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 Moas, twenty at least, 
ranging in size from those little larger than a 
turkey to that giant among giants, Dinornis 
_ maximus, which stood at least ten feet high,* 
* The height of the Moas, and even of some species of 
| pyornis, 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. 
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