Taylor. — First Discovery of Moa Bemains. 99 



koromiko (Veronica) tliickets from which they were driven and killed by 

 setting the thickets on fire ; hence originated the saying, Te koromiko te nakau 

 i tunu ai te moa (the Veronica was the tree which roasted the Moa). The 

 koromiko when burnt emits a kind of rezin from its bark, which looks like 

 grease, hence the origin of the saying, as all suppose the Moa to have been a 

 very fat bird, which I should think was very questionable. When I next 

 visited Waingongoro, expecting to carry off another load of Moa bones, I 

 found, to my surprise, that they had disappeared. I afterwards heard that 

 Mr. Mantel] had passed that way after me, and had cleared the place of all 

 worth taking. I seldom, however, travelled over the sandhills bordering the 

 coast without finding some remains of the Moa, especially on those near the 

 Wano-anui Heads. On one occasion I found a large number of fine specimens, 

 and being unable to take them with me on my journey I made a pile of them, 

 carefully covering them up, and marking the spot, intending to remove them 

 on my return, but when I came back I found every one had disappeared, some 

 one else having found the prize and secured it. 



One morning the chief John Williams brought me nearly a perfect skeleton 

 of a very large Moa, which only wanted the skull to make it complete. The 

 wind had blown away the sand from the old level, and upon it he found the 

 bones, laid just as it had died, with the rings of the wind-pipe, and a heap of 

 quartz pebbles which had once been in its gizzard. Thinking it highly 

 probable a further search would enable me to find the skull, I rode to the 

 spot and found my conjecture correct ; the wind had removed the sand from 

 a lai-ger surface since my native friend had been there, and the first sight was 

 a very gratifying one, there was the entire skull stretched out and partly 

 imbedded in the clay soil, with the upper and lower bills quite complete. I 

 found when I attempted to remove it that it was in a most friable state. 



I succeeded, however, at last, and most carefully wrapped it up and placed 

 it in the crown of my hat. I had scarcely remounted my horse before the 

 animal began to buck-jump most violently; in an instant I found myself 

 sprawling on the ground, with my treasure scattered about in innumerable 

 fragments. Though in great pain I managed to collect some of the largest 

 pieces, and amongst them the extremities of the upper and lower mandibles, 

 which were afterwards sent to Professor Owen. 



So abundant were Moa bones in former years that whenever a sandhill 

 was shifted by the wind, and the old surface exposed, it was generally found 

 to be strewed with the remains of the Moa, but the grand place to find them 

 used to be in the shell-heaps — our Maori middens, — which form some of the 

 most conspicuous objects on our western shores, where they stand out in 

 bright relief amongst the sandhills. In the scarce months, which used to be 

 called mangere munm, the lazy grumbling season, the natives used to flock 



