MOA BONES

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 11384, 9 December 1930, Page 5

MOA BONES

FOUND IN CAVES IN POVERTY

BAY

A NATURAL TRAP

(Special to the Times.) AUCKLAND Dec. 8

Referring to liiou tones brought from Poverty Bay by tlm authorities of tho Auckland Museum, Mr Gilbert Archery, curator of tlie Museum says: “Most of tlie bones are in good condition although they have been fin damp caves "for hundreds of years. When theso bones have been studied by means of comparative measurements with the bones already known it is hoped they will contribute further information to our knowledge of tho moas which inhabited the North Island. Even bones which are somewhat decayed permit of the necessary measurements for this purpose. We found the.hones in caves, the entrances of which were either small unsuspected holes in the ground, or a wide depression into which a moa might jump only to find that ail exit was just impossible. The birds then proceeded to make tlieir way down tunnels that led-tfrom these depressions, and died usually in the furthest recesses of caves. These recesses usually lai'e long and narrow, and sometimes steeply descending. In one cave with a very smal 1 opening , no found the hones of at least fifteen moas. It was a natural trap in which all these birds met tlieir death. In most of the other caves we found the bones of two: or three moas.”