211 
secured the skin, together with very fine specimens of the Kakapo or 
Ground Parrot (Striyojis), a pair of Huias ( Neomorpha ), and two 
species of Kiwi-kiwi, namely Apteryx Australis and Ap. Oweni; the 
latter very rare bird is now added to the collection of the British 
Museum. 
Mr. Walter Mantell states, that, according to the native traditions, 
a large Rail was contemporary with the Moa, and formed a principal 
article of food among their ancestors. It was known to the North 
Islanders by the name of “ Moko,” and to the South Islanders by 
that of “ Takahe /’ but the bird was considered by both natives and 
Europeans to have been long since exterminated by the wild cats and 
dogs, not an individual having been seen or heard of since the arrival 
of the English colonists. That intelligent observer, the Rev. Richard 
Taylor, who has so long resided in the islands, had never heard of a 
bird of this kind having been seen. In his ‘ Leaf from the Natural 
History of New Zealand*/ under the head of “ Moho ,” is the follow¬ 
ing note: “ Rail, colour black, said to be a wingless bird as large 
as a fowl, having a long bill and red beaks and legs ; it is nearly ex¬ 
terminated by the cat: its cry was ‘ keo, keo.’ ” The inaccuracy and 
vagueness of this description prove it to be from native report and 
not from actual observation. To the natives of the pahs or villages 
on the homeward route, and at Wellington, the bird was a perfect 
novelty and excited much interest. I may add, that upon comparing 
the head of the bird with the fossil cranium and mandibles, and the 
figures and descriptions in the ‘Zoological Transactions’ (pi. 56), 
my son was at once convinced of their identity ; and so delighted was 
he by the discovery of a living example of one of the supposed extinct 
contemporaries of the Moa, that he immediately wrote to me, and 
mentioned that the skull and beaks were alike in the recent and fossil 
specimens, and that the abbreviated and feeble development of the 
wings, both in their bones and plumage, were in perfect accordance 
with the indications afforded by the fossil humerus and sternum 
found by him at Waingongoro, and now in the British Museum, as 
pointed out by Professor Owen in the memoir above referred to. 
It may not be irrelevant to add, that in the course of Mr. Walter 
Mantell’s journey from Banks’ Peninsula along the coast to Otago, 
he learnt from the natives that they believed there still existed in that 
country the only indigenous terrestrial quadruped, except a species 
of rat, which there are any reasonable grounds for concluding New 
Zealand ever possessed. While encamping at Arowenua in the di¬ 
strict of Timaru, the Maoris assured him that about ten miles inland 
there was a quadruped which they called Kaureke, and that it was 
formerly abundant, and often kept by their ancestors in a domestic 
state as a pet animal. It was described as about two feet in length, 
with coarse grisly hair; and must have more nearly resembled the 
Otter or Badger than the Beaver or the Ornithorhynchus, which the 
first accounts seemed to suggest as the probable type. The offer of 
a liberal reward induced some of the Maoris to start for the interior 
of the country where the Kaureke was supposed to be located, but 
* Published at Wellington, 1848. 
