TraveRs.— Notes on the Ewtinetion of the Moa. 79 
the customs and superstitions of the Maoris,” which were laid on the table 
of both Houses of the New Zealand Parliament in August, 1861, and are 
published in the Parliamentary Papers for that year. : 
After, however, becoming aware of this fact, I asked him, in the course 
of conversation, whether he possessed any information respecting the Moa, 
when he told me that he had, at his residence in Auckland, a large mass of 
manuscript matter on the subject, collected many years ago from perfectly 
authentic sources, and without reference, of course, to the controversy in 
question, and containing the fullest details as to the habits of the birds, the 
mode of hunting them, etc., and promised, at my urgent request, to write 
to me at an early date as much as he could manage to recollect on the 
subject in the absence of any opportunity of referring to these manuscripts. 
He assured me that the Moa was perfectly well known to the old Maoris, and 
that their histories and songs abounded in allusions to it. Soon after my 
return to Wellington I received two letters from Mr. White, which I here 
transcribe. 
‘‘ Naprer, 29th June, 1875. 
‘My pear Sir,—When I promised to give you as much information as 
I could respecting the bird ‘Moa,’ I did not think that my memory was so 
sluggish, therefore I am really afraid to venture on giving you any sort of 
connected account of that bird, viz., its habits, food, what it lived upon, the 
Season of the year when killed by the Maoris, its appearance, power, and 
all the hundred and one ceremonies which were enacted by the Maoris 
before they began the hunt, the mode of hunting, how cut up, how cooked, 
and what wood was used in the cooking, with an account of its nest, and 
how the nest was made, where it usually lived, ete. However, I will try 
and give you as much information under the circumstances as I can, 
promising to give you, at some future day, all that I cannot trust now to my 
memory to give, but I shall be able to do so when in Auckland and can 
Consult my MSS. in my library at home. 
“The ‘Moa’ lived on the young shoots of the fern (rarauhe) and the 
8rass that grows on the edges of the swamps, and near the edges of the 
forest; it also ate the young sprouts of the korokia shrub, also a water 
Plant in Waikato and Ngapuhi, called ‘ Pukekakeka,’ at the South called 
‘Retoreto’ or ‘Returetu.’ The principal abode of the Moa was near the 
forests, but it visited the lakes and water pools to eat the Pukekakeka. 
Though not a timid bird, it did not live near where man took up his abode, 
hence, when it was to be hunted, the tracks made by it to visit the water 
Were sought, and men waited on those tracks to capture it. The Maoris, 
%S a rule, were afraid of it, as a kick from the foot of one would break the 
bones of the most powerful brave, hence the people made strong spears of 
