THE EXTINCT MOA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIV, Issue XXIV, 3 April 1902, Page 2

THE EXTINCT MOA.

IMPORTANT FIND 01* BONIS, FSB FBBSS AWOOIATIOV, Wanoahdi, April 2. The dieeoverr of large quantities of Moa bones in a swamp near the left bank of the Wanganui River throws consideiable light on the question of how large numbers of these extinct birds met their death in mobs. A local naturalist, who inspected the "find* s >ys bones lay under three feet of bog o&rth in a layer one foot six inches ia thickness, being undetlaid by one foot «f river deposit. From the fact that the bones from the sacrum down an in a good state of preservation v.hile those* higher up are more or less weather worn the naturalist forms the opinion that the birds walked into the water and got bogged in the flood deposit. This theory is strengthened by the fact that crop-stones were feund in separate heap# just where they fell attar tba bird's death. On many bones the periostium is still in a good state of preservation and quite perfect, and In the bones themselves, the natural grease is still to be found,'all foiag to prove that the birds cannot Can become extinct as long back as soma scientists assert; and further many of the laryngeal rings are still elastic. In one place 60 .leg bones were discovered, one 27 inokas long, others 16 iaohiH, and of proportional thickness. The scientist. think* that as only the leg bones were discovered the remaining parts of bodies were, on decaying, washed away, the leg« BtiU remaining in the mud. , '