March 3, 1892] 



NATURE 



417 



the circumstances of the moment directed. In many 

 cases, again, only the pelvis and femora could be traced 

 /// situ, the vertebrtE and remaining leg-bones being in- 

 distinguishable in the general agglomeration. It seemed 

 evident that the birds had not died in an erect posture, 

 but more probably with their limbs bent under them or 

 in the same plane with the body. In some instances, 

 beneath the sternum were found, lying quite undisturbed, 

 the contents of the stomach, consisting of more or less 

 triturated grass mingled with crop-stones. The quantity 

 of these smoothed, rounded (chiefly white quartz)pebbles — 

 in size from about that of a bean to that of a plum — 

 mingled with the bones was enormous, and would, if col- 

 lected, have formed more than a cart-load. Except where 

 the bones were, there were no pebbles of any sort, no 

 small stones nor even sand, anywhere around. The 

 nearest place where pebbles of the same composition are 

 to be found is. I was informed, several miles distant. 



Four trenches, or pits, in all, were sunk. The dimen- 

 sions of the first, which was excavated entirely in peat, 

 did not exceed 3 feet square and 3A to 4 feet in depth. 

 When it was exhausted of its treasure, a second search 

 was made about 20 to 25 feet higher up the hollow. The 

 dimensions of this pit extended to about 7 feet square and 

 to the same depth as the first. Two more trenches, a few 

 feet apart, were dug at about 30 yards still further up the 

 depression. They were not so large as the other two, 

 but they extended down to about the same depth, 3^ to 4 

 feet, the bottom of both being (as it was in the second) a 

 bluish clay, with which, in the pit furthest up, was sparingly 

 mingled a small deposit of the finest silt. In the first pit 

 portions of both Cnemiornis and Hapagornis bones were 

 found in abundance, and remains of several hundreds of 

 moas of all ages. It was from the second pit, however, 

 that the largest deposit of moa bones was obtained, and 

 the most perfect specimen of food remains from beneath 

 a sternum. Here, also, numerous bones of the giant 

 buzzard and of the great extinct goose were exhumed, 

 and a cranium as large as, if not slightly larger than, that of 

 Cnemiornis, but of a species with complete bony orbits, 

 as in the Cape Barren goose, and indistinguishable from 

 Cercopsis. JBones from other parts of New Zealand, now 

 in my possession, which I hope shortly to describe, in- 

 dicate with certainty that several species of Cnemiornis 

 formerly existed in this colony. Some of these bones are 

 remarkable for their slender elegance, and indicate 

 species less in size and lighter in build than Cnaniornis 

 calcitrans. Among the bones so far examined, I have ob- 

 served no remains oiApiornis, of Ocydromiis, or of Notor- 

 nis ; but I possess an adult tibia of a rail smaller than 

 Po7phyrio melanotus, yet larger than any other existing 

 New Zealand species. The tarso-metatarsus of a species 

 oiAnas, about the size oi Anas Jiftschi, the metatarsus and 

 sternum of Apteryx Owetii, and crania of A. australis, are 

 among the bones recovered at Enfield, in addition to the 

 metatarsus of a Biziura, somewhat larger than Biziura 

 lobaia, the musk duck of Australia, an interesting species 

 for which I have proposed the name of Biziura dc Lau- 

 fouri, after the gentleman to whom I am indebted for the 

 acquisition of these bones. There are still other bones 

 which I have not yet been able to identify. The Dinornis 

 remains belong chiefly to the species clephantopus (of 

 unusually large proportions), to ingens, and to 7-heides. 

 Very fine specimens of pelves and sterna have been ob- 

 tained, with numerous crania more or less perfect. In 

 this second trench the excavation penetrated through the 

 peat into a bluish clay charged with water (which was, 

 indeed, reached in all the diggings at about 4 feet below 

 the surface), and into this clay the bones just protruded, 

 but no more. The osseous remains dug from the last 

 two holes belonged to the same species as those from the 

 others. Digging and probing the ground beyond the 

 boundaries of the trenches showed us that we 

 had exhausted their contents ; while the probing of 



NO. 1x66, VOL. 4.5] 



the ground in the neighbourhood for a consider- 

 able radius around, and in other peaty spots not far 

 off, failed to afford indications of other deposits. The 

 number of perfect femora of Di7iornis brought away 

 exceeded 600 ; a large number were so decomposed as to 

 fall to pieces in the handling ; while a great many others 

 disintegrated, after removal from the ground, on exposure 

 to the atmosphere. I believe I do not over-estimate,^ 

 therefore, in saying that from 800 to 900 moas at least 

 were entombed in this shallow hollow. So many moas 

 (leaving out of the reckoning the other species of birds) 

 could not by any possibility have found standing-room^ 

 however crowded together, in the entire area of the de- 

 pression. It would appear evident, therefore, that they 

 did not perish all at one time. To account for their 

 burial in such numbers in areas so circumscribed seems 

 to me at present impossible. That their bodies were 

 entire when they were deposited is clear, from the pre- 

 sence in such abundance of the crop-stones, from the 

 position of the bones, and from the finding of the intact 

 contents of the gizzard. No stream of any size could 

 find origin in the immediate neighbourhood, and no 

 stream which could have transported the entire carcasses 

 of birds of such huge proportions as Dinornis ingens or- 

 D. elephaiitopus could ever have occupied this ravine-head 

 without leaving traces of its action on the surface which 

 would be visible to-day, or without washing away the 

 very fine silt mixed with the clay on which the bones lie, 

 in the bottom of the most upland of our excavations. 

 None of the bones are waterworn. This little hollow 

 was, in the early days of its present proprietor, very wet 

 and boggy, and several springs have origin in it. If the 

 moas made this a highway from one part of the country 

 to another, it seems difficult to believe that birds so 

 powerful of limb, and standing at least 10 to 12 feet in 

 height, could stick fast in so shallow a bog ; and to conjec- 

 ture why eagles of powerful flight, slender rails, small 

 ducks, and comparatively light-footed kiwis also should 

 become ensnared. Driven by fire in the surrounding 

 bush — which may have covered the country then, for the 

 plough has, I am informed, brought to light the stools of 

 many large trees at no great distance, while logs of wood 

 were found among the bones— did they, in a struggle for 

 life in a narrow space, trample each other to death ? The 

 presence of the strong-winged Harpagornis in consider- 

 able numbers seems to militate against this explanation, 

 and no calcined bones have been discovered. An ex- 

 planation offered some years ago, to account for the 

 presence of a great number of moa and other bird bones 

 in a somewhat similar situation in the Hamilton swamp — 

 that during severe winters these birds congregated at the 

 springs rising warmer from below, and were overtaken 

 by a severe and fatal frost as they stood in the water- 

 appears unsatisfactory in the present case, as there are 

 numerous springs and equally boggy ground near at 

 hand, round which no remains can be found, and so 

 close to the sea such excessive frosts are now unknown. 

 That these were individuals who, during an excessive 

 drought, arrived at the springs too far exhausted to 

 revive — an occurrence common enough in Australia — 

 and that the water there was charged with poison, have 

 also been offered as explanations. But the permanence 

 of glacier rivers, highest in the hottest seasons, precludes 

 the idea of animals dying of thirst in this island, or at all 

 events in this locality so near to the great snow river 

 Waitaki. Poisoned water-holes or exhalations of car- 

 bonic acid might be a sufficient reason, yet in those 

 springs elsewhere where bones have been found chemical 

 analysis has failed to detect any substance harmful to life 

 in their waters at the present day. Not a single indica- 

 tion of human intervention was observed. No bones 

 were discovered which had been broken in their recent 

 state ; neither kitchen-middens, nor remains of ovens or 

 of native encampments, occur anywhere near the deposit. 



