Travers.—Notles on the Extinction of the Moa. 67 
tions in order to apply “the allusions to the Moa found in the Maori 
poetry and proverbs,” and the descriptions they give “ of the appearance 
and habits of the birds,’ and the fact that ‘the name of the Moa is mixed 
up with their songs and stories.” 
On the other hand, Dr. Hector, Mr. Murison, Mr. Mantell, Sir George 
Grey, Dr. Buller, the Reverend Mr. Taylor, and many others who have 
enjoyed far greater opportunities of obtaining information on the subject 
than those who are quoted so approvingly by Dr. Haast, strongly dissent 
from the views propounded in his papers, and have adduced a large mass 
of facts relevant to the proof that the extinction of the Moa is a matter of 
comparatively recent date. 
As bearing upon the special information set forth in the sequel, I call 
attention to the following passages from their several writings on this 
subject. 
In a paper, by Dr. Hector, read before the Otago Institute in September, 
1871,* in which he described the bones of an embryo Moa chick, found with 
the egg which had contained them,—and the cervical vertebree of a Moa of 
large size, upon the posterior aspect of which, the skin, partly covered with 
feathers, was still'attached by the shrivelled muscles aud ligaments,—and a 
remarkably perfect skeleton, in which portions of the ligaments, skin, and 
feathers were still attached to some of the bones,—all of which were dis- 
covered in the Province of Otago, the Doctor says :— 
“The above interesting discoveries render it probable that the inland 
district of Otago, at a time when its grassy plains and rolling hills were 
covered with a dense scrubby vegetation, or a light forest growth, was where 
the giant, wingless birds of New Zealand lingered till latest times. It is 
impossible to convey an idea of the profusion of bones which, only a few 
years ago, were found in this district, scattered on the surface of the ground, 
or buried in the alluvial soil in the neighborhood of streams and rivers. At 
the present time this area of country is particularly arid as compared with 
the prevalent character of New Zealand. It is perfectly treeless—nothing 
but the smallest sized shrubs being found within a distance of sixty or 
seventy miles. The surface features comprise round-backed ranges of hills 
of schistoze rock with swamps on the top, deeply cut by ravines that open 
out on basin-shaped plains, formed of alluvial deposits that have been 
everywhere moulded into beautifully regular terraces to an altitude of 1,700 
feet above sea level. That the mountain slopes were at one time covered 
with forest, the stumps and prostrate trunks of large trees, and the mounds 
ais on tho surface of he round which mar ol frend shania 
* «Trans, N. Z. Inst.,” Vol. IV., p- 110. 
