Taylor. — First Discovery of Moa Remains. 97 



my paper will be found interesting to those of our Society who have made 

 Moa remains their study. But for this, as well as for the former part of 

 my paper, I shall require the aid of diagrams to render my descriptions 

 intelligible, and the materials for these I fortunately possess in my old letters. 

 I wish, in conclusion, to be distinctly understood on one point. I have 

 not myself any fixed theory in connection with these Moas, their antiquity, or 

 recentness. I feel that the information as yet accumulated is not sufficient to 

 justify me in adopting any of the theories afloat, far less in venturing to add 

 to their number. But while thus diffident myself, I do not feel called upon to 

 withhold my respect from those who, with acuter intellect, or greater courage, 

 step forward in the direction in which at present I dare not venture to 

 advance ; and by placing more clearly on record my own early observations of 

 facts in connection with the subject of these theories, I hope to remove 

 such stumbling blocks as they may have encountered from inaccuracies in 

 previous notices of my collections, arising most probably from the imperfect 

 manner in which I made myself understood to my correspondents at home. 



Art. 111.— An Account of the First Discovery of Moa Remains. 

 By the Rev. Richard Taylor, F.G.S. 



IRead before the Wellington Philosophical Society, Qth November, 1872.*] 

 In the beginning of 1839 I took my first journey in New Zealand to Poverty 

 Bay with the Rev. Wm. WHliams (the present Bishop of Waiapu). When 

 we reached Waiapu, a large pa near the East Cape, we took up our abode in 

 a native house, and there I noticed the fragment of a large bone stuck in the 

 ceiling. I took it down, supposing at first that it was human, but when I 

 saw its cancellated structure I handed it over to my companion, who had been 

 brought up to the medical profession, asking him if he did not think it was a 

 bird's bone. He laughed at the idea, and said, what kind of bird could there 

 be to have so large a bone ? I pointed out its structure, and when the natives 

 came requested him to ask them what it belonged to. They said it was a 

 bone of the Tarepo, a very large bird which lived on the top of Hikurangi, the 

 highest mountain on the East Coast, and that they made their largest fish- 

 hooks from its bones. I then enquired whether the bird was still to be met 

 with, and was told that there was one of an immense size which lived in a 

 cave, and was guarded by a large lizard, and that the bird was always standing 



on one leg. 



* In the discussion on the foregoing paper, Art. II. the Eev. Richard Taylor, F.G.S.; 

 made the following statement, which he afterwards reduced to \vTiting.— Ed. 



N 



