of Edinburgh , Session 1873-74. 239 
The evidences of the late existence of the moa are to he seen. 
It is not possible that the tender skull and small bones could have 
been preserved in the situations in which they have been found 
for any great lapse of time. Exposed to the fierce summer sun, 
and the severe winter frosts on the upper Otago plains, the bones 
of a bullock soon decay, but upon these downs nearly perfect 
skeletons of moas have been found amongst the high fern, with a 
heap of the so-called moa stones beside them, evidently undis- 
turbed since the birds died upon the spot. The feathers in the 
museum at Wellington are some of those preserved by the chiefs 
in the carved boxes which most persons of distinction possessed 
for the purpose of keeping such prized ornaments. These, and 
the egg with the well-developed bones of the embryo chick, of 
which a photograph is here presented, — the extremely interesting 
relic, the cervical vertebrae of a moa, to which the skin, partially 
covered with feathers, is still attached by the shrivelled muscles 
and integuments, found in a cave in Otago formed by an over- 
hanging cliff of mica schist, — are amongst the objects in that collec- 
tion affording proofs almost incontrovertible, to say nothing of the 
traditions of the mode of hunting the grand quarry,* preserved in 
Maorie song and story. 
The remains of these gigantic birds are common throughout 
both islands. No Maorie, upon being shown any of the principal 
bones, will hesitate in referring them at once to the moa. If 
credence is denied to their traditions, we are obliged to come to 
the conclusion that the different tribes possessed persons endowed 
with the acumen of a Cuvier or an Owen, who explained from 
public the marvellous auriferous and general mineral wealth of that continent, 
and by his indefatigable researches has added so much to our knowledge of its 
strange denizens in the past, as well as at the present time. Professor Owen 
has named this bird dromornis, considering it to have been more allied to the 
emeu than the moa or apterix tribe. 
* The paper was accompanied by two photographs. Of these, one was that 
of the skeleton of one of the largest specimens hitherto obtained. It is 
placed in the museum at Christ Church, New Zealand, beside that of a tall 
man. It was one of a great number dug up by Mr Moore at Glenmark in 
Canterbury province, in a piece of swampy ground, now transformed into a 
fine garden, which had been one of those places into which the bones of 
different individuals were washed from the hills around during freshes, and 
into which the moas rushed when driven by the fires kindled by the natives 
for the purpose of driving their game, dray loads of bones being here collected. 
2 H 
VOL. VIII. 
