4524 THE ZooLocist—JULY, 1875. 
our huge birds did not look with a favourable eye upon the food, 
used almost exclusively by their successors, supposing that they 
could have easily collected it. However, I may here observe that 
near the oven in question a few valves of our common fresh-water 
mussel (Unio aucklandicus) were obtained, which must have been 
brought by the moa hunters into the cave. 
For the next few days we continued to excavate towards the end 
of the main cave, where, near the entrance to the small middle 
chamber, the marine sands sometimes reached the surface, Euro- 
pean, Maori, and moa-hunter remains being here occasionally mixed 
with each other, trodden down into the sands by men or cattle. In 
a few more protected spots, ash and dirt beds, to a thickness of 
several inches, remained undisturbed above these sands. Advancing 
from the entrance to the middle chamber towards the big fragment 
of rock previously mentioned as having fallen from the roof, which 
is six feet broad by twelve feet long and ten feet high, and forms 
a remarkable feature in the cave, the artificial deposits soon became 
more considerable and full of interest. Close to the rock, on its 
southern side, they reached a thickness of nearly three feet, con- 
sisting of— 
ft. in. 
1. Beds of European occupation (cow-dung) — - - - = (24 
2. Shell beds (Maori) - - . - - - - 010 
3. Dirt and ash beds, with tussocks (flax) - - : - - 0 4 
4. Shell beds - . - - - - - - - 0 9 
5. Lower series, dirt and ash beds - - : - - = "5 
6. Agglomerate bed, peas gradually again to ash bed upon the 
sands - - - - - - - - ot eQeey 
7. Marine sands as far asexcavated- -~— - - ee a is. 
5 11 
In the lowest beds, partly imbedded in the sands, we obtained a 
great number of moa bones, belonging at least to six specimens, of 
which four were well represented—namely, three specimens of 
Meionornis didiformis, of which two were immature birds, and one 
specimen of Euryapteryx rheides, also not yet full grown. 
Advancing towards the huge rock previously alluded to, I ob- 
served that one portion of its unequal under surface stood above 
the sands, thus leaving a space below, from which we took a number 
of things,—amongst them a fine and perfect pelvis, and several leg 
bones of an immature specimen of Meionornis didiformis, some 
— ~~ 
