70 Transactions.—Miscellaneous. 
Dr. Hector then refers to the evidence afforded by the contents of the 
kitchen middens in the North Island, of the co-existence of the Moa and 
the Maori, and points out that Mr. W. D. Murison had suggested how 
infallibly the wholesale consumption of eggs, which were evidently highly 
prized as an article of food, must have led to their rapid extinction of the 
birds, without its being necessary that the birds themselves should be 
actually destroyed. With respect to the probability of still finding a living 
specimen, Dr. Hector says— The whole of the Eastern District of the 
South Island of New Zealand back to the Southern Alps, was completely 
surveyed and mapped as far back as 1862, and had been thoroughly 
explored at least ten years before that date, without any of these gigantic 
birds being met with; but there is a large area of rugged mountainous 
country, especially in the South-west District of Otago, that even to the 
present time is only imperfectly known. The mountain sides in this 
region are covered with open fayus forest, in which Kiwis, Kakapos, and 
other expiring forms of apterous birds, are still to be found in comparative 
abundance, but where we could scarcely expect to meet with the larger 
species. Nevertheless, owing to the peculiar configuration of this country, 
the mountains afford very extensive areas, above the forest limit, which are 
covered with alpine shrubs and grasses, where it is not impossible that a 
remnant of this giant race may have remained to very recent times. The 
exploration, however, to which the country was subjected during the last 
few years, by parties of diggers prospecting for gold, forbids the hope that 
any still exist. I may here mention that on one of the flat-topped moun- 
tains, near Jackson’s Bay, which I visited in J anuary, 1863, I observed, at 
an altitude of 4000 feet, numerous well-beaten tracks, about sixteen inches 
wide, intersecting the dense scrub in all directions, and which, owing to the 
height of the scrub, could only have been formed in the first instance 
by the frequent passage of a much larger bird than either the Kiwi or 
Kakapo, which, judging from their droppings, were the only birds that now 
resorted to them. On the sides of the tracks, especially near the upper 
confines of the forest, are shallow excavations, two or three feet in 
diameter, that have much the appearance of having been scraped for nests. 
No pigs or any other introduced animal: having penetrated to this part of 
the country, it appears manifest that these are the tracks of some large 
indigenous animal, but, from the nature of the vegetation, it is probable 
that such tracks may have been for a very long period in disuse, except by 
the smaller ground birds, without becoming obliterated.” 
‘The above facts and arguments in support of the view that the Moa 
survived to very recent times are similar to those advanced at a very early 
period after the settlement of the Colony, by Walter Mantell, who had the 
