The Mystery of the Moa: New Zealand's Avian Giant

Abstract

PERHAPS no event in the ornithological world was more astounding than the discovery of the bones of the largest known bird, the moa, which existed in New Zealand, the fringe of the great sunken southern continent. The first mention of this bird in literature was made in Polack's “New Zealand”, 1838, but no notice was taken of this by scientific men. Later on, Harris obtained a portion of a bone and gave it to Dr. John Rule of Australia, who eventually brought it to England. Prof. Owen examined it but was sceptical about its being the bone of a bird, but on further examination he was convinced that it was indeed part of the skeleton of a large extinct flightless bird. This pronouncement was read before the Zoological Society of London on Nov. 12, 1839, and was published in the Society's Transactions. This bone became the type of the genus Dinornis which Owen introduced on Nov. 28, 1843, in the same publication, Soon afterwards the scientific world hungered for more examples and so New Zealand was exploited and thousands upon thousands of bones were brought to light, so that to-day no museum of any size is without some part of a skeleton of one of the many species of moa. From maps on pp. 163-164 of Mr. Lindsay's book showing the places where finds are recorded we gather how plentiful these birds were.

The Mystery of the Moa: New Zealand's Avian Giant.

By T. Lindsay Buick. (Published under the Auspices of the Board of Maori Ethnological Research.) Pp. xvi + 357 + 27 plates. (New Plymouth, N.Z.: Thomas Avery and Sons, Ltd.; London: Francis Edwards, Ltd., 1931.) 15s.