TWO MOA EGOS

Hawera Star, Volume L, 26 March 1931, Page 10

TWO MOA EGOS

AUCKLAND MUSEUM GIFT,

ONLY EIGHT IN EXISTENCE

Although, the last moa that cackled must have been dead for some 600 years there are eight of its eggs still in existence. Thanks to the generosity of Mr L. J. Matthews, of Doubtless Bay, the Auckland Memorial Museum now possesses two of these rarities (states the “Star”). When Mr L. T. Griffin, assistant-director of the museum, was in the north recently on a highly successful collecting expedition, he got a number o f mo a bones , and during his investigations he found out that Mr Matthews had had these two eggs in his possession for over 2o years. Mr Matthews very patriotically presented the eggs to the museum. At a meeting last week of the Museum Council, Mr Gilbert Archey, the director, said the gift was a remarkably handsome one, and it was impossible to place a value upon it. Only six other' moa eggs were known to be in existence. There were two perfect specimens in the Dunedin Museum, one imperfect, in the Dominion Museum, Wellington, another imperfect one in the British Museum, and two perfect ones belonging to private collections in England. These eggs ranged in length from ten inches to seven and a half inches, and the eggs just nresented to Auckland were much smaller, measuring fonr and a half inches, and this fact made them all the more interesting. Mr Matthews found one of the eggs in the sand-dunes in Doubtless Bay, and the other was found in a river deposit.