m 
Cave, that tlio remains of Dinornis didiformis presenting a very 
recent appearance were always on the top, while the hones of Dinor- 
nis elephantopus were dug from a deeper stratum, sometimes from 
under stalactite three feet thick, and in a half-fossil state like mam- 
moth bones, so that it almost seems as though the different species 
of those colossal birds had not all lived contemporaneous. Nor were 
the bones of the various individual birds piled up pell-mell so that 
they might be supposed to have been carried piecemeal together; 
but the skeletons lay there whole, each bone in its proper place, 
the phalanges of the several toes together, next the legs, than the 
pelvis , the ribs and the breast- 
d- - bone , finally the vertebral co- 
lumn with the skull and the 
bill ; even the rings of the bron- 
chial artery were in their proper 
place; and where the stomach 
had been, the “Moa stones” 
were found. From these facts it is evident that the birds died in 
those caves, which served them as a hiding-place. Unfortunately, 
however, several of those bones were so rotten that they crumbled to 
pieces on being taken out, and notwithstanding the utmost cau- 
tion used in handling them, the skeletons could not be preserved 
perfect. 
Section through the Moa-Cave in the Aorere 
Valley; a. Bed with Din. didiformis. b. Bed 
with Din. elephantopus. c. Stalactite, d. Lime- 
stone. 
The collections, which my friends brought to Collingwood, 
contained bones of ten different individual birds , belonging to six 
or seven species, among them also Kiwi bones. 1 This collection 
was increased moreover by the addition of the skeleton first found, 
— a nearly perfect skeleton of Palapteryx ingens , — which the find- 
ers had presented to the Nelson Museum. The trustees of said 
Museum, in their turn, destined it as a most valuable present to 
the Museum of the Imperial Geological Institution at Vienna, where 
it is at present exhibited. My friend Dr. G. Jaeger has devoted 
1 The Provincial Government of Nelson after my departure ordered new dig- 
gings to be made in the caves of the Aorere Valley, which yielded results equally 
favourable. 
