MOA'S EGG DISCOVERED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19140, 8 October 1936, Page 10

MOA'S EGG DISCOVERED

HAWKE'S BAY SPECIMEN SHELL PIERCED BY PICK GOURD FOUND NEARBY (Pur Press Association.) HASTINGS, last 'night. A very rare, and probably unique find of a fossilised egg oi a inoa vva» made yesterday by wovKineu engaged in quarrying at. "lime, works in a locality KeuptiUiy known as The Caves. l.'nforLuiiately the -shell was fractured,, but hopes are entertained that it can be pierced together, and the find should bo one oi outstanding note, and 01 considerable interest to geologists.

The find was made by Mr. J. L. JorKciison, quaiTyman for Lime Hydrates, ..united, who had just iired the shot of an explosive to bring down a portion >i cliff face. Me was engaged in picking off the protruding portions oii flic now lace, when his pick slipped through soft material. Close examination revealed that the tip of Ihe pick had pierced an egg shell which was about live inches in diameter and which was later identified as a nioa's egg.

Both Mr. A. K. Brooks, manager of the works, and -Mr. 11. U. Carr. secretary, are particularly interested in the find, for it follows "the discovery of a number of old trees heavily coated in lime deposits, indicating that at one time in the far distant past there was vegetation at a considerably lower level than there is at present in the locality. The egg was embedded in a large lump of rock," fossilised vegetation, and limestone.

With the fossil were found the remains of small birds, but the most, interesting find of all, in the opinion of Dr. A. (-!. Clark, was the discovery nearby of portions of a gourd which had been introduce,] to New Zealand by the Maoris. "If that gourd were deposited at the locality at the same lime us the moa pgg. it indicates, contrary to common belief, that the moa was not extinct before the advent of the Maori, he said.