8560 



Birds. 



entirely the two statements tally. Mr. Rees, of the Wakatipu, our present informant, has 

 taken one of the men in his employment, and has frequently conversed with him on 

 the subject. He has tested his veracity in every way he could conceive, and is 

 thoroughly convinced that the man is stating only the truth. His narration is as fol- 

 lows : — He and his mate started for the Arrow Township in search of a new gold dis- 

 covery, which was rumoured as being worked " on the quiet." One evening they en- 

 camped about twenty-five miles north-west of the Arrow. It was just sundown, and 

 they were sitting by their camp fire, when one of them exclaimed, " Look at that rise 

 above us, Jim ; there's some one there." They looked, and beheld an enormous bird 

 approaching to the edge of a hill immediately above them, at a distance of between 

 300 and 400 yards from where they were sitting. The bird seemed to perceive the 

 camp fire, and squatted down, keeping its head turned on one side, fixed on the fire. 

 It continued so for several minutes, and at last got up and walked off. Although it 

 stepped slowly it was soon out of sight, the length of its stride being so great. 

 Its height appeared about seven feet, without reckoning the head and neck. Its head 

 was very long and flat, and it carried its head bent forward, instead of carried back as 

 is usual with birds of the ostrich species. The next morning the men, having pro- 

 vided themselves with tent poles, proceeded to the spot, where they at once saw the 

 track of the bird and followed it a long distance, but without success. The track- 

 mark showed three claws, a distance of twelve inches intervening between the points 

 of each. Back about a foot was the mark of a pad, and behind that, again, that of a 

 spur. As we have said, the man from whom Mr. Rees had these particulars is now in 

 his employment. As soon as he has finished the work he is about, he is going in 

 search of the bird, Mr. Rees having promised him £500 for it, dead or alive. Mr. 

 Rees has entire faith in the truth of the account; the man has been many years in 

 the province, and is not likely to have imagined or invented the story. — ' Otayo Daily 

 Times? February 16. 



The Moa. — Reports coming from different quarters, together with the information 

 received at different times from the natives, point to the existence of a large bird in 

 the solitary parts of the interior of New Zealand, which is doubtless the long-coveted 

 moa. The bird was never very numerous, and, according to native authority, very shy 

 and retiring. The existence of this much-talked-of bird will not be long a question of 

 doubt, for every corner of the locality where it is said to be still in existence will soon 

 be ransacked by the gold-diggers of Otago and the district, who in their thirst for gold 

 are making daily encroachments on its solitary domains. Such of your readers as 

 have friends in New Zealand would confer a favour on us stay-at-home boys if they 

 would request their friends to keep them furnished with any new facts that come to 

 light, which they may easily do, as the question of the existence of the moa is causing 

 considerable stir in the colony, and any facts, however trivial, are eagerly seized upon 

 by the papers. — John Hanson, York. 



[Mr. Ranson cites two of the Reports I have here reprinted. T would also direct 

 the reader's attention to passages already published in the ' Zoologist.' See espe- 

 cially Zool. 7847. I am quite inclined to adopt the theory that the moa still exists. 

 — Edward Neiuman.'] 



