CornENso.—On the Moa. 101 
2. I have, in so doing, finished my work ; I shall not again write on this 
topic. 
For my own part I am, as I have long been, satisfied. My own fresh 
labours in this direction have only served the more fully to confirm me in 
my old views* as to the very great antiquity of the living Moa in this North 
Island of New Zealand. 
Few, very few, will be fully able to comprehend the immense amount of 
labour this enquiry has cost me; the amount of time, writing, and patient 
research consumed would be almost incredible, especially in my seeking 
_ after ancient names of places and of persons containing the term Moa,—and 
what a very small result! I have often been led to think of the amount of 
toil spent in obtaining two dishes for the banquet of Heliogabalus, viz.: of 
ostriches’ and nightingales' tongues ! and yet all devoured in an hour. 
n fine, the conclusion I have come to is this :— 
l. That the bird Moa (some of those of its genera and species) was 
really known to the ancient Maori. 
2. That such happened very long ago, in almost pre-historical times; 
long before the beginning of their genealogical descents of tribes, which, as 
we know, extend back for more than twenty-five generations. 
3. That this conclusion is the only logical deduction from all that I have 
been able to gather; whether myth, legend, proverb, song, or the etymo- 
logical rendering of proper names of places, persons, etc. 
I will conclude my paper in the highly suitable words of Tacitus, when 
writing on another celebrated bird of great antiquity, which had given him 
and other philosophers before him an immense amount of labour—I mean 
the Phenix. Tacitus says: ‘‘In the consulship of Paulus Fabius and 
Lucius Vitellius, after a long series of ages, the bird called the Phenix 
arrived in Egypt, and furnished the most learned of the natives and Greeks 
with occasion for much speculation concerning that marvel * * * But 
the accounts of antiquity are enveloped in doubt and obscurity * * * 
whence some have believed that the present was a spurious Phenix * * 
These accounts are not entitled to unqualified credit, and their uncertainty 
is by the admixture of matter palpably fabulous: but that this bird has 
been at some time seen in Egypt, is not questioned.’’+ 
Apprnpix Il. 
1, Of Dr. Ernest Dieffenbach’s opinion on the Moa. 
Among the very few early scientific writers on New Zealand, who had 
themselves travelled in and partially explored the country, I may here 
* Vide Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. L, ** Essay on the Maori Races," p. 58 of Essay. 
Annals, lib. VI., c. 28, 
