Travers.—Notes on the Extinction of the Moa. 88 
in order to enable him to devote the time necessary for bringing into 
proper shape the large mass of information he possesses relative to the life- 
history of the races which occupied these islands before the advent of the 
European settlers. 
Norz.—It will be observed that I have not noticed, in the foregoing 
review, the several papers published by Captain Hutton and others in the 
seventh volume of the ‘Transactions N. Z. Institute” relative to the Moa, 
a careful perusal of which, however, goes to strengthen the assumption that 
the ultimate destruction of this bird is matter of comparatively recent date. 
—W. T. L. Travers. 
Art. I1I,—Notes on the Discovery of Moa and Moa-hunters’ Remains at Pataua 
: River, near Whangarei. By G. Tuorye, Jun. 
[Read before the Auckland Institute, 6th December, 1875.) 
Plates L., I., TI. , 
In February, 1875, I picked up a few metatarsi and other bones of the 
Moa while travelling on the coast from Ngungururu to Whangarei Heads, 
and deposited them in a settler’s hut at Pataua River. 
An incredulous smile greeted my announcement of the fact in Auckland, 
as it was not believed that the Moa existed in the densely wooded country 
to the northward, and as great an authority as Hochstetter, p. 64, says, 
“The Moas consequently seem to have been distributed all over the 
southern part of the North Island, but are totally awanting upon the 
narrow north-western peninsula north of Auckland, where, to my know- 
ledge, no trace of Moa bones has as yet been found.” 
Since Hochstetter’s time no authentic record ha 
existence. The northern limit of the Moa was then supposed to be a line 
from Bay of Plenty on the east to Kawhia on the west coast. 
These bones were received after much delay, and exhibited at the second 
meeting of this session of our Institute, exciting some interest, from the 
fact of having been found 70 miles north of Auckland. 
Although it was improbable, from the position in which the hones 
occurred, that I should succeed in obtaining @ complete skeleton, this 
charm-ful subject so deeply interested me that I returned to the locality 
and spent two weeks in searching for and collecting relics of the past. My 
s appeared of their 
