174 Transactions.—Zoology. 
over, with the exception of a few acres, which are in a shifting state. Before 
reaching the main mass, we came upon a few moa bones of large size lying 
in the neighbourhood of some old Maori ovens. When we came upon the 
ground disturbed by the wind we soon found a number of distinet groups 
of gizzard stones. It was impossible to mistake them. In several cases 
they lay with a few fragments of the heavier bones. In all cases they were 
in distinct groups; even where they had become scattered each group only 
covered a few square yards of ground, and in that space lay thickly strewn. 
Between the groups scarcely any were seen. In several instances they lay 
in close masses. Mr. Murdoch showed me one piece of ground which had 
recently become covered with blown sand, where he had not long before 
seen several groups lying in close clusters, such as I shall describe here- 
after. 
The peculiar feature of the stones was that they were almost all opaque 
white quartz pebbles. The few in the three sets I now exhibit from 
this spot which are not white quartz have white veins in them. In one 
place I found a small group of small pebbles of different colour, more like 
the few brown water-worn pebbles which may be picked up hereabouts. 
These lay with a set of bones much smaller than the very large bones I 
found with most of the clusters of pebbles. 
I did not gather these brown pebbles, as I thought it uncertain whether 
they were gizzard stones or not, though it is possible that the species to 
which the smaller bones belonged was not so careful in selecting white 
stones. A glance at the pebbles lying about in the surrounding country 
showed that the quartz-pebbles were not collected here. In only one 
instance did I find the moa bones burnt, and this may have been acci- 
dental. Mr. Murdoch and I collected three sets of pebbles, and these I can 
safely pronounce complete, or nearly so. It is beyond question, too, that 
each set belongs to a distinct bird. No.1 weighs 8 lbs. 9 ozs.; No. 2 weighs 
4]bs.; while No. 8 weighs no less than 5lbs. 7 ozs. This giant set contains 
individual stones weighing over 20zs.; indeed, I have picked out 8 stones 
weighing almost exactly 11b. 
Moa bones do not seem to be very plentiful in the Mackenzie Country, 
and when found seem to be old and in bad preservation. I should say 
from such observations as I made, that the moa had become searce or 
extinct on these plains while it still flourished in many other places I have 
examined. The bones at this place were very friable, and generally broke 
when picked up. I searched in vain for foot-prints in places where the 
sand was blown away, though I was tempted to search by finding foot- 
prints of a horse standing above the general level of the surface, the weight 
of the animal having packed the fine binding soil and thus increased its 
