276 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



bottom. Thei'e were a large number of bones that bad been 

 broken and healed. " A disease of the foot appeared to have 

 been very prevalent amongst them, as a great number of the joints 

 presented unmistakable indications of rot, so much so that some 

 of the toe-joints had even grown together." 



There wei'e no bones of young birds near the top, and no 

 fragments of eggs were found anywhere in the deposit, although 

 careful search was made for them. 



After stating these and other facts Mr. Booth goes on to dis- 

 cuss the different theories to account for this wonderful accumu- 

 lation of bones. He shows that they could not have been 

 deposited by running water, neither could the Moas have been 

 surrounded and driven in there in such great numbers bj r sweeping 

 fires ; the birds could not have been bogged, certainly not the 

 later ones, with two or three feet of solid bones under them. And 

 tbat the bones were not thrown there by savages seems proven 

 by the fact that not a trace of their work could be found, not a 

 hacked or scratched bone, nor an implement or trinket of any 

 kind. 



Mr. Booth thinks that a true explanation of the deposit 

 explains the extinction of the Moa, at least in that section, and 

 that that time was much earlier than the date generally accepted, 

 and was caused by the gradual lowering of the temperature until 

 the warmth of the earth and air was not sufficient to hatch the 

 eggs of these birds, from which time they gradually declined, 

 until they finally all disappeared. " When the frost and snow of 

 winter began to set in, though far milder than now, it would have 

 distressed the Moa, as, on account of its great size, it could not 

 find shelter like smaller birds; hence it would select places where 

 it found the most warmth." 



The spring-water in the bone-pit, being of the same tempera- 

 ture as the earth, and far above freezing-point (in fact, it may 

 have been a thermal spring), when all round the bird could not 

 put down his foot without being bitten with frost, or without 

 placing it in snow and ice, what would be more natural for them 

 than to step into this comparatively warm w r ater, which to some 

 extent would relieve their suffering from cold in their lower 

 extremities ? Thus, the period when frost and snow began to set 

 in, I place as the commencement of the deposit of bones in this 

 pit. The accumulation would have been very gradual, perhaps 



