THE MOA
It is interesting to know that one tiny piece of thigh bone gave a famous ornithologist or bird scientist the clue that New Zealand had once been the home of a race Of birds bigger than any existing Since then so many skeletons of moas have been found that we know a great deal about them. They lived perhaps 250 years ago, and there are many legends among the Maoris about them. Some of them had broad, down-curved, beaks and were very large and slender limbed. Others were smaller, stockier birds, with short, straight beaks. Altogether there were 20 species, ranging from approximately sft to 11 or 12 ft in height. Moa feathers have been found. They were brown at the base, then black, while at the outer end was a white tip. The birds have been reconstructed in various museums and from them you may get a good idea of what this enormous bird looked like in the bygone years when it roamed New Zealand forests and hills.
A moa skeleton, found near Oamaru, is encased in the Oamaru Athenaeum
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD19400210.2.33.4
Bibliographic details
Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21575, 10 February 1940, Page 6
Word Count
183THE MOA Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21575, 10 February 1940, Page 6
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