448 
no barbules on the barbs near the apex of the feather, and the shaft is not produced 
beyond the barbs. In colour these feathers are reddish brown, with a central longi- 
tudinal dash of dark brown towards the apex of the shaft. The down is brownish 
white.” ‘*'These two caves, therefore, have furnished two new kinds of Moa-feathers, 
making three distinct kinds that are now known” 4. 
As of the four existing species or established varieties of Apterya, some have a 
barred, others a more uniformly coloured plumage, so the more numerous species, now 
extinct, of the Dinornis seem to have exhibited analogous differences of colour, 
The sum of the discoveries of the remains of Moas in Maori cooking-gounds, and of 
eggs, skin, and feathers in cayes, graves, &c., points to the recent period, scarcely, 
I think, to be carried back beyond one or two centuries, of the extirpation of the 
species of the Dinornithide ?. 
Mr. W. J. Hamilton shrewdly remarks :—*“ In 1844 little was known among the 
European population of the existence of Moa-bones, and very few had been found; 
but the Maoris always knew them when they saw them. It is a curious fact to note 
that they should have a name for the extinct bird’s bones if it had never been known 
to their ancestors as a living bird ” 3, 
In reference to the statement (p. 443), * We found numerous charred bones, both 
Moa-bones and sheep-bones,” if clear and satisfactory evidence had been adduced that 
these were mingled in the ashes of one and the same fire, the conclusion would be 
sustained that some kind of Moa was in existence after the introduction by Europeans 
of the sheep, the correctness of the reference of the bones to that domestic ruminant 
being admitted. 
Another testimony to a similar conclusion has appeared in a New-Zealand news- 
paper :— 
“ Antiquity of the Moa.—The ‘ Otago Daily Times’ says that a valuable piece of 
evidence, which points to the probability of the Moa haying lived in comparatively 
recent times, has just been brought to light. When in London, Dr. Hector ascer- 
tained that in the British Museum there were certain cases which had been brought 
from New Zealand by Capt. Cook, and which were still unopened. Dr, Hector was 
allowed to examine the boxes, which contained Maori curiosities, and in one of them 
was a spear ornamented with a tuft of Moa-feathers. With the permission of the 
Trustees of the Museum he detached one of the feathers, and he has brought it out to 
New Zealand. Strange that this evidence should have reposed in the cellars of the 
British Museum for a century.” 
I submitted this paragraph, reflecting on the ‘* Department of Medizval Antiquities,” 
‘ Trans. of the New-Zealand Institute, 1876, vol. viii. p- 101. 
* See “ On the Identity of the Moa-hunters with the present Maori Race.” By Alex, M*Kay, of the 
Geological Survey Department. Trans, of New-Zealand Institute, vol. vii, p. 98, 
* “ Notes on Maori Traditions of the Moa,” ib, p. 122, 
