﻿Ha AST. — Moas and Moa Hunters. 93 



difierent habits and modes of life. Instead of that, we find them speaking of 

 the Moa indiscriminately, a word extensively used all over the Polynesian 

 Islands. I may also here state that the Hev. R. Taylor alludes already in the 

 publication previously quoted to the native report about the Maero, or wild 

 man of the wood. Another important fact, of which I have omitted to speak, 

 is the discovery of a Dinornis skeleton in the Manuherikia plains, in which 

 not only portions of integuments and feathers were still attached to the sacrum, 

 and a portion of the sole of the foot was still intact, but also the joints of one 

 leg had their ligaments and inarticular cartilages preserved. We owe to Dr. 

 Hector many intei'esting details concerning the discovery and position of this 

 unique specimen, which was found fourteen feet below the ground, partly 

 imbedded in a stratum of dry sand. As some portion of the skeleton was 

 already in the fossil condition in which moa bones are usually found, we 

 must assume that the better preserved portion owes its present condition to a 

 very exceptional case, such as being imbedded in a layer of very dry sand, by 

 which it lias been transformed into a natural mummy, and in which state 

 human and animal remains are known to have existed in several parts of the 

 world for a very considerable time. The discovery of a human skeleton, 

 together with a moa egg-shell, in excavating for the foundations of a house on 

 the Kaikoura peninsula, is another fact I should have alluded to. Unfortu- 

 nately, the skeleton has not been preserved, or we might conclude from its 

 examination to what race the owner of the egg had belonged. However, I 

 have been informed that the Maoi'is had not the least tradition of a burial 

 place of their own race having ever been in that locality, and disclaim the 

 skeleton as belonging to them. And even if it had turned out that it had 

 been of truly Maori origin, and that polished stone implements had been also 

 found near it, we could not conclude therefrom that the Dinornis egg was of 

 co-temporaneous origin with the individual with whom it was found buried. 

 We might as well believe that the eocene or cretaceous fossils, artificially 

 bored, wbich, together with human remains, have been found in caves on the 

 continent of Europe, must be of the same age as the human bones with which 

 they are associated. In addition to the facts that small heaps of so-called 

 moa stones are found on the plains, which might indicate a spot where a bird 

 had died, I wish also to state that I have met with moa stones in such localities 

 where it would have been impossible for a body to lie, and which offered 

 evidence that, like the Emu, the Dinornis had the power of disgoi'ging the 

 stones when they were so much polished that they could not longer be used 

 for the comminution of the food. This is the more probable as the stones in 

 such positions are always very smooth, while those I found with the skeletons, 

 and of which one fine specimen, from the Aorere caves in the Nelson province, 

 is in the Canterbury Museum, exhibit well their natural roughness. Finally, 



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