FEATHERED GIANTS 139 
earth — flourished thousands upon thousands 
of years ago. As for birds, some of the giants 
‘among them are still living, some existed long | 
geologic periods ago, and a few have so re- 
cently vanished from the scene that their 
memory still lingers amid the haze of tradition. 
The best known among these, as well as the 
most recent in point of time, are the Moas of 
New Zealand, first brought to notice by the 
Rev.. W. Colenso, later on Bishop of New 
Zealand, one of the many missionaries to 
whom Science is under obligations. Early in 
1838, Bishop Colenso, while on a missionary 
| visit to the East Cape region, heard from the 
natives of Waiapu tales of a monstrous bird, 
called Moa, having the head of a man, that 
inhabited the mountain-side some eighty miles 
away. ‘This mighty bird, the last of his race, 
was said to be attended by two equally huge 
lizards that kept guard while he slept, and on 
the approach of man wakened the Moa, who 
‘immediately rushed upon the intruders and 
trampled them to death. None of the Maoris 
_had seen this bird, but they had seen and 
_ somewhat irreverently used for making parts 
