EXTINCT BIRDS.

Gisborne Times, Volume LII, Issue 5463, 26 April 1920, Page 3

EXTINCT BIRDS.

BONES IN LIMESTONE, CAVE

A VALUABLE FIND

EAST COAST POSSIBILITIES

On occasions even scientists ha/o heavy manual tasks, to perform. Recently Dr. A. Thomson (Director .>i' the Dominion Museum) and two members of bis stall, Messrs 11. Hamilton and .Phillips, excavated and hauled by band from a deep fissure in some lime-stone rocks in the Wairarapa district about seven tons of moa bones and other valuable relies.

About four years ago, while deer stalking over Mr Murdock McLeod’s Haurangi estate, near Martinborough, Mr Walter Harrison, of Master ton, came across this fissure in a limestone ridge, in which lie discovered! a number of bones. He reported the discovery to the Museum authorities, and an investigation was undertaken by Dr. Thomson. Tiie find, indeed, has proved a- most interesting one>. From the fissure were taken the remains of about twenty-five moas and of fifteen aptorncs. (The latter are extinct birds resembling the weka, but very much larger—standing about three feet high, with sturdy limbs and neck. Remains of the liotornis were also found. The liotornis is a bird about which there was much discussion recently owing to the discovery of a live specimen in Otago, and of which three are known to have been seen alive. About twenty of them had left their bones in this opening in the rocks. Piled, up were also the remains of numbers of pakapo (a parrot), the kiwi, extinct ducks, and strangely enough, bones of the tuatara lizard, which is now found only on Stephens Island. There were remains of tlie New Zealand liuia, and the large laughing owl—a very rare bird. Round about were other similar openings in th t . rocks, but only in this one were these relics of a past age found. The scientists find- it difficult to account for this fact, and for so many being accumulated there. Recently a similar discovery was made in a cave near Pahiatua. One theory is that the fissure formed a bird mausoleum, to which in a past age tlie birds went to die. There were no evidences of human bones, and the scientists estimate that the bones have been there for at least five centuries, and thus date back to before the coining of the Maori. The remains have all been brought to Wellington, and are_nt present being cleaned,, sorted, Vmf classified. Dr. Thomson believes there may be coli!ecfions m oth*r caves between Palliser Bay and Napier, and particularly asks that any discoveries should be reported.