Haast. — On a Moa-hunter Encampment. 95 



I had been so accnstomed to find in other localites the Moa skulls either 

 in fragments, or at least broken in the occipital region, for obtaining the 

 brains, that I was not a little astonished to excavate all the skulls in a perfect 

 state, and, as the position of the vertebrae and of the tracheal rings lying along 

 them proved, the whole portion of the upper neck had been thrown awaj, as 

 not of sufficient value. It thus is evident that in most cases only the body 

 served for food, and as some shallow broad cuts or scratches in one fragmentary 

 pelvis and in some femora demonstrated, the same had been operated upon with 

 rough stone knives j some of the intercostals had also been cut or sawn through 

 in the same manner. This intactness of the Moa-skulls might also suggest to 

 us that the Moa-hunters were in the habit of killing their prey either by 

 snaring them, by catching them in pits, or by wounding them with spears in 

 the body. Had they used wooden clubs, they would certainly have broken 

 the skulls as the easiest means of securing their prey, just as we find nearly 

 every seal skull broken from a similar reason. 



Before leaving this subject, I may observe that not a single specimen — 

 either entire or fragmentary — of the scapulo-coracoid, or wing-bone, of the 

 Moa was obtained, while a considerable number of the intercostals and portions 

 of sternums with them were excavated. It is a curious coincidence that 

 thus we should have the sternal apparatus of numerous specimens and belonging 

 to several species preserved (which according to my showing did not possess a 

 scapulo-coracoid) without finding the slightest trace of that bone, and I may 

 claim this striking absence from the kitchen middens as a further confirmation 

 of my views. 



Besides the difierent species of Dinornithidce as enumerated above, the 

 ovens contained numerous remains of several species of fur seals, of which the 

 small Gypsophoca subtropicalis was most abundant; the sea-leopard (Steno- 

 rhynchus leptonyx) was also represented. There were also a few bones of a small 

 whale, probably Euphysetes, and the ear-bone of a larger ziphioid whale, so that 

 also in this respect these kitchen middens resembled those of the Moa-hunters 

 in and near the Sumner Cave. Human bones were not met with in either of 

 the deposits of human origin at Shag Point. Amongst the whole mass of 

 bones in the older kitchen middens, I failed to find any belonging to the dog, 

 which thus may have been either not of frequent occurrence or was not much 

 valued, the Moa-hunters having probably such a great number of large birds 

 at their command, that, with the exception of the oily seal flesh, they did not 

 much care for other food. 



As previously observed, a number of chipped flint implements were 

 collected amongst the kitchen middens of the Moa-hunters, several of which, by 

 their well-finished form, evinced considerable skill in the manufacture; they 



