REMAINS OF THE MOA

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17949, 29 November 1932, Page 2

REMAINS OF THE MOA

SEARCH FOR SKELETONS MUSEUM EXPEDITION Very fair success was met with by an expedition from the Auckland War Memorial Aluseum which returned last week after a search for moa remains in two localities in the Auckland Province. The expedition, which had been arranged by Air. F. C. Alappin, was carried out by a party of four, comprising Air. Alappin, Mr. G. Archey, director of the museum, Sir Garrick Robertson and Mr. A. T. Pycroft. A visit was first made to one of the Coromandel beaches, where a partial skeleton was recovered from among the sandhills. I urthei search failed to yield anything, and it Weis decided to transfer operations to the limestone region south of tho Waitomo 'Here the party explored a number of holes, some of them deep, between masses of limestone which had rolled down from near by cliffs, and also searched the floors of various small caves. As a result two nearly complete skeletons of smaller species of moa were unearthed, together with other sets of related bones. A partial skeleton, of which the large bones had been removed by a previous finder, was also obtained.

The holes were explored as being natural traps into which moas were likely to have fallen, and the expectation proved correct. Some of the bones in the caves were covered with a thin encrustation of lime deposited by water which had dripped upon them. They were damp and firmly embedded, so that a great, deal of care had to be used in removing them. It. was surmised that they had been washed down into the oaves through water channels leading from holes on the surface higher up. The purpose of the expedition, as of two earlier ones which obtained six fairly complete skeletons in tho Waikaremoana district, was to throw more light upon the northern species of moa. About 25 species in all have been classified, but some of them are not well authenticated, having been identified on the evidence of a few bones only. , Not all moas were the giant birds of popular imagination. Species ranged in size down to some no larger than a turkey. Tho proportions also varied a great deal, some species being slender and others almost grotesquely broad and thick-set.