The Discovery of the Moa Bones. 275 



by all New Zealanders. The love of money made some 

 Christian natives conquer their fears, and enter the cave 

 three years ago to look for Moas' bones ; but the examina- 

 tion was apparently made in a very hasty and imperfect 

 manner. It was in such gigantic caves as this, that the 

 richest harvest of fossil and sub-fossil bones have been found 

 in Europe, South America, and Australia. 



History of the Discovery of the Bones of the Moa, and 

 the Characters of the Genus Dinornis. — In the late Sir Ro- 

 bert Peel's gallery of " modern worthies " at Drayton Manor, 

 there hangs a portrait of Professor Richard Owen, and in his 

 hand is depicted the tibia of a Moa. This is a just and ap- 

 propriate connection ; for to the original mind of Mr Owen 

 the world is indebted for the first hint of the existence of 

 this gigantic bird. The discovery was made in this manner. 

 In 1839 a Mr Rule lent Professor Owen a part of the thigh- 

 bone of a Moa, which had been obtained in New Zealand, 

 and from this single fragment he drew up a wonderfully cor- 

 rect notice of the bird. This memoir was sent out to New 

 Zealand, and distributed among some of the missionaries. 

 In the Tasmanian Journal* for 1843, there appeared a 

 very excellent account, by the Rev. Mr Colenso, of some 

 Moa's bones which he had obtained in New Zealand ; but I 

 was struck, on reading this paper, to find no mention made 

 of Mr Owen's memoir, which was entitled " Notice of a 

 Fragment of the Femur of a gigantic Bird in New Zealand." 

 Since then Professor Owen has contributed, in several papers, 

 observations on the Moa, which papers were founded on the 

 collections of bones sent to England by Archdeacon W. 

 Williams, Dr Mackellar, Mr Percy Earl, Colonel Wakefield, 

 Mr Walter Mantell, and others. It is worthy of mention in 

 this place, that not the least curious object in the Museum 

 of the Royal College of Surgeons in London is the skeleton 

 of this feathered giant, built up from some of these materials 

 by Mr Owen. 



The Moa belongs to the Struthious order of birds, a family 



* This journal was originated and supported by Sir John Franklin, when 

 Governor of Van Diemen's Land. 



