46 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



reduced to mere hairs, and they disappear entirely upon about half the specimen. 

 There the papillae are much smaller and are distinctly separated from each other. 



With the data furnished by the skeletons and the other remains now in the differ- 

 ent museums, we are enabled to give a pretty reliable picture of these birds, which 

 probably became extinct before civilized men discovered their native land, supplying 

 the wanting details from their nearest allies among the living dromagognathous birds. 

 They are described as representing the general form of the cassowary, but upon a 

 much larger scale, particularly in regard to the hind extremities, while the anterior 

 ones were still more abortive. Like the cassowary, they had the greater part of the 

 neck naked, but were destitute of the bony crest, in this respect resembling the emu. 

 Very probably the legs were naked, and the body was covered with silky plumes, in 

 which darker or lighter and more or less reddish tints of brown predominated, varie- 

 gated with black and white, at least in some species. 



To Mr. John White, who devoted more than thirty-five years in collecting all 

 possible information from the Maori, the natives of New Zealand, and to various other 

 gentlemen (among them Sir George Grey), the scientific world is indebted for much 

 valuable information concerning the habits of these birds, derived from the folk-lores, 

 songs, and proverbs of the natives. Thus the Maori have a proverb, " as inert as a moa," 

 which indicates that these birds were sluggish and stupid animals ; and the following 

 life history has been drawn from similar sources. They were essentially sedentary, and 

 went about in pairs, accompanied by their young. No doubt they sometimes disputed 

 the field on which they were seeking the same food, for the Maori still, in speaking of 

 a struggle between two pairs of combatants, say : " Two against two, like the moas." 

 Their nests were formed of various dried grasses and fragments of ferns, simply 

 brought together in a heap. They ate various species of plants growing upon the 

 borders of the woods and marshes, the young shoots of certain shrubs, etc. ; but their 

 principal food appears to have been the root of a species of fern (Pteris esculenta), 

 which they dug up either with the beak or with the feet. To assist in the grinding of 

 the food swallowed, the moas, like many other birds, ate small pebbles, which, when 

 rounded and polished by friction in the stomach, and thus rendered unfit for further 

 service, they disgorged, just as do the ostrich and the emu. These "moa-stones" are 

 found in great numbers, often in small heaps near skeletons, in a position indicating 

 the place of the gizzard, thus proving that the bird died on the spot where the skeleton 

 is now found. 



Being the only large indigenous warm-blooded animal, the moa was, of course, 

 eagerly hunted by the Maori, although Mr. White writes that they were afraid of it, 

 as a kick from the foot of one would break the bones of the most powerful brave ; 

 hence the people made strong spears of maire, or manuka wood, six or eight feet 

 long, the sharp end of which was cut so that it might break and leave six or eight 

 inches of the spear in the bird. Before the chase, the hunters engaged in prayers, 

 invoking the assistance of those spirits to whom they attributed the power of sending 

 good or ill fortune, supplicating, for instance, the " mist of the hills where the chase 

 was to take place so to act that the fat of the birds may flow like the drops of dew 

 which falls from the leaves of the trees at the dawn of a summer day ; or the god of 

 silence to keep the moas free from apprehension and fright." Some of the hunters 

 would then conceal themselves behind the scrub on the side of the track (many of 

 which are still visible, being about sixteen inches wide, and of a seemingly fresh 

 appearance), while others drove them from the lakes towards the ambush. " Here the 



