Wartt.—On Moa Caves in the Wakatipu District. 99 
There were also bones of other kinds of birds, some of which were very 
delicate, together with a considerable number of pieces of egg-shell. These 
were white, and might belong to a duck, but no feathers of this bird were 
found. 
Eixcrement of a large bird was also found, which extended to a greater 
depth than the feathers. Some of this consisted of undigested fragments of 
what looked like the stalk of the fern. 
Cave near Queenstown, 
This cave is situated about a mile from Queenstown, in the range of 
hills on the south of the Gorge-road, and immediately above Jack’s public 
house. 
The entrance is difficult of access, the hill being almost perpendicular 
below it, It is fourteen feet high, by five feet wide. The floor, for the first 
ten feet, is level, and consists of fine mica sand to a depth of two feet, 
below which come blocks of schist, intermixed with finer material. The 
floor then has a steep descent for about sixty feet, and consists of very 
large schist blocks, intermixed with smaller. The average height is from 
six to eight feet, and the average width six feet. The roof had in places a 
thin white incrustation, but the other no sign of water drip. 
At the junction of the sand and schist blocks, at the commencement of 
the descent, a quantity of double-shafted feathers of a brown colour, and 
with light-coloured down near the tube, were found, together with quill 
feathers of small birds—Paroquet, Lark, ete. These were most plentiful at 
a depth of a foot below the surface, but were also found at a depth of four 
inches. Some were immediately under large schist blocks. They appeared 
to be chiefly in a layer of hard-trodden excrement. 
Perfect droppings were also found in the sand, and a few specimens of 
a similar outward appearance, contained undigested vegetable fragments, 
some of which seemed to be branches and stalks of fern broken into short 
pieces of three-quarters of an inch in length. No bones were found with 
them. 
To the left of the mouth of the cave, and slightly higher up the hill, at 
a distance of about 200 feet, was a crevice of an angular form, about five 
feet wide and fifteen deep, which had been made by a forward slip of a 
portion of the hill. 
In this Mr. Russell, of the American Transit of Venus Expedition, 
found bones belonging to a very large bird,* also bones of several smaller 
varieties, and a portion of a large egg. The birds must have fallen or 
shpped in while examining its capabilities as a nesting place. 
* D. robustus.—F. W. H. 
