WARD’S NATURAL SCIENCE BULLETIN. 
7 
Skin from neck, and Feather of Moa, from New Zealand. 
Skin from Earnsclengli Cave. Feather from cave behind Queenstown. 
The Moa, continued f rom page 5. 
to be found, with the exception of about the 
mouths of the burns coining in from the hills, 
where the bones have been brought down by 
freshets.” * * * “Now what does this fact 
point to? The only answer I can give is that the 
Moa was extinct in this locality when the whole 
Maniototo plains, from the level spoken of, was 
yet under water.” These statements by Mr. 
Booth agree well with the position maintained 
so stoutly by Dr. Haast, previously quoted, who 
is the strongest and most prominent defender of 
the theory of the early extinction of the Moa 
throughout the whole of New Zealand. He 
claims that it became extinct before the occupa- 
tion of the islands by the present Maori race, 
and gives us a great deal of geological data in 
support of this position. At Moa-bone Point 
cave be found a stratum “three or four inches in 
thickness, mostly consisting of refuse matter 
from human occupation, and of ashes.” “It 
was especially in some localities, as for instance 
near the entrance of the cave, replete wdtli 
kitchen middens of the Moa hunters,” among 
which were found polished and unpolished stone 
implements, a few small tools made of bone, 
personal ornaments, fire sticks, etc. “And now 
as it were at once, the Moa-hunters disappeared 
from the scene,” and the cave remained unin- 
habited for a considerable space of time, as 
shown by “ the clear line of demarcation between 
that layer and the shell bed above it, in which no 
Moa bones were found,” and by the deposit of 
blown sand between the two, about a foot thick 
at the entrance of the cave, and gradually thin 
ning out as it advanced toward the interior. — 
Below this line, Moa bones and fragments of egg 
shells were very abundant, and with them were 
the bones of seals and a few other animals. 
Above this line, which doubtless represents a 
long interval of time, there were no remains of 
the Moa to be found, and the deposits showed 
the cave to have been occupied for a long period 
by a race who lived mostly upon shell-fish, a food 
which was apparently used very little by the 
Moa hunters. Dr. Haast and others give us the 
details with reference to a number of other 
localities which tell the same story, viz: That 
the Moa and Moa-hunters flourished and passed 
away, and that another race, with different 
habits, after a, long interval , occupied the same 
places, still after all it may have been the same 
Moa-hunting race returned, after long wander- 
ings, to their former habitat. There being no 
more Moa’s to eat, they feasted on shell-fish. 
The Reverends W. Colenso and J. W. Stack, 
gentlemen versed in Maori lore, have reached 
pearly the same conclusions as Dr. Haast, from 
entirely different data. According to these 
gentlemen the old traditions, songs, and poetry 
of the New Zealanders furnish no evidence 
that they knew aught of the Dinornis. The word 
Moa occurs but seldom in their songs and 
legends, and has various other meanings besides 
that of a large bird, and it was sometimes used 
figuratively in allusion to the myth that the Moa 
lived on air. — A love-sick maiden who mourned 
her lover and would not eat was christened 
Hinemoa (the young lady who lived on air). 
Mr. Colenso has evidently given this whole 
subject a great deal of time and careful study. 
In liis paper written in 1842, previously referred 
to, he says: “From native tradition we gain 
nothing to aid us in our inquiries after the prob- 
able age in which this animal lived; for although 
the New Zealander abounds in traditionary lore, 
both natural and supernatural, he appears to be 
totally ignorant of anything concerning the Moa, 
save the fabulous stories already referred to,” 
and thinks it certain that this would not be the 
case if such an animal lived within the times of 
the present race, but in an exhaustive paper 
published in the Trans, of the N. Z. Institute, 
three years ago, he sums up his final conclusions 
thus: 
“1. That the bird Moa (some of those of its 
genera and species) was really known to the 
ancient Maori. 
2. That such happened very long ago, in almost 
p re-historical times: long before the beginning of 
their genealogical descents of tribes, which, as 
we know, extended back for more than twenty- 
five generations. 
3. That this conclusion is the only logical de- 
duction from all that I have been able to gather; 
whether myth, legend, proverb, song, or the 
etymological rendering of proper names of places, 
persons, etc.” 
In regard to the numerous accounts published 
of Maori descriptions of the Moa, he says: 
“ From January, 1838 (when I first heard of the 
Moa), down to 1842, and later, no man could 
possibly do more than I did in my quest after it, 
and no man could have had better opportunities.” 
* * “And I again assert, that it was through 
me that the Maoris generally got to know of the 
Moa having been a real (or common) bird. I 
showed them repeatedly, at the station, the plates 
in Rees’ cyclopaedia, containing all the Strulhious 
birds, and told them of their habits, etc., and of 
my opinion of the extinct Moa ; that information 
was carried almost everywhere (with, no doubt, 
many additions), and that information, together 
with simple leading questions on the part of the 
inquirers (especially when put by the governor 
of the colony, or any superior, — which, accord- 
ing to Maori etiquette, would not be negatived 
even if wrong) and, also, with but a small knowl- 
edge of the Maori tongue on the part of the 
Europeans, fully explains all to me, and that 
very satisfactorily.” 
Mr. Colenso remarks that the condition of 
things forty years ago, or before the colony w^as 
established, was very different from what it is 
now, and says his inquiries “ were carried every- 
where throughout the length and breadth of the 
North Island; they were the constant theme of 
conversation among the Maoris, who then had 
little of a novel nature to talk over, — increased, 
from the fact of rewards being offered for bones, 
feathers (if any) and for information.” 
It requires but little knowledge of the work- 
ings of the savage mind to see the force of these 
arguments. 
Notwithstanding, many competent observers 
believe that the "Moa became extinct in very 
recent times. Dr. Hector, Director of the New 
Zealand geological survey, among the number. 
Mr; Walter Mantell (son of the eminent geologist) 
was the first explorer of the : 'tificial Moa beds, 
soon after the settlement of the colony, and 
advanced the idea that Motts existed to very 
recent times. And Mr. Mantell seems very certain 
that Maoris in the South at. the date of his early 
explorations, in 1846, w re well acquainted with 
the former existence of the Moas and the circum- 
stances which led to their extinction. He also 
thinks that cannibalism prevailed, but in the 
North Island only, at the time the Moa was used 
for food. 
Several bones of the Moa, with the dried liga- 
ments still attached, have been found, together 
with portions of the skin and a few feathers, 
although Dr. Haast claims that the conditions 
were exceptionally favorable for their long pre- 
servation, others contend that they cannot be 
very many years old. 
Capt. Hatton thought that the weight of evi- 
dence goes to show that the remains from the 
Earnsclugh cave “are not very old, and that 
probably they do not date further back than the 
commencement of the present century,” but 
in speaking of the bones with dried skin from 
the Knobby Ranges, found more recently (1874) 
in a crevice among the rocks, he says: “The 
extraordinary juxtaposition of decayed and 
lichen-covered bones with well preserved skin 
and fiesh seems to me to point to some peculiar- 
ity in the atmosphere which enabled flesh to 
resist decay when shaded from the rays of the 
sun, and by no means to prove that the bird to 
which this neck and flesh belonged lived at a 
later date than those whose bones we now find 
buried under the soil.” 
D. W. Murrison thinks that if what Dr. Haast 
and Mr. Colenso say is true for the North Island, 
it certainly cannot be made to apply to the South 
Island, and says, “I think from the evidence we 
are in possession of, there is every reason to 
suppose that the Dinornis has existed within the 
last hundred years.” And thus the discussion is 
kept up as to the time when the Moa became 
extinct. 
As a sample of the traditions which Mr. Co- 
lenso explains away, w r e quote from Mr. J. W. 
Hamilton (Trans. N. Z. Inst., 1874): “In 1844, 
at Wellington, I was present, as Governor Fitz- 
roy’s private secretary, at a conversation held 
with a very old Maori, who asserted that he had 
seen Capt. Cook. This Maori, so far as my 
memory now serves me, I should guess was 
seventy years old, at all events he was brought 
forward as the oldest of his people then residing 
about Port Nicholson. Being asked had he ever 
seen a Moa, he replied, “Yes, he had seen the 
last one that had been heard of,” and on being 
questioned described it as a very large bird with 
a neck like that of a horse. Mr. H. further says: 
“In 1844, and for many years later, it was be- 
lieved by our people for a certainty that the Moa 
was still to be found alive in the South Island, of 
which very little was then known,” and that 
stories were currently reported of one or two old 
