﻿Williams. — On Footjmnts of a Large Bird. 125 



in widtli. The prints are sncli as one would imagine were made by one of tlie 

 smaller species of moa. With a very few exceptions they were all of the same 

 size, viz. : — 



Extreme length from heel to tip of middle toe . . 7f in. 



From heel to tip of inner toe . . . . . 6 in. 



From heel to tip of outer toe . . . . . 6 in, 



Distance between tips of inner and outer toes . . 7 in. 



Greatest depth of impressions . . . . . If in. 



The only prints of a different size were those apparently of a young bird, 

 all in one series and at regular intervals, every alternate impression being 

 characterised by a peculiarity in one of the toes, which showed that they had 

 all been made by the same bird. The removal of a portion of the overlying 

 sti-atum of rock, about six inches thick, brought to view another of these smaller 

 impressions, in the exact position which was indicated by the other members 

 of the series. The greater number of the larger impressions were close together 

 and pointed in various directions, as shown by the cast, which represents a few 

 of them from a spot where they were very numerous. In the case of some of 

 them, however, a connection could be distinctly traced, eight or more impres- 

 sions following one another at regular intervals ; but the stride is so short 

 (barely twenty inches from heel to heel of two consecutive impressions) that 

 the bird must have been walking at a very leisurely pace. 



The rock in which these impressions are found is very soft, containing a 

 large proportion of a fine pumiceous sand, and has all the appearance of being 

 a river deposit, the birds having walked over it some little time after the fresh 

 had subsided, when the mud was getting moderately dry. Soon after the 

 impressions were made, a quantity of sand, much coarser than that which 

 enters into the composition of the rock, must have been drifted over it by the 

 wind, filling up all the foot-prints, and covering the whole surface to a moderate 

 depth ; the general thickness of the layei', after having been compressed by 

 subsequent deposits, being about five-eighths of an inch. That this must have 

 happened soon after the impressions were made, and before the mud had become 

 quite dry, is indicated by the way in which this coarser sand is imbedded in 

 the bottom of the impressions. It is owing to this layer of comparatively 

 loose sand that the impressions have been so well preserved. Subsequent 

 deposits of silt have taken place, covering that in which the impressions are 

 found to the depth of about two feet. All these deposits are now being 

 gradually worn away by the action of the water and of the weather. Over- 

 lying the whole, in the pai-t which the water has not interfered with, is a layer 

 of sand, gravel, shells, and soil, to the depth of four feet. 



The question naturally suggests itself, what light do these footprints throw 

 upon the age in which the Moa lived in this island ? Moa bones have been 



