MADAGASCAR AND NEW ZEALAND. 245 



"The ' Ravenscraig ' left Wellington June 21, Pernambuco August 25, 

 and arrived in the Downs on Saturday. On July 3 she was struck by a 

 tremendous sea, which swept her deck, doing a great deal of damage. On 

 July 14, in ]53°S., 113° W., James Faddie, the second officer, fell overboard 

 and was drowned, while the ship was running in a heavy gale. — Renter s 

 Express." 



This specimen was put up to auction at Stevens's rooms, Covent 

 Garden, on November 24, 1865, where I bid 100 guineas. It was, however, 

 at that time bought in for £200. 



A description was issued by the vendors, which is as follows : — 



"The following account of the singular discovery of this egg was 

 published in the Wellington papers : — 



" ' Discovery of a Moa's Egg at the Kai Koras. 



" ' There is at the present time being exhibited at Messrs. Bethune and 

 Hunter's stores, for the benefit of the curious, an object of no less interest 

 than the egg of a Moa, another relic of the rara avis of New Zealand. The 

 egg is of itself an object of no common interest to ordinary people; but it 

 must be still more so to those who watch narrowly the development of 

 natural history in its relations to this colony; and the circumstances connected 

 with the finding are calculated to lend a still greater, not to say romantic, 

 interest to it. 



" ' It appears from what we learn from Captain Davidson, of the schooner 

 ' Ruby,' which trades between this port and the Kai Koras, that a man in 

 Mr. Fyffe's employment at the latter place was digging the foundation of a 

 house, and when on the side of a small mound he suddenly came upon the 

 egg in question and the skeleton of a man, supposed of course to be a 



