THE N.Z. MOA.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16812, 2 June 1926, Page 14

THE N.Z. MOA.

WAS IT TAMED BY MAORIS ? AN INTERESTING THEORY. Most of us arc familial 1 with the story of how the natives of Patagonia domesticated the giant sloth, one of the most formidable animals that ever trod Ihe earth. Now comes the belief (writes Kenneth Impctt in the Melbourne Herald) that men just as wild as the Patagonians, the ancestors of Hie Maori race, tamed in some conceivable way the greatest of birds, the New Zealand moa. The theory, c-f course, cannot be positively proved, as alt living testimony has been destroyed; but the person whose knowledge of the subject is greater than any other —Mr \V. W. Smith, for many years curator of the beautiful Pukekura Park at New • Plymouth, New Zealand—finds sufficient evidence to justify him, ho believes, in making this remarkable statement. Mr Smith, (hough now au old man, is an active personage who has made frequent expeditions to collect the remains of moas, and many scientific collections of tho Dominion are enriched by 1113 careful labours. He has for ever dispelled tho old belief (hat the moa became extinct before tho Maoris reached this country, for ho found tho disused Maori earth-ovens in closo association with great deposits of moa bones, and, lying with them, tlio Jade axes and olher weapons used for tho killing and cutting up of the monsters. lio has had through his hands skeletons of inoaa which perished In tho mountains, overtaken by suddenly arriving snow and skeletons of moas extinguished by sudden floods in Uio swamps. Whcreever skeletons wero found, ho searched or caused search to ho made, and without exception always encountered lilllo heaps of brightly polished stones, some two and more inches long, tho stones having been swallowed by tho birds to serve as millstones for Ihq grinding up of Uiclr food.

Jn the South Island of Now Zealand aro caves in which moa-hunters dwelt for ages, and on tho walls can bo clearly discerned Uiclr rough, rudo drawings. The skeletons depict tho moa as It was in life, Its eggs and so on, all Indicating an Inlimato knowledge of the bird and Its habits. Prom What ho has seen in these caves, Mr Smith is satisfied that tho natives domostieated (ho moa as wo domoslicated fowls 1 There were several species of moas, from tho giants standing fourteen and sixteen foot In height to much smaller ones, and naturally it does not follow that tho larger birds wore always those successfully managed In tills way. Tho theory, although quite new, is not lit tho least inconceivable.

Tho only survivor of tho moas hi tho world to-day Is the kiwi, tho small, wingless, long-beaked bird which, wll-Ii a single blow from Its powerful feet, can rip open tho flesh of the largest dog. As scientists wero at first unable to convince tho rest of the world that there had been sucli birds 0 3 the inoa, so there was onco a general sniff of disbelief In tho existence of the kiwi. Mr Smith, however, has tamed the kiwi as one would poultry. The kiwi, it may bo hero stressed, is both timorous and fierce, mortally afraid of man and all his works, running madly to destruction in the presence of the first fire it finds in the bush. However, Mr Smith has a fine narrative ready if one Is fortunate enough to engage him in earnest conversation.

Having secured a hen kiwi, he sought a mate for her. The femaleis larger than the male, and this l’astiflious lady, not liking her lover, atiackcd and almost killed him, ignoring his advances completely, A second was sought and he suffered almost as sound a thrashing before the termagant admitted him to her good graces. Then they settled down to peaceful company, and, in duo course, the hen laid Iwo eggs. To receive these the hen-pecked little 1 male dug a deepish pit, and then, when the eggs came, buried iliem for about a third of their depth and sat on them day and night for four whole weeks. Madame. Kiwi disdainfully took no notice of the development. Suddenly a downy kiwi, as small as a man's fist, with a preposterously long pink beak, appeared, followed a day later by a second from llic oilier egg. Like all wingless birds, the baby kiwis ran about to feed just as soon as they were batched; but the mother bird now assumed charge of them, the poor father being reduced to such a ruckle of hones that it look him all his time to feed himself back to prosperity. As Darwin used to stand in the woods and let the baby squirrels gallop un and down liis back, so Mr Smith would sit. in Ihe gloom of the place where Ihe kiwis had been hatched and allow them to march all over him, prodding him the while as if lie were the stump of an old tree. Tiie question at present worrying Mr Smith is, if lie can domesticate the smallest of the moas with his limited opportunities, why should not the Maoris, with two or three centuries of knowledge, have tamed Hie moa?