518 Proceedings. 
the (male) King Lory Parrot (Aprosmictus scapulatus, Gouxp), of New 
_ South Wales, 
Captain Stoney, 99th Regt., presented the prepared skin of an Albatross, 
Diomedea brachyura, and two skins of the Cape Pigeon (Daption 
Capensis). 
- Mr. Hall, of Macquarie-street, sent a large double cocoa-nut, the seed- 
vessel of Lodoicea Sechellarum. 
From Mr. Hugh Murray, of Guilford Hills, was received, through W. S, 
Sharland, Esq., M.L.C., one Silver Coin, dated 1735, stamped on one side 
with the Brazilian arms; motto and device partly illegible. 
_ The Secretary laid before the meeting Returns of the number of Gold- 
digging Licences issued, and other information respecting the Gold 
Revenue, by Lieut, Smith, R.N. 
The Secretary laid on the table two numbers of the New Zealand 
Spectator, containing interesting notices of fossil remains found on 
the cliffs and superficial deposits of blue clay, &c., at Awamoa, &c.* 
_ * Many of your readers may have read in the Papers and Proceedings of 
the Royal Society of Van Diemen’s Land (a publication unequalled in 
interest in our Colonial Literature, until those of the New Zealand Society 
may be published), an abstract of a paper by Geoffory Saint Hilaire, on 
some bones and eggs of a gigantic bird, which he names Aipyornis 
maximus, found at Madagascar. 
As we do not feel altogether satisfied at the manner in which this new 
discovery throws our own Moa into the shade, dislocating its mandibles, I 
will give you a few notes on the eggs of that ill-used biped, which you can 
publish if you think them of sufficient interest. 
Last Christmas I camped at the mouth of the Awamoa, a small stream 
between Kakaunui and Oamaru, having found there a few weeks before 
the umus of the extinct aboriginal tribe of Waitaha, full of bones, stones, 
&c., and devoted a day to digging. The old surface in which the umus 
had been excavated was buried under a foot of alluvial deposit: beneath 
this the old sandy soil was. blackened by the mixture of charcoal, large 
lumps of which were scattered among the chaotic mass. The primeval 
savages had evidently thrown backinto the umu the remains of each feast, 
and lighted over it the fire to prepare the next. The disagreeable flavour 
which the scorched bones must have lent to each succeeding banquet 
was, we may hope, some slight punishment to them for exterminating the 
Moas. Their animal food seems to have consisted of Dinornis (very rare), 
Palapteryx, Notornis, Aptornis, Apteryx, Nestor, (Kaka or kea), Cormor- 
ants, Gulls, Ducks, and other small birds, dogs, a small rat, haliotis, 
fresh water unios, and other shell-fish, seals, porpoises, sharks, eels, and 
other fish: so that the bill of fare was varied enough. ‘The bones of all 
were matted and locked together most intricately, large angular burnt 
stones (originally round boulders cracked by the fire), and a wet black 
sandy soil filling all interstices. Here and there we met relics of their 
dinner equipage, in the shape of large and small fragments of flint, totall 
different from any in the neighbourhood, and said by my respected friend, 
old Governor Railway, who formerly lived there, to come from Lake Hawea. 
Sometimes an ancient aborigine or his dog seemed to have retired to discuss _ 
a tit-bit in solitude, for embedded at intervals over the surface of the 
ancient kaika (whose former extent is well marked by the blackened sub- 
Soil) we found an odd bone or so: I think the dogs must have done this, as 
the bones were generally foot and toe bones, which would probably have 
