458 
Mr. Taylor adduces a plaintive Maori saying, in which the traditional knowledge of 
the extirpation of the Dinornithide is applied, as in the chaunt above quoted from 
Sir George Grey—* * Kud ngaro a Moa te iwi nei’ (the Maori, like the Moa, has passed 
away),” remarking that “ the Moa has passed away, and its hunters as well; and the 
proverb is being fulfilled in the progressive diminution of their descendants.” 
Mr. John White 1, Interpreter in Government transactions with the Maoris, learnt 
from them that, according to the traditions of their fathers, the Moas subsisted on the 
young shoots of the fern (rarauhe), and on grasses growing on the margins of the 
swamps, on young sprouts of the Karokia shrub, also on a water-plant called Puke- 
kakeka; for this the Moa visited the lakes and pools near its native forests, “* When 
the Moa was hunted, the tracks made by it to visit the water were sought, and men 
waited on these tracks to capture the bird. It is also said to live on fern-roots; the 
ood kind, called ‘ roi,’ of which there are three sorts, are found near the edges of the 
swamps, one on deep black soil, and one on the edge of the forests, which is called 
‘ronga, ‘This was dug up by the beak of the Moa, and was the food most caten 
by them.” 
The tracks observed by Dr. Hector on the mountains near Jackson’s Bay are such 
as would be made by huge birds pushing through scrub. Along the sides of such 
tracks the hunters would lurk to attack the birds in the manner described by 
Mr, White. 
“The Moa did not go in large flocks, but usually a male and female and their young ; 
hence the proverb, ‘ He whawhai tautau a Moa’ (a fight between two and two, like 
the Moa), indicative of the sexual combats which the Moa-hunters had seen between 
the males of Dinornis. 
“The nest was made by the bird collecting a heap of toi-toi or other grass, and in 
the centre on the top lay the eggs. 
* ‘The last Moa-hunt remembered in the North Island was at or near Whatakene, 
in the Bay of Plenty. ‘The feathers of the birds killed there were, till a late period, in 
the possession of a chief called Apanui, an uncle of the half-caste James Nulloon, who 
was murdered by the Hauhaus at that place. 
“ At or a little before that hunt a Moa was killed on the plains near the foot of 
the Ruahine mountains, N.E. of Waipukurau, at Napier. 
“ The Maoris admitted that their ancestors were afraid of the Moa, as a kick from 
the foot of one would break the bones of the most powerful Brave; hence the people 
made strong spears of ‘ maire’ or ‘ manuka’ wood, six or eight feet long, and the sharp 
end of which was cut so that it might break and leave about six or eight inches of the spear 
in the bird. With these the men would hide behind the scrub on the side of the track, 
and when the birds were escaping from the fear of the noise of those who had driven 
them from the lakes, those spears were thrown at them, thus sticking in the bird; the 
* Trans. of the New-Zealand Institute (1875), vol, viii. p. 78. 
