Canterbury and West-land. 441 



wish to enter the arena, tells me that " this can easily be explained by 

 the old rule of Maori etiquette, viz. of commonly assenting to leading 

 questions, especially when asked by a superior, and indeed such was 

 often done, to put a stop to importunity. " The South Island has 

 always been pointed out as being the last refuge of the Moa, but both 

 the Kev. I. I\ H. Woehlers, of Buapuke, and the Key. James W. 

 Stack, as well as Mr. Alexander Mackay, Native Commissioner, who 

 all three for many years past, enjoyed excellent opportunities of 

 obtaining accurate information from the natives, and have been 

 collecting most carefully their traditions, have shown that with the 

 exception of a few fabulous allusions, nothing whatsoever is known of 

 the Moa by the natives. 



Similar fabulous traditions exist according to the late Mr Sherbrook 

 "Walker, in the Friendly Islands, of an enormous bird and gigantic 

 lizard, a small hill in the Island of Eua being still called Te Moa (Moa 

 dung). Also in many other countries, such mythical allusions to 

 extinct gigantic animals are not wanting, of which I may be allowed 

 to quote here a few in illustration. Commencing with Australia, Dr. S. 

 Bennett gives an account of the natives about the Diprotodon in the 

 " Annals and Magazine of Natural History " for April, 1872. In 

 Buffon's " Natural History " we find several traditions of the North 

 American Indians about the Mastodon. Similar traditions, according to 

 Pallas, exist in China and Tartary, of the Mammoth, and Dr Otto 

 Finsch, who only lately has returned from a journey through Siberia, 

 collected several fabulous legends concerning the same gigantic animal 

 from the Ostiacs. In several of my papers treating of the Moa question 

 I have explained how we may account for the freshness of some of 

 the Moa-bones, and how even the skin, sinews, and feathers 

 could be preserved. In most cases this explanation was an easy one, 

 either the geological position of the bones showing their undoubted age 

 or one portion of the very same individual bird being quite as much 

 decomposed as the generality of the Moa remains are, whilst the 

 other is in a remarkably fine state of preservation (as for instance the 

 Tiger Hill skeleton in Otago), or some very favourable and exceptional 

 circumstances could be pointed out, to which the Moa-bones owe their 

 remarkable preservation. In the same publication, I have also given 

 some examples from other countries, proving how the remains of 

 animals doubtless extinct for a great number of years, have under the 

 same favourable conditions been preserved in a striking manner, to 

 which I wish to refer the reader. Since then another and most wonder- 



