ON MOA AND OTHER REMAINS. » 203 
ON MOA AND OTHER REMAINS FROM THE 
‘TENGAWAI RIVER, CANTERBURY. 
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The report in the JouRNAL oF SciENcE for July of a paper ‘On 
Moa Remains from the Mackenzie Country and elsewhere,” read by 
Mr. F. R. Chapman before the Otago Institute, has induced me to 
offer some observations on Moa and other remains collected in the’ 
adjoining country, situated between the Opawa and Tengawai 
Rivers, below the Mackenzie Pass. The district is one of special 
interest, and possesses many valuable relicts of the Maori and Moa, ~ 
being a limestone country and abounding with caves. They formed 
in ages passed away comfortable dwellings for the Maoris, and the 
walls and roofs ot several are still adorned with grotesque figures 
of rock paintings. Some are perfect, others are in a sadly dilapi- 
dated state; and judging by the quantities of Moa bones occurring 
in the swamps, caves, ‘‘ swallow holes,’’ and debris of the hmestone, 
the district appears to have been thickly inhabited with Moas, and 
for a considerable period formed the hunting grounds of the 
Maorxis. The bones, with several stone implements, have occa- 
sionally been found when ploughing the downs and open lands near 
the limestone, and I have frequently observed bleached and 
broken fragments lying on the surface for several miles around. 
It is, however, in the swallow-holes that the bones occur in 
quantities, those I procured from them being in an almost perfect 
state of preservation. In one we descended with a rope we dug 
nearly two sacksful ot mixed bones. They were embedded at 
various depths in a tenacious damp yellow clay. After digging to 
a depth of four feet, we were unable to sink deeper, owing to the 
small space and having to shift and re-shift the clay. The bed 
which contained the remains was thirty-three feet from the sur- 
face, and was not perpendicular with the mouth of the hole, but 
lay seven feet to one side. On the opposite side an underground 
cave stretched twenty-five feet into the rock; a small stream of 
water flowed over the floor and disappeared in a fissure of the rock 
at one end. We felt with a crowbar in the soft mud beneath the 
waters, and succeeded in procuring more by this means. Among 
the bones have been identified a large number of Ocydromus aus- 
tvalis, one skull of Nestov, three of Stvingops habroptilus, four (with 
other bones) of Kiwi, and three species of Moa, as Dinornis crassus, 
elephantopus and Palapteryx ingens. Although we failed to find a 
complete skeleton, there is little doubt that the remaining parts lie 
deeper in the clay, or perhaps are washed into fissures of the rock. 
There are twenty-two similar holes within a radius of halt a mile 
square, but many would be more difficult to explore than the one 
described. They all may therefore be expected to contain many 
precious relicts of the Moa. 
The occurrence of the Stvingops (Kakapo) in the swallow-holes 
may be accounted tor by the dense native bush growing near 
them, clothing the steep spurs sloping to the Tengawai Gorge, 
similar to those of the Grey and Buller Rivers on the West Coast, 
still inhabited by the Kakapo. The birds probably, like the 
Moas, while feeding on the more tender vegetation growing on the 
