443 
“JT will get all the information on the subject, and, if possible, examine the locality 
myself this summer. I have fowarded some publications to you by this mail, which 
IT trust you will receive. 
** Very sincerely yours, 
(Signed) « James Hector.” 
In the * Transactions of the New-Zealand Institute,’ vol. iv. 1872, my friendly cor- 
respondent states:—‘ I have now to describe another remarkable specimen from the 
same district, being the cervical vertebrae of a Moa, apparently of the largest size, upon 
the posterior aspect of which the skin, partly covered with feathers, is still attached by 
the shrivelled muscles and ligaments. 
“The specimen in question belongs to Dr. Thomson, of Clyde, who obtained it from 
a gold-miner, and kindly forwarded it to me for description. It was discovered in a 
cave, or under an overhanging mass of mica-schist, the locality bemg thus described 
by Dr. Thomson, who has since visited it.” After the account of the locality, Dr. T. 
proceeds to state :—‘ At our first visit, and on entering the first floor, our attention 
was attracted to the remains of a fire. We found numerous charred bones, both Moa- 
bones and sheep-bones, pieces of wood and spear-grass. No bones worthy of note were 
obtained here ; but on entering the second floor, and by scraping away the loose dirt to a 
depth of two feet, we came upon numerous bones—femora, tibiz, fibule, ribs, vertebra, 
tracheal rings, and pieces of skin and muscle, also bones of the toes and tarsal bones 
and a portion of a pelvis. On one of the thigh-bones portions of muscular tissue are 
observed in pretty good preservation, and found on the same spot where the portion of 
neck was found.” 
'The total length of this portion Dr. Hector gives as “16° inches.” “ It includes the 
first dorsal and last six cervical vertebree, with the integument and shrivelled tissues 
enveloping them on the left side. ‘The surfaces of the bones on the right side, where 
not covered by the integument, are quite free from all membrane and other tissues, but 
are quite perfect, without being in the least degree mineralized. ‘The margin of the 
fragment of skin is sharply defined along the dorsal edge; but elsewhere it is soft, 
easily pulverized, and passing into adipocere. 
“'The circumference of the neck of the bird, at the upper part of the specimen, 
appears to have been about 18 inches, and the thickness of the skin about 7; of 
an inch. 
“'The only indication of the matrix in which it had been imbedded was a fine 
micaceous sand that covered every part of the specimen like dust, there being no clay 
or other adherent matrix. On removing the sand with a soft brush from the skin, it 
was discovered to be of a dirty red-brown colour, and to form deep transverse folds, 
especially towards the upper part. 
‘¢ The surface is roughened by elevated conical papille, from the apex of some of 
