20 The Giant Birds of New Zealand. [January, 
however, references to the moa; it is stated that their long 
plumes excelled in beauty the crest of the white heron, which 
is so highly prized by the Maoris. 
That the moa not only inhabited New Zealand in great num- 
bers, but also exhibited great variety among themselves, is shown 
by the differences in the size of the vast number of remains that 
have been collected. While the larger bones of Dinornis ele- 
phantopus were short and exceedingly thick and ponderous, the 
femur measuring nearly eight inches in circumference at the 
smallest portion of the shaft, the corresponding bones of D. 
gracilis were longer and comparatively slim, indicating a bird of 
more elegant proportions. The largest of the moas, D. giganteus, 
that stood full ten feet high in its natural position, and could 
reach to a much greater height, presents a great contrast to 
the smallest of these birds with which we are acquainted, which 
could not have been taller than a large turkey. 
We have but to greatly exaggerate in our fancy the general 
form of the wingless and tailless kiwi, to have an accurate idea 
of their ancient representative. The moa was not furnished, 
however, with the long, slim bill that the kiwi uses so adroitly 
in probing the earth in quest of worms, but possessed a much 
shorter and stronger bill, indicating a more strictly vegetable 
diet. Its principal food was, probably, the root of the Pteris 
esculenta, which it could easily tear up with its powerful claws. 
Besides the various species of Dinornis and Palapteryx, the 
remains of numerous other fossil birds have been found, not ap- 
proaching these in size, however ; they include species of Apteryx, 
penguin, albatross, parrot, goose, etc., showing that the feathered 
tribes have long been the rulers in New Zealand. 
During the past few years so much interest has been taken in 
these fossils that they have found their way into nearly every 
public museum in the world. Next to the colonial museums of 
New Zealand, the finest collection of moa skeletons is to be 
found at the American Museum in Central Park, which consists 
of a large number of mounted skeletons of different species, in- 
eluding the giant of them all, the Dinornis giganteus, the skeleton 
of which stands about ten feet high; this colossal bird, if living 
and striding along the muddy shore of some sheltered bay, would 
leave tracks in the mud as huge as those which excite the won- 
der of the geologist from the triassic sandstone of Connecticut 
and New Jersey. Other skeletons of the moa may be seen at the 
Smithsonian Institution in Washington, and in the Geological 
Museum of the School of Mines, Columbia College, New York. 
