CorrNso.—On the Moa. 63 
approach in similarity, are the Rotumah people and those of the Islands of 
Niua and Vate in the New Hebrides (evidently colonies driven or migrated 
from the East). The numerals afford a good example of the language. The 
dissimilarity between the Hawaiian and the other dialects proves in a measure 
the originality of the former and the connection with each other of the 
latter. 
Art. VI.—On the Moa. By W. Corxwso, F.L.S. 
Plates IV. and V 
[Read before the Hawke's Bay Philosophical Institute, 10th June, 1878, and 13th October, 
1879.] 
For some time past I have been thinking of bringing this interesting subject 
before you, and that for several reasons. 
1. Because this animal is purely a New Zealand one, and not only so, 
but it is, I think I may safely say, to be classed among the animal wonders 
of the world. 
2. Because here in Hawke’s Bay (Napier) but little is known of it— 
nothing indeed when compared with Christchurch, Wellington, and other 
towns, where also fine specimens of its entire skeleton may be seen in the 
Museums.* I believe that I may fairly infer, that not a few of you present 
have not yet heard any account of it—never yet seen any of its bones, save 
these which I now lay before you, + much less an entire mounted skeleton, 
such as are in those photographs, now on the table, procured from Christ- 
church. 
* Here in Hawke's Bay, during the whole term of my residence (over 35 years), but 
ery few bones of the Moa have been found, and those singly, scattered, and broken. 
Nevertheless, on one occasion, about twenty years ago, the men at work on the Middle Road 
(between Havelock and the entrance to the Kaokaoroa Valley), in making a cutting in the 
side of & hill, found, either the whole skeleton of a large Moa, or the bones of several 
all together, deeply embedded among or under the limestone. I did not hear of it until 
some time after, and, on my Exon: the spot, I found that the whole of the bones had 
been smashed up and mixed with the clay and limestone from the eutting where they were 
found; in faet many of them fell to pieces on being exposed to the sun and air. I 
obtained, however, a few small pieces of the shank of a tibia and of a tarsus, which were 
of remarkable thickness, I think the thickest by far that I had ever seen. They had 
been partly converted into a kind of lime, and were wholly as white as the impure lime- 
stone in which they were found, and scarcely at first sight distinguishable from it. Afew 
years ago a fine specimen of a tibia, in fair preservation, measuring two feet eight inches, 
was found near Patangata: this I now have. 
+ These were, a pair each of Femora, Tibiæ, and Tarsi, all from one Moa, found in situ, 
with other bones, at Poverty Bay, about thirty years ago. The tibie measure two feet five 
inches each, and the whole are in excellent preservation. 
