288 Dr A. Thomson on the Moa Caves of New Zealand. 



nearly right, that the period of the extinction of the gigantic 

 Moa occurred about the 17th century, and that this event 

 might have been slightly hastened, but not produced, by the 

 hand of man. New Zealand appears to have been the last 

 refuge for wingless birds ; but as sure as the race of men 

 who peopled ancient Babylon and Nineveh, and other coun- 

 tries, have become extinct, and as surely as many of the 

 Polynesian race are now decaying, so certainly will the whole 

 of the wingless birds in New Zealand, like the Moa, become 

 extinct. They have run their course, have fulfilled their 

 destiny, and are now following the law which the Creator 

 has stamped on all his works. 



Professor Owen's idea that the want of food after the ex- 

 tinction of the Moa may have caused the New Zealanders 

 to adopt the disgusting custom of cannibalism is not at all 

 likely ; for the motives which led the New Zealanders to eat 

 human flesh were hatred, revenge, and to cast disgrace on 

 the person eaten. That it was unlawful for women to eat 

 human flesh, unless under some peculiar circumstances, will 

 at once set at rest the supposition that human flesh was ever 

 made a substitute for animal food. I do not make this 

 statement without inquiry ; but the subject is foreign to this 

 paper, otherwise I would enlarge upon it. 



Observations on some of the probable habits of the Moas. 

 — I. They were of an indolent nature, and not much given 

 to moving about. — This I infer, because the New Zealanders 

 always describe them as being very fat ; and Mr Owen con- 

 cludes they were a more sluggish bird than the Ostrich, in 

 consequence of the small size of the neural canal of the 

 spine, and the relative shortness of the ankle-bone meta- 

 tarsus. 



II. They lived in mountain fastnesses and secluded caves. 

 — This I infer, because all tradition points to such districts 

 as the probable places where Moas' bones are still to be 

 found. The finding of bones in caves almost confirms this 

 idea ; for if the Moas did not live in them, they resorted to 

 them to die. The Ostrich and Emu live in plains ; perhaps 



