The time that has elapsed since the Moa was seen. 285 



Were there any gigantic Moas alive when the New Zealand- 

 ers arrived in New Zealand ? — I think there were not many 

 gigantic Moas in New Zealand at that time, for, although 

 there are traditions enough to enable us to conclude that 

 there must have been some of them cotemporary with the 

 first New Zealanders, yet several tribes, e.g., the Ngapuhis, 

 who live in the northern part of the north island, have no 

 traditions about the Moa, and they have asked Europeans to 

 describe to them what kind of an animal it was. The coun- 

 try where the Ngapuhis tribe live is the narrowest part of 

 the island, and no bones of the bird have been found in this 

 district ; and if the Moas had been so numerous as to have 

 furnished food for the inhabitants, according to Professor 

 Owen's idea, we should have had a greater variety of tradi- 

 tions about them. I have heard and read several accounts of 

 what the natives saw when they first landed in New Zealand, 

 but in none of these traditions is there any mention made of 

 their having seen a Moa on the sea-coast. The Dodo was 

 abundant, according to Leguat,* near the sea-coast. 



It is supposed that there were more Moas in the middle 

 than in the north island, but I doubt this circumstance. All 

 the bones that have been seen in the middle island have been 

 found in a limited space, and in good preservation, — a fact 

 which may have produced this opinion. 



Probable time which has elapsed since the last gigantic 

 Moa was seen. — A few years before the death of the great 

 chief Tee Rauparaha, he was asked if he had ever seen a Moa 

 himself, or a man who had seen one, and he said he had not. 

 As he was then about 80 years of age, his answer takes us 

 back about 160 years ; and as I believe from careful inquiry 

 that this is tolerably correct, I do think we will not be far 

 wrong in assuming that all the Moas were extinct in this 

 country 200 years ago, or about two centuries after the arri- 



* A New Voyage to the East Indies, by Francis Leguat and his Companions. 

 8vo. London, 1708. 



VOL. LVI. NO. CXII. — APRIL L854. U 



