278 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



from cold snow-storms as from sweeping fires, and would have 

 been much more likely to have reached such shelter. " Notwith- 

 standing, they perished in clusters. This occurring periodically, 

 perhaps for many years, would naturally account for the many 

 distinct skeleton heaps found by the Doctor in that place." 



Many, many pages have been written in relation to the time 

 when the Moa became extinct. That it was contemporary with 

 man, and owes its final extinction to him, is a fact accepted by 

 all, but whether the old Moa hunters were the ancestors of the 

 present New Zealanders, or, if not, whether the ancestors of the 

 Maories hunted the Moa at all, or inhabited the islands before the 

 Moas were all gone, is still a disputed question, with competent 

 observers on each side. 



As bearing on the time when the Moa became extinct in that 

 part of the South Island, we quote again from Mr. Booth's 

 paper : — " I find below a certain level that would leave the whole 

 Maniototo Plains under water ; there are no Moa bones to be 

 found, with the exception of about the mouths of the burns 

 coming in from the hills, where the bones have been brought 



clown by freshets." " Now what does this fact point to ? 



The only answer I can give is that the Moa was extinct in this 

 locality when the whole Maniototo Plains, from the level spoken 

 of, was yet under water." These statements by Mr. Booth agree 

 well with the position maintained so stoutly by Dr. Haast, 

 previously quoted, who is the strongest and most prominent 

 defender of the theory of the early extinction of the Moa 

 throughout the whole of New Zealand. He claims that it 

 became extinct before the occupation of the islands by the present 

 Maori race, and gives us a great deal of geological data in support 

 of this position. At Moa-bone Point cave he found a stratum 

 "three or four inches in thickness, mostly consisting of refuse 

 matter from human occupation, and of ashes." " It was especially 

 in some localities, as for instance near the entrance of the cave, 

 replete with kitchen middens of the Moa-hunters," among which 

 were found polished and unpolished stone implements, a few 

 small tools made of bone, personal ornaments, fire-sticks, &c. 

 " And now, as it were at once, the Moa-hunters disappeared from 

 the scene," and the cave remained uninhabited for a considerable 

 space of time, as shown by " the clear line of demarcation 

 between that layer and the shell-bed above it, in which no Moa 



