DESCRIPTION OF THE FRONTISPIECE. 



THE MOA OF NEW ZEALAND. 



The Frontispiece represents the entire series of bones composing the right foot of the Moa (Dinornis 

 robusttis), found imbedded iu an erect position, with the corresponding foot a yard in advance, in a turbary 

 deposit, at Waikouaiti, in the Middle Island of New Zealand, in 1849. The figures are one-third less in linear 

 dimensions than the originals. 



Figures 1% 2", 3°, show the palmar, or under surface of the respective toes, and exhibit the trochlear 

 or articulating extremities of the phalangeal bones. 



The ancient swamp or morass in which these matchless specimens were imbedded, is situated on the shore, 

 in a little creek or bay near Island Point, at the mouth of the river Waikouaiti, and is covered by the sea except 

 at the lowest tides. Many remains of the largest species of Moa have from time to time been obtained from this 

 deposit ; the bones sent to England by Dr. Mackellar, Mr. Percy Earle, and others, figured and described in the 

 Zoological Transactions by Professor Owen, were from this locality. 



The specimens figured were obtained by Mr. Walter Mantell, in 1849, when visiting Waikouaiti, as Govern- 

 ment Commissioner for the settlement of Native claims. On the recession of the tide, the upper (or proximal) 

 ends of the metatarsals were just visible above the surface : these were carefully dug up, and aU the bones 

 of the respective toes numbered, one by one, as they were extracted from the soil. In this state they were sent 

 to me, and have subsequently been articulated under ray direction, in their natural order of arrangement.' 



The condition and position of the bones, and the nature of the deposit, — evidently an ancient morass, 

 in which the New Zealand flax {phormium tenax) once grew luxuriantly, — remind us of the very similar circum- 

 stances in which the extinct gigantic Elks in Ireland, and the Mastodons iu America, have occasionally been 

 found engulfed in peat bogs and morasses ; and, as my son emphatically observes, it is impossible to arrive 

 at any other conclusion than that the Moa to which these feet belonged, had sunk down in the swamp, and 

 perished on the spot. Vertebrse and other parts of a skeleton of a bird of the same proportions, were dug up 

 near the feet. 



As the specimens under examination are the first examples in which the entire series of the phalangeal 

 and ungueal bones have been found in natural connexion with the metatarsals, I subjoin the admeasure- 

 ments of the several parts, to render the peculiar construction of the feet in one species of the lost race of the 

 colossal birds of New Zealand, more obvious to those who may feel interested in the subject. 



TARSO-METATARSAL BONES. 



Indies. Lines. 



Length of the shaft from the distal end of the middle trochlea to the proximal extremity . . 17 



Circumference of the proximal end 11 9 



Transverse diameter, or Madth, of ditto 4 6 



Antero-posterior diameter of ditto 3 6 



Circumference of the middle of the shaft 6 3 



Antero-posterior diameter of ditto 18 



Transverse diameter of ditto 3 6 



Width of the distal, or trochlear, end 6 3 



Circumference of the troclilear end 156 



Antero-posterior diameter of the middle trochlea 3 9 



' By the well-known eminent anatomical artist, Mr. Flower, of 23, Lambeth Terrace, Lambeth Road. 



