AMERICAN NATURALIST 



HISTORY OF THE MOAS. 

 By F. W. Hutton. 



The Moas belong to a group of birds called Ratita?, to which 

 also belong the Ostrich, the Rhea, the Emu, the Cassowary, and 

 the Kiwi. They are all birds with rudimentary wings, soft 

 fluffy feathers and adapted for terrestrial life. Professor T. J. 

 Parker has conclusively proved that the Ratitse are descended 

 from flying birds. The structure of their diminutive wings 

 and the cellular character of their bones are evidence that the 

 ancestors of the Ratitse could fly, but these flying ancestors- 

 must have lived a very long time ago, probably in the early 

 part of the eocene period. That the Moas have been a long 

 time in New Zealand is certain. In addition to the immense 

 number of bones found in peat beds and river-alluvia of 

 pleistocene age, remains have been found near Napier and 

 probably also near Wanganui, which belong to the newer 

 pliocene period. The bones of a small species of Moa, found 

 two years ago under a lava stream at Timaru, are still older 

 and probably upper miocene, while the Hon. W. Mantell 

 found in 1849 a fragment of a bone, which probably belonged 

 to a Moa, near Moeraki in beds of lower miocene age. 



The Ratitse are generally supposed to have originated in the 

 Northern Hemisphere, and to have spread southwards into 

 Patagonia, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. But if 

 so, how could birds which eoulu not fh ; i ._■ to reach New 



