MUSEUM JOTTINGS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 8169, 28 April 1888, Page 5 (Supplement)

MUSEUM JOTTINGS

I. Tnu Moa Relics.

- Our local museum, with its comparatively unattractive contents, has been so completely , overshadowed by the magnificent and varied s collections which Canterbury owes to the * industry and enthusiasm of tho late Sir Julius yon Haast, that it seems to be very generally assumed to be hardly worth a visit. And the assumption is not altogether unfounded; we have uo pictures—save a portrait of Oaptain Cook—no statuary, uo pottery, no antiquities, no technological collection; in other words none of the things which make a museum generally attractive. But granting these deficiencies, and admitting once for all that the collection is almost exclusively ono of natural history— geology and zoology, with a soupgon of ethnology—we have really no need to be ashamed of our museum, since the exhibits contained in it reach on tho whole a fair geueral level of excellence, while it contains a few things of which the 6 greatest museums in tho world might be proud, and one or two which are almost priceless. We propose in this and in one or twq future articles to call attention tp Wfnp o_ the lrpore interestipjj qnd yalMble Bp^imens, beginning with that*'specially'New Zealand subject the moa", acreature which has dono almost as pjuoh to make our colouy celebrated aa its gold or its depression, Tho rnoa first oame iuto notice about the ' year 1839, when one of the early oolouists, Dr ' Rule, took part of a thigh bone to Professor 1 (now Sir Richard) Qwen, telling him that it i belonged to a great bird. Dr Rule appears to have known enough of anatomy to be quito l sure of tho character of tho fragment; ; but he failed to convince Professor Qwen, j who assured him thst it was part of an ox's 6 thigh bone, a^d was ouly breught to see its true c nature after a careful comparison with other c specimens, when he perceived that a great zoo- r logical discovery had been made, and that a bird j larger and heavier than an ostrich was found in a New Zealand whero nothing larger than a kiwi a hud hitherto been disoovered, From the size of the bone and from its hay- t ing contained marrow and not air, Sir Richard 0 Owen considered that the bird to which it be- \

longed was flightless and was allied to the ostrich.

emeu, and cassowary: .in this way he recon structed the moa from a single fragment o cc hope, Que way be alloy7c^ tp jegtet'that si is distinguished w'Tßyi did'*''not acknowledge tha ie he had had the 'I straight tip, frbpi an educate! p medical map, and that he sliould have per ' sistently veferred to Dr Rule as "an individual,' *: or " the vendor," ts if he had been a peraor whose ignorant conjectures on the matter wer< unworthy of attention, ' The question was soon put beyond doubt bj . numerous specimens of all the principal bonei ,J being sent to England by the Hon. Waltei '^ Mantell, the Rev, W. Cotton, and several others, I and subsequently by Sir Julius yon Haast I Professor Hutton, &c. Sir li. Owen was non '. able to establish the remarkable fact that 7 there were some 15 or 10 distingt; opepie's f of moa, «!} eqr,teinp.ur4upoo,!i -7* most unl' expected re'uuli/ since all the other great ._* flightless birds inhabit' each its own country jj or district. In the whole of Australia, for instance, there are ouly two speotca of emeu and one of cassowary) while no fewer than seveu . species of moa haye been found in one and the , same swamp. '_' The two most extensive finds of moa bonos occurred when the Glenmark Bwamp, panterx bury, was investigated by Sir J. yon fUsst, and tho Hamilton qwarap. Otago, by Professor ' Hutton and Mr Booth. These localities contaiued'bohes literally'"by the cartload, ahd'from them oil the' principal' museums in tlje world ' have been supplied. Thero was, however, one great disadvantage attaching to tbe skeletons thus obtained. In these swamps tho bones of hundreds of individuals belonging to several distinct species were j found intermingled, and although an experienced person could readily distinguish the chief bones of one species from those of another, it ' was quite impossible to be Bure about the sepa--1 rate individuals, so that skeletons procured in 1 this way were pretty sure to ppnßist of (' seleor ' tions " from numerous moas. i Fortunately, However, in several places, Bingle '■ skeletons, or parts of skeletons, have been found iv such a position as to' make it quite certain that all the bqnes helQDged to a single individual. It stauds to reason that an !' individual" skeleton of this sort is of far greater value th*tn a. dozen " made-upi' skeletons. It is therefore a matter for congratulation that there aye in the Qtagp Museum no fewer than four individual skeletous—probably a greater number than any other museum can boast—and that two of them aro known to bo amongst the most perfect ever found. One of these was found by Mr A D. Bell in Shag Valley, and belongs to the species Dinornis robustus, the other is au example o! TD. crassus, and was found at Wajtakj. It wotfld'seeui that the only skeleton' Iniown to bo more perfect than these two, is one of £. robustus, which was fouud at Tiger Hill, Manuherikia, iv 1863, and is now in tho York Museum, England. In our Shag Valley aud Waitaki skeletons the skull, upper neck bones, and a few toe bones were imperfect or absent, and havo been supplied from other specimens, but everything else is known to have belonged to a siuglo bird. Less perfect than theso two, bi;t still of "great valuo, are t^o other'*iindividual" skeletons— ono of D. robusiiis, found at Highley Hill, and deposited by Dr Hocken; the other, of D. casuarinus, was found boneath the site of tho Botanical Gardens. The remaining skeletons in the museum are all mado up from bones found at Hamilton; they belong to tho specias D. elephaiitopys, TD. gravis, D, d\o]ifgrmi^ and TD. sirui,h.ioicCesJ In the upper gallery q.'re a few' bones of TD. iTngens, aud of D cuvlys, so that out of 16 known species of moa hino are represented, three of them by individual skeletons. Anyone looking at thpse skeletons cannot fail to be struck with the astonishing difference they present among themselves, Por instance, Dinornis robustus is nearly 10ft high, and has a comparatively slender body and long legs. Dinornis crassus, D. gravis, aud D, elephantopui, on the other hand, aro only between 4ft and sft high, with wonderfully bulky "Dutch-built" bodies, and short, stout legs. Some of the leg bones are larger than thoso of a horse or cow. Then there is a species called I). pary;is not represented in this'rnuijeum, nqt'much larger than a turkey, ahd TO. cartus, of which a few bones are shown in the desk caso at the south end of the upper gallery, could not have been more than 2Jft high. It was in recognition of these differences that Sir J. yon Haast proposed to divide the moas into two families, each containing two genera, thus going further than Sir R. Owen, who made two genera—one containing the tall slender moas, liko D. robustus, tho others the short, thick-set forms, like D. crassus. Ono of tho differences upon which this separation was based had to do with the structure of the foot; it was stated that the slender moas (genus Dinornis) had only three toes, like an emeu or a cassowary, while the short moaa (genus Palapteryx) had, iv addition, a short hind toe, like a kiwi or a domestic fowl, In the now edition of Professor Nicholsou's •'Zoology," published lant year, this point of the presence or absence of tho little hind toe, or hallux, is made tho basis of a division into two groups of tho whole order of Ratitae or ostriohlike birds; one group contaiuiog the ostrich, rhea, emeu, cassowary, aud Dinornis Ithe sjeuder moas)j thp other the ki\yi and Palapteryx (the stout moas. A walk through the museum would soon convince auyone tbat this arrangement iB quite unsupported by the faots of the case. The Shag Valley skeleton of Dinornis robustus hBS both hind toes present, and in a small case in tho south-west corner of the upper gallery are three feet belonging to individual birds of the species inyens and casuarinus, all with hind toes. In other words, our collections 6how, as Professor Hutton first pointed out, that the hind toe is possessed by at least three of the species plaoed by Sir J. yon Haast in a family distinguished by the absence of a hallux. In a large majority of the moa skeletons found the upper vertebra of the neck and those of the short tail are wanting. We have nothing quite so perfect as the head and neck in the Wellington Museum, but in a desk case at the south cud of the upper gallery are a complete set of upper neck vertebras, and anothor of tail vertebras—both belonging to single birds. There are also nearly complete necks of individual specimens in the small upright case in the eouthrwest corner of tho same gallery. The desk case just mentioned contains many other important specimens. For instance, thero is a skull, believed to be the mest perfecc in existence, having in connection with it the tongue bone and tho bones of the larynx and trachea— two words which the recent European telegrams make it unnecessary to explain. Then there is a portion of the ring of small bones from tho slerotic or outer coat of the eye. This specimen is absolutely unique. There are also several very good lower jaws and portions of skulls; and two specimens of tho small rib-liko shoulder bone—shown also in the Shag Valley skeleton on the ground floor; this is seen to have no trace of a socket for tho articulation of a wing, whence it is inferred that the woa was the ouly absolutely wingless bird known. In some species even the shoulder bono was absent.

Tho same case contains an excellent footprint of the moa in soft sandstone from Poverty Bay, as well as casts of the eggs of three species and fragments of egg shell. Tho eggs are the largest known except that of tho extinct moalike bird of Madagascar, the SEpyornis. That the moa was a vegetarian is proved by some interesting specimens iv the same case obtained by Mr F. Chapman from the Mackenzie country. It is a well-known fact that vegetable-feeding birds swallow stones to help their strong muscular gizzard in the grinding of their food. It frequently happens that heaps of pebbles aro found along with moa skeletonsno doubt deposited by the decay of tho gizzard. Ono set, from the gizzard of a single bird, weighs over 41b, and contains between 300 and 400 stones. Not far from these bulky contents of the moa's stomach are casts of its brain, from which it appears that tall birds are lilfe tall houses—tho upper stories tho worst furnished. Tho braip of a lOffc moa was hardly larger than that of a turkey.

One of the most interesting questions about the moa is that of tho date of its extinction. Most people believo that theso great birds lived until comparatively recent, times, while others havo considered them as quite prehistoric—that, in fact, they were exterminated before tho advent of the Maori. The latest writer on the subject, M. de Quatrefages, considers that thoy probably became extinct about a century ago. There is probably no collection in tho world which possesses so much valuable material bearing upon this question as the Otago University Museum. In the desk case so frequently mentioned there are speoimens which would seem to indicate an even more recent date than that

j assigned by SI. do Quatrefages. There are, in I tne first place, three frames containing leathers. Then thero are two priceless specimens, one of a neck and one nf a foot, with tho greater part of the skm, tendons, kc. preserved. Other bones show fragments of dried flesh adhering. In a bottle of spirit is a piece of skin, which is quite soft and supple. Almost equally conclusive is a pelvis found not long ago at Alexandra by Master W. Allen, which has all the appearance of a tresh bone, tne surface showing not th« slightest signs of weathering. A horse's or cow's bone exposed to the sun and wind for twelve mouths would have a far more ancient appearance than this specimen, which is certainly tho most re-cent-looking moa bone wo havo ever seen. Finally, there aro numerous specimens of broken and charred bones taken from Native cooking places and proving that these great birds were used as food by the Maoris. The probable appearance of a living moa and its size in relation to the kiwi is well shown in a small lithograph placed in lhe case, taken from a figure in Hocbstetter's " New Zealand." Thus our local collection of moa relics probably contains a larger number of really valuable and even unique specimens than any other.