16 The Giant Birds of New Zealand. [January, 
a wider portion, which, together with the small space in which 
to work, made the task difficult ; we were rewarded, however, by 
finding a well-preserved femur of a smaller species of moa, prob- 
ably Dinornis didiformis, and also a perfect sternum, perhaps be- 
longing to the same skeleton, measuring seven inches in length 
by five in breadth, formed of a single strong, somewhat curved 
plate of bone, without any indication of a keel, thus forming a 
striking contrast with the strongly keeled sternum of the eagle and 
other birds of flight. The most interesting relics that were found 
in the cave were fragments of the egg-shell of these same birds ; 
the largest piece was about five inches long by three in breadth, 
and but slightly changed by its long stay in the cave; these 
fragments were about the twentieth of an inch thick, and cov- 
ered irregularly with punctures. The largest piece being placed 
upon an ostrich egg shows it to have belonged to a very much 
= larger egg. A nearly perfect egg of the moa, discovered some 
years ago, was about ten inches long by seven in breadth, so 
large that “ a hat would make a good egg-cup for it.” 
In addition, we found in our Moa Cave some small, slim bones 
which are probably portions of the skeleton of a kiwi; and also 
an imperfectly ossified bone, about an inch long, lying with the 
fragments of egg-shell; this we were inclined to think belonged 
to the “ chick ” that was once inside of the moa’s egg, the frag- 
ments of which we had obtained. 
The cave where these bones were found was one of a series of 
nearly parallel rents, that followed for some distance the base of 
a precipice some two or three hundred feet high, and had evi- 
dently been formed by the falling away of a portion of the hill- 
side, which is composed of mica-schist. ‘That the bones were 
introduced from above, either by being washed in, or by the 
birds falling into the crevices, seems evident, for the caves were 
too narrow and too difficult of access to be inhabited by a bird 
as large as the moa. That some of the bones fell from above is 
clearly shown by the fact, that one huge femur had been caught 
between the side of the cave and a fragment of rock which had 
fallen in but was too large to reach the bottom ; this bone was 
held so firmly that it was with considerable difficulty we secured 
it. 
There is little doubt that the moa roamed over those mount- 
ains after they had received their present form, and the finding 
of their remains in such an inaccessible place, shows that huge 
as those birds were, they yet possessed considerable activity, for 
