MOA EXHIBIT AT MUSEUM

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27148, 18 September 1953, Page 2

MOA EXHIBIT AT MUSEUM

NEW FEATURE READY FOR REOPENING When the Canterbury Museum reopens on September 28 the public will be able to see a large-scale new exhibit on the moas and other extinct birds of New Zealand which prominently features the story of the famous moa swamp on the property of Messrs "• ®hd R. Hodgen at Pyramid valley, Waikan. The story of Pyramid valley l s illustrated by perfectly-articulated skeletons of two of the four types of moas found in the swamp, and by photographs and coloured transparencies. One section will be devoted to moa eggs, featuring the emu egg from Pyramid valley, which was restored from more than 200 fragments by Mr Edgar F. Stead, and a blown egg of the Euryapteryx moa from the Warnau bar moa hunters’ camp, excavated by Mr J. R. Eyles. Of special interest will be a fragment of the rare green egg, belonging to a still unknown species of moa, found at Cralgmore, Pareora, and presented by Mrs A. E. Woodhouse, of .Bluecliffs. One side panel features the skeletons of other extinct birds of the moa era, notably the giant rail, the eagle, swan, goose, crow, flightless duck, and coot.

The Director (Dr. Roger Duff) told the Museum Board yesterday that the construction of the case, which is of large dimensions, and the painstaking articulation of the skeletons had fully occupied the time of Messrs F W. Dukes, R. J. Jacobs, and R. J. Scarlett for several months.

The exhibit will still be uncompleted when the building reopens to the public, but there will be no further neSd to shut off this end of the New Zealand room for the installation of the remaining panels.