Warre.—On Moa Caves in the Wakatipu District. 101 
Also, at a distance of 100 yards from this place, where the rock cropped 
out in the form of a step, there was a hollow in the rock four feet deep, 
eight feet long, and four feet wide, slightly wider at the bottom, from the rock 
overhanging. In the centre of the bottom of this was a large block of 
stone on edge, heavier than a man could move in such a small space. 
Around this block, and apparently under it, were bones of a large Moa, the 
majority of which were not obtained on account of the narrowness of the 
space. 
Dried Specimen of a supposed Maori fat. 
This was found in a hollow under an overhanging rock. Buried in the 
sand was a spherical nest of grass and plants, in which was a perfectly 
mummified rat, without the hair. The hair was lying by the side, and was 
of a yellowish-red colour. 
Hither the skull was lying separate from the body, or there was the 
skull of another in the nest; I think the latter must have been the case. 
I put the skull in a match-box and the skin in my pocket, out of which it 
unfortunately dropped. 
In the nest, or in the sand covering, were several feathers of the Kiwi. 
At another place of a similar description, in what appeared to have 
been a hawk’s nest, I got some hair, which I thought similar to that first 
found, and which I had lost. 
The body was two-thirds the size of the common rat, a dried specimen 
of which I happened to have found and examined a short time previously. 
Notes by I’. W. Hutton. 
The green egg-shell, from the cave at Mount Nicholas, proves, on 
microscopical examination, to have the true Dinornis structure. It is of a 
rather pale sea-green colour, smooth, but not polished, and covered with 
irregularly placed shallow rounded pits. The thickness of the shell is 
0.04-inch, and the diameter of the egg appears to have been about four 
inches. The white egg-shell obtained from the same cave also belongs to the 
Moa. The feathers from this cave are not very well preserved. Most of 
them are pale yellow-brown, margined with darker, while a few were 
dark brown. The largest is six and a-half inches. The feathers from the 
cave near Queenstown are in an excellent state of preservation, much 
better than any previously obtained, and many have both shafts quite com- 
plete. The after shaft is much more slender than the true shaft ; but often 
nearly as long; the barbs gradually get more distant from one another 
towards the apex, and they are generally opposite on each side of the shaft. 
I saw no sign in any of the feathers of the barbs near the base being in 
groups of four or five as described by Mr. Dallas in the “ Ann. Natural 
