446 
Subsequent to the reception of Moa-feathers from the deposits at the junction of the 
Manuherikia with the Molyneux river, Capt. Hutton was shown more feathers, which 
had been found between Alexandria and Roxburgh, 18 feet below the surface. ‘* The 
feathers,” he states, “ from both these places are so much alike that there can be little 
doubt but that they belong to the same species of bird, their differences being simply 
due to their coming from different portions of the body. ‘They are all quite fresh in 
appearance, and the colouring is as bright as if just plucked from the bird; but unfor- 
tunately all are more or less broken, and only one” (in the Otago Museum) “ shows 
the tube that enters the skin. In this feather the length of the tube is 34 of an inch, 
and it contains two plumes or feathers. ‘The main plume is unbroken, and is 4°75 
inches in length, and 0°5 of an inch broad at the tip; the other or accessory plume is 
275 inches long and broken off, but in size it almost equals the main plume. The 
greater number of the feathers gradually enlarge from the tube to the tip, where they 
are rather bluntly rounded off; some, however, especially the more downy ones, have 
the sides more parallel. The largest was 7 inches long and 0-75 of an inch broad at 
the tip, ‘The barbsare unconnected and rather distant, but not so much so as in most 
struthious birds. ‘They are furnished with barbules up to the very tips of the feathers, 
except in a few cases where for a short distance the barbs are simple. No barbicels 
exist in any part of the feathers; the down portion is simply formed by the barbules 
being more elongated and set closer together. The shafts are slender and flexible, and 
do not project beyond the barbs. In colour the feathers are brown for about the basal 
two thirds, the more downy ones being of a redder brown than the others. This brown 
gradually shades off into black, which colour is kept as far as the rounded portion of 
the tip, which is pure white. ‘The shaft is of the same colour as the feather ” 1, 
It thus appears that in other species of Moa besides the Dinornis robustus the feather 
has a well-developed accessory plume, and that the barbules are destitute of barbicels. 
The presence of the accessory plume distinguishes such feather from that of any 
known species of Apteryx, and its relative size from the feather in Dinornis and 
Casuarius, in both which genera the ‘ accessory’ equals or nearly so the * main plume,’ 
at least in the larger feathers of the trunk. In Rhea the accessory plume is repre- 
sented by a tuft of down: in Struthio it is wanting. 
In the type Kivi (Apteryx australis) each dorsal feather has the shaft and basal parts 
of the barbs rufous brown, the major ( distal) parts of the barbs are black. The quill- 
tube is extremely small, narrow, and flexible. The downy part at the base of the 
feather is largely developed; the barbules are fine and long, giving to each barb the 
semblance of a miniature feather, In the North-Island variety (A, mantelli, Bart.) 
the tip is stiff and pointed, and on the upper and hinder parts of the body the shaft is 
produced to a sharp point, giving a rigid character to the plumage. In remote 
' * On some Moa Feathers.” By Capt, F. W. Hutton, F.G.8., Trans, of the New-Zealand Institute, vol. iv. 
(1872), p. 172. 
