164 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No. 476 



Four trenches, or pits, in all, were sunk. The dimensions 

 of the first, which was excavated entirely in peat, did not 

 exceed three feet square and three and a half to four feet in 

 depth. When it was exhausted of its treasure, a second 

 search was made about twenty to twenty-five feet higher up 

 the hollow. The dimensions of this pit extended to about 

 seven feet square and to the same depth as the first. Two 

 more trenches, a few feet part, were dug at about thirty 

 yards still further up the depression. They were not so large 

 as the other two, but they extended down to about the same 

 depth, three and a half to four feef, the bottom of both being 

 (as it was in the second) a bluish clay, with which, in the 

 pit furthest up, was sparingly mingled a small deposit of the 

 finest silt. In the first pit portions of both Cnemiornis and 

 Hsepagornis bones were found in abundance, and remains of 

 several hundreds of moas of all ages. It was from the second 

 pit, however, that the largest deposit of moa bones was ob- 

 tained, and the most perfect specimen of food remains from 

 beneath a sternum. Here, also, numerous bones of the giant 

 buzzard and of the great extinct goose were exhumed, and a 

 cranium as large as, if not slightly larger than, that of 

 Cnemiornis, but of a species with complete bony orbits, as in 

 the Cape Barren goose, and indistinguishable from Cereopsis. 

 Bones from other parts of New Zealand now in my possession, 

 which I hope shortly to describe, indicate with certainty that 

 several species of Cnemiornis formerly existed in this colony. 

 Some of these bones are remarkable for their slender ele- 

 gance, and indicate species less in size and lighter in build 

 than Cnemiornis calcitrans. Among the bones so far exam- 

 ined, I have observed no remains of Aptornis, of Ocydromus, 

 or of Notornis; but I possess an adult tibia of a rail smaller 

 than Porphyrio melanotus, yet larger than any other exist- 

 ing New Zealand species. The tarso-metatarsus of a species 

 of Anas, about the size of Anas flnschi, the metatarsus and 

 sternum of Apteryx Oweni, and crania of A.- australis, are 

 among the bones recovered at Enfield, in addition to the 

 metatarsus of a Biziura, somewhat larger than Biziura lobata, 

 the musk duck of Australia, an interesting species for which 

 I have pruposed the name of Biziura de Lautouri, after the 

 gentleman to whom I am indebted for the acquisition of 

 these bones. There are still other bones which I have not 

 yet been able to identify. The Dinornis remains belong 

 chiefly to the species elephantopus (of unusually large pro- 

 portions), to ingens, and to rheides. "Very fine specimens of 

 pelves and sterna have been obtained, with numerous crania 

 more or less perfect. In this second trench the excavation 

 penetrated through the peat into a bluish clay charged with 

 water (which was, indeed, reached in all the diggings at 

 about four feet below the surface), and into this clay the 

 bones just protruded, but no more. The osseous remains 

 dug from the last two holes belonged to the same species as 

 those from the others. Digging and probing the ground be- 

 yond the boundaries of the trenches showed us that we had 

 exhausted their contents; while the probing of the ground 

 in the neighborhood for a considerable radius around, and 

 in other peaty spots not far off, failed to afford indications 

 of other deposits. 



The number of perfect femora of Dinornis brought away 

 exceeded 600; a large number were so decomposed as to fall 

 to pieces in the handling; while a great many others disin- 

 tegrated, after removal from the ground, on exposure to the 

 atmosphere. I believe I do not over-estimate, therefore, in 

 saying that from 800 to 900 moas at least were entombed in 

 this shallow hollow. So many moas (leaving out of the 

 reckoning the other species of birds) could not by any possi- 



bility have found standing-room, however crowded together, 

 in the entire area of the depression. It would appear evi- 

 dent, therefore, that they did not perish all at one time. To 

 account for their burial in such numbers in areas so circum- 

 scribed seems to me at present impossible. That their bodies 

 were entire when they were deposited is clear, from the 

 presence in such abundance of the crop-stones, from the posi- 

 tion of the bones, and from the finding of the intact con- 

 tents of the gizzard. No stream of any size could find origin 

 in the immediate neighborhood, and no stream which could 

 have transported the entire carcasses of birds of such huge 

 proportions as Dinornis ingens or D. elephantopus could 

 ever have occupied this ravine-head without leaving traces 

 of its action on the surface which would be visible to-day, or 

 without washing away the very fine silt mixed with the clay 

 on which the bones lie, in the bottom of the most upland of 

 our excavations. None of the bones are waterworn. This 

 little hollow veas, in the early days of its present proprietor, 

 very wet and boggy, and several springs have origin iu it. 

 If the moas made this a highway from one part of the country 

 to another, it seems difHeult to believe that birds so powerful 

 of limb, and standing at least 10 lo 12 feet in height, could 

 slick fast in so shallow a bog; and to conjecture why eagles 

 of powerful flight, slender rails, small ducks, and compara- 

 tively light-footed kiwis also should become ensnared. 

 Driven by fire in the surrounding bush — which may have 

 covered the country then, for the plough has, I am informed, 

 brought to light the stools of many large trees at no great 

 distance, while logs of wood were found among the bones — 

 did they, in a struggle for life in a narrow space, trample 

 each other to d:ath ? The presence of the strong- winged 

 Harpagornis in considerable numbers seems to militate 

 against this explanation, and no calcined hones have been 

 discovered. An explanation offered some years ago, to ac- 

 count for the presence of a great number of moa and other 

 bird bones in a somewhat similar situation in the Hamilton 

 swamp — that during severe winters these birds congregated 

 at the springs rising warmer from below, and were overtaken 

 by a severe and fatal frost as they stood in the water — ap- 

 pears unsatisfactory in the present case, as there are numer- 

 ous springs and equally boggy ground near at hand, round 

 which no remains can be found, and so close to the sea such, 

 excessive frosts are now unknown. That these were individ- 

 uals who, during an excessive drought, arrived at the springs 

 too far exhausted to revive — an occurrence common enough 

 in Australia — and that the water there was charged with 

 poison, have also been offered as explanations. But the per- 

 manence of glacier rivers, highest in the hottest seasons, 

 precludes the idea of animals dying of thirst in this island, 

 or at all events in this locality so near to the great snow 

 river Waitaki. Poisoned water-holes or exhalations of car- 

 bonic acid might be a sufHcient reason, yet in those springs 

 elsewhere where bones have been found chemical analysis 

 has failed to detect any substance harmful to life iu their 

 waters at the present day. Not a single indication of human 

 intervention was observed. No bones were discovered which 

 had been broken in their recent state; neither kitchen-mid- 

 dens, nor remains of ovens or of native encampments, occur 

 anywhere near the deposit. 



One piece of egg-shell dug out of the highest trench is not 

 sufficient evidence on which to base the supposition that ihe 

 spot was frequented as a nesting-place. 



At Glenmark, in the north of this province, the historic 

 spot where the original (somewhat larger than the present) 

 find of Dinornis reliquiae was dug out by my predecessor. 



