the Eggs of the Moa. 193 



impression of having been mended. In shape it is a long 

 oval, not pointed. It is not mentioned in the printed 

 Catalogues of the College. This egg belongs to the so-called 

 Mantell's "models" (see below), about which Sir Walter 

 Buller says : — " Mantell's so-called c models' were ingenious 

 reconstructions from fragments of shell, sorted out and put 

 together with infinite labour. The late Mr. Walter Mantell 

 informed me that the best and most perfect of these — one of 

 an ivory-white appearance — was given away by him, many 

 years ago, to some friend in England, and in recent years he 

 had been unable to trace it. There are several of these 

 'models ' (all more or less imperfect) in the possession of 

 Mr. Mantell's son in Wellington. Mr. Walter Mantell 

 made large collections of Moa bones and fragments of eg"- 

 shells at Waingongoro in the North Island and at Wai- 

 kouaiti in the South Island, between the years 1848 and 

 1856." This agrees well with W. B. D. Mantell's own 

 description (Tr. Pr. N.Z. Inst. v. p. 96, 1872):— "The 

 fragments of egg-shells from these umus * varied in size 

 from less than a quarter of an inch of greatest diameter to 

 three or four inches. These, after careful washing, I had 

 sorted, and having, with some patience, found the fragments 

 which had been originally broken from each other and fitted 

 together, I succeeded in restoring at least a dozen eggs to an 

 extent sufficient to shew their size and outline. Six or 

 seven of the best of these I gave to the British Museum f 

 after their purchase of the collection; one is in the Museum 

 of the College of Surgeons ; the rest, including one very 

 beautiful egg with a polished ivory-like surface, are still in my 

 ownership somewhere in England. Some idea of the labour 

 entailed by this attempt to rehabilitate eggs may be gathered 

 from the fact that several of those restored consisted of 



* " The bones and egg-shells of Dinornis and its kindred, mixed with 

 remains of every available varietj of bird, beast, and fish used as food by 

 the aborigines, being' all in and around the umus (or native ovens) in 

 which they had been cooked.'' 



t As we shall presently see, sub No. 10, the British Museum now 

 contains only three. 



SEll. VIII. — VOL. III. O 



