'rencc, at which Ilis Majesty expressed his unfeigneil delight. Thi.s, like so 

 many others of his strange tales, had been regarded as a fal)le, but now there were 

 enougli of believers who were satisfied that the egg of the rue hafl been found ; for 

 the eggs exhibited measured nearly 34 inches in circumference, and would hold 

 more than two gallons: in other words, had a capacity of nearly 150 hen's eggs. 



