ROOM IT. RETROSPECTIVE SUMMARY. 131 



their ancestors a long while ago. Upon excavating some 

 of these hillocks, they were found to be made up of ashes 

 and calcined bones of men, dogs, and large moas, indiscrimi- 

 nately mingled. 



In Case 15, there are fragments of a human clavicle, ra- 

 dius, and some phalangeal bones ; lower jaw, teeth, and other 

 bones of dogs ; and some pieces of moa-bones. These relics, 

 which have manifestly been subjected to the action of fire, 

 contained no traces whatever of the earthy powder or ferru- 

 ginous impregnation, so constant in the fossil bones from the 

 fluviatile deposits ; nor of the menaccanite with which all the 

 bones from the sand-beds are more or less permeated. 



My son, in proof that the birds' remains as well as those 

 of men and dogs, had been exposed to great heat whilst 

 recent, sent me portions of egg-shells charred and bent 

 inwards. 



The Rev. J. Taylor mentions having opened similar heaps 

 of bones and ashes in the valley of the Wanganui, and he 

 describes their appearance " as though the flesh of the birds 

 had been eaten, and the bones thrown indiscriminately 

 together." If such was the origin of these heaps, and they 

 are to be regarded as the rejectamenta of the feasts of 

 the Aborigines, cannibalism must have prevailed among the 

 New Zealanders at a very remote period, and ere the gigantic 

 species of Moas were extinct. The practice was doubtless 

 then, as in modern times, connected with superstitious rites, 

 and did not originate from the want of animal food, as some 

 authors have suggested in extenuation of the horrid prac- 

 tice by so intelligent a race as the Maoris. 



RETROSPECTIVE SUMMARY. From the facts which have been 

 brought under our consideration in the course of this exami- 

 nation of the fossil remains of Birds from our Antipodean 

 Colony, contained in the British Museum, we are led to con- 

 clude that at a period geologically recent, but of immense 

 antiquity in relation to the human inhabitants of those 

 islands, New Zealand was densely peopled by tribes of co- 

 lossal brevipennate birds, belonging to species and genera 

 that have long since become extinct. I believe that ages 

 ere the advent of the Maori tribes, the Moa and its kindred 

 were the chief inhabitants of the country; and that from 

 the period when those islands were taken possession of by 



