Is the Moa an extinct Bird ? 279 



then living in the snow-capped hills above Cloudy Bay, and 

 that two Americans, who resided in the neighbourhood, 

 equipped themselves with fire-arms, and proceeded in pur- 

 suit of the monster They hid themselves in a thicket near 

 the place where he lived, and shortly after they saw him 

 stalking about in search of food ; but they were so petrified 

 with horror at the sight, that they were unable to fire. 



They observed the monster, by their own account, for near 

 an hour ere he retired, and were right glad to escape from 

 witnessing a meal, where instead of eating they were all but 

 eaten. This Moa was described as being about 14 or 16 feet 

 high.* Mr Colenso did not place the least credit in this story. 



In a periodical^ of which only two numbers were pub- 

 lished, there is a paper on the geology of New Zealand, by 

 the Rev. Mr Taylour, in which it is stated that " he was 

 informed by Mr Meurant, a government native interpreter, 

 that in the latter end of 1823, he saw the flesh of the Moa 

 in Molyneux Harbour, in the middle island, and that the 

 flesh looked like bull-beef;'' and that he also saw a Moa's 

 bone, which reached four inches above his hip from the 

 ground, and as thick as his knee, with the flesh and sinews 

 upon it. The natives told him that the Moa, whose flesh he 

 had seen, was a dead one which had been found accidentally ; 

 that they had often tried to snare them, but without success. 

 A man, named George Pauley, now living in Foveaux Straits, 

 told him he had seen a Moa, which he described as being an 

 immense monster, standing twenty feet high ; he said he saw 

 it near a lake in the interior, and it ran from him, and he 

 ran from it ; that he saw its footmarks before he came to 

 the river Tairi in the mountains. Thomas Chasseland, a 

 man who sometimes interpreted for Meurant, and is well 

 acquainted with the Maori language, used to say that he 

 also had seen the flesh of the Moa, and at first he thought it 

 was "human flesh." 



If these stories were all true, there could be little doubt 

 that a Moa of the largest breed may still be living in the 

 solitudes of the middle island ; and if so, probably some en- 

 terprising colonist, from the settlements of Nelson, Otago, or 



* Tasmanian Jour., No. vii. ; 1843. t New Zealand Mag., April 1850. Wellington. 



