FEATHERED GIANTS 141 



idea of their size and structure, while chance 

 has even made it possible to know something 

 of their color and general appearance. This 

 chance was the discovery of a few specimens, 

 preserved in exceptionally dry caves on the 

 South Island, which not only had some of the 

 bones still united by ligaments, but patches of 

 skin clinging to the bones, and bearing numer- 

 ous feathers of a chestnut color tipped with 

 white. These small, straggling, rusty feathers 

 are not much to look at, but when we reflect 

 that they have been preserved for centuries 

 without any care whatever, while the buffalo 

 bugs have devoured our best Smyrna rugs in 

 spite of all possible precautions, our respect for 

 them increases. 



From the bones we learn that there were a 

 great many kinds of JNIoas, twenty at least, 

 ranging in size from those little larger than a 

 turkey to that giant among giants, Dinornis 

 maocimus, which stood at least ten feet high,* 



* The height of the Moas, and even of some species of 

 JEpyornis, is often stated to be twelve or fourteen feet, but such 

 a height can only be obtained by placing the skeleton in a wholly 

 unnatural attitude. 



