178 Transactions, — Zoology. 
similar country. The small one must have been plentiful at one time upon 
narrow pieces of country which could not be reached or quitted without 
passing through miles of bush. The finding of these fine transparent 
pebbles from the gizzard of one of these small ones confirms this opinion, 
as I think these stones were local, the country behind the beach being 
either dense bush or swampy peat soil. 
Earlier in the summer, namely, in 1888, I had occasion to go to Porirua 
on the west coast of Wellington. Near the western bank of the northern 
branch of this harbour, are situated several old sites of pahs, famous in the 
old native wars, and in their early wars with the colonists. One of these was 
called Taupo, and not far from its site is the old stone stockade called Parra- 
matta. The Manawatu railway crosses this harbour by a bridge, which was 
in course of construction when I visited the spot. I made a hasty search 
among the sandhills beyond the line of the bridge, a few hundred yards 
from the stone stockade, which is now a woolshed, and there found a piece 
of ground from which the sand, which must have been accumulating there 
for ages, had recently been blown away. Here, close to the large sandhill, 
upon which in 1847, a Maori was hanged by the sentence of a court- 
martial for rebellion, I found four beautifully-polished stone axes. Not far 
from these I found the neck of a moa, all the vertebre of which lay in a 
string. A number of bones lay there, too, and upon them were plainly 
visible the marks of the stone implements which had been used to cut off 
the flesh, The bird had evidently been cooked and eaten, as burnt bones 
lay about. I saw numerous tracheal rings lying among the bones, and 
close by them some horny fragments like portions of the beak. I had very 
little time to examine these, and before I could gather them, a boat called 
for me, and I had to leave. Since then, a friend who lives in the neigh- 
bourhood has kindly gathered most of them for me. These bones were 
those of a very small bird when compared with the giant moas whose 
bones are so common in the interior of the South Island. 
P.§.—Since the above was written, I have found what I take to be 
gizzard-stones on the high sand-erowned hills between Lyall Bay and the 
Wellington Heads. 
I had originally bud that gizzard-stones were worn somewhat flatter 
than water-worn stones, but abandoned this at the suggestion of a friendly 
critic. An examination of the beautiful set in the Colonial Museum at 
Wellington inclines me, however, to re-adopt this view. 
