On Recent Moa Remains in New Zealand

Abstract

IN January 1864 a remarkably perfect specimen of Dinornis robustus, Owen, found on the Manuherekia Plains in the interior of the Province of Otago, was transmitted to the museum at York, and formed the subject of a memoir by Prof. Owen in the Transactions of the Zoological Society for 1869. These remains were considered unique on account of the well-preserved condition of some parts of the skeleton, portions of the ligaments, skin, and feathers being still attached to some of the bones, whereas Moa bones in the condition in which they are usually found are partially fossilised, or have at least undergone a sufficient change to deprive them not only of all ligamentous appendages, but to some extent of their proper proportion of organic matter. The discovery in the following year of the unique specimen (now in the museum) of a Moa's egg containing the bones of an embryo chick and attached membranes—within twenty miles of the same locality—was recorded by me in 1867 (Proc. Zool. Soc. p. 991.) I have now to announce the acquisition of another interesting specimen from the same district, being the cervical vertebrae of a Moa, apparently of the largest size, upon the posterior aspect of which the skin, partly covered with feathers, is still attached by the shrivelled muscles and ligaments.