ROMANCE OF THE MOA.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2051, 30 November 1907, Page 3 (Supplement)

ROMANCE OF THE MOA.

The Gigantic Bird that once Roamed the Forests of New Zealand.

HOW THE FRAGMENT OF A BONE GAVE A LONDON SCIENTIST A GREAT REPUTATION.

(By Jas. Drummond, F.L.S. in the “ Canterbury Times.”)

i. One day, in the early part of 1839, a man walked into the British Museum and olfored to sell to the authorities a fragment of a bone, six inches long and about three inches wide, which he carried in his hand-, lie said that it had been given to him by Maoris in Now Zealand, who told him that it- was lie bone of a great eagle. .Me asked ten guineas for it. The Museum authorities declined his offer, hut they sent him and his bone to the Royal College of Surgeons, in London.

am willing to risk the imputation of it on the statement that thcro has existed ill New Zealand, if there does not now exist, a struthious ■bird nearly, if not quite, equal in size to the ostrich.”

Ultimately a majority of the members of the committee agreed to admit the bold statements into the •'Transactions,” together with one plate of illustrations, but tho risk •taken was felt to* be a fairly heavy one, and a stipulation was made that the responsibility of tho publication should rest entirely on Owen.

There the man from Now ZioaJand was referred to Sir Richard Owen, who took the bone from his hands, and, turning it over several times, casually inspected it. He saw at once that it was part of a thigh bone. He also saw that the man’s story was not correct- in its details. The specimen could not- have belonged to a bird of flight like tlio eagle, because tlio cagjo’s bones are. pneumatic, and tho specimen was a marrow bone. “It’s a marrow bone,” Given said, “like those brought to a table wrapped up in a napkin.” Tho New Zealander was greatly disappointed at this. He could not, of course, deny the scientist’s statement, but he held to his opinion that the bone must possess some extraordinary interest. Owen was not inclined to argue tlio point iust then, as he was very busy (with other work which he had in hand ; but ho promised to extend his investigations later in the day, and to communicate tho result* to his visitor on tho following Aay. As soon as he was at- leisure, he took the fragment into the Cbllego Museum. He went first to the skeleton of an ox, expecting to verify his surmise that tho hone was part of an animal brought to New Zealand by Europeans. HJo knew that ■before the arrival of human beings New Zealand had no largo mammals, but ho thought that the bone belonged to some introduced by early settlers. There were resemblances between the fragment- and the thighbone of an ox, but there were also some striking differences, . -which would not -allow him to ascribe it to that animal. ..The- wall of the cavity that had held the marrow was very thick. This fact- led him to the skeletons of other animals. He passed from an ox to a camel, a lion, a buffalo, a grisly bear, and an ou-rang-outang. Habile he was making these -"Xparisons, he saw that on the bone, which had now excited his keen attention, there were some obscure markings. These recalled to his mind markings he had seen on the surface of the leg-bones of large birds.

■His reputation hung in the balance for four years. During that time from 1539 to 1813, .nothing more was heard in England of tllie wonderful bird from New Zealand. Owen rccomrnended -the euiiseuin Committee of t-lie College of Surgeons to purchase the fragmen b from the owner. In spite of the ornithologist's testimony as to its value, tlio committee declined to do so. Owen was a poor man. He could not afford to pay the ten guineas out of liis own pocket. He told the New Zealander, however, that- he would recommend tho specimen to other men and institutions, and ie soon found a purchaser in Mr —enJamin Bright, M.P. for Bristol. It found a place in the famous “Bright collection,” and some years afterwards it was presented to tho British Museum, together with, the rest of tiie collection, by the grandson of the founder. It is now regarded as one of the most valuable and interesting exhibits in tl e. ornithological department of the great scientific institution. In them e a-mtiine, Owen did not allow THE WONDERFUL BIRD, ho believedihehad discovered, to resit in the “Transactions” of the Zoological Society. Hundreds of copies o-f liis paper were printed. These copies he sent to all parts of New Zealand, with a request .that- inquiries be ■made in regard to the existence, in the p resent or the past, of “a struthious bird nearly, if not quite, equal in size to tlje ostrich.” One of these circulars fell into- the hands of the Rev. At . Cotton, a missionary stationed at AA'iaima.tc, near Auckland. He had neither seen nor heard of the bird Owen described, but while he was visiting it'lie mission station in Poverty Bay, he told Bishop Williams of the inquiries that .were being made. The ■Bishop had a basketful of moa bones in the next room. The two missionaries ransacked these, and on the following day Maoris were instructed to gather large quantities of the hones, and the consignment were sent to- Owen with all the expedition that- shipping arrangements in those days allowed. lit is a matter for -regret that Owen has not recorded liis’ feelings when he opened the boxes. It would ■be interesting to know if lie steeped liis arms in the bones, as Edgar Allan Poe’s treasure-seekers dipped ■their arms into the gold and silver to which they were led by the famous gold bug. AVe would like to know how far his delight carried him, and into what ecst-acies he was thrown when his eyes feasted on the BEAUTIFUL, AAAHITE, GLISTEN- ** ING BONES, into which, Iris genius subsequently breathed the breath of life, and from which he gave to the world the most remarkable being which has inhabited this Dominion, and which he hap- . piiy .named Dinornis —“The Terrible Bird.” Tiiis episode is one of the most romantic and extraordinary in the annals of natural history. A fragment of a hone, found in a distant corner of the world, was placed in a scientist’s hand in London, and m a few days—.ill a. few hours, in fact —die had read its story. In all the records of all the learned societies of the world, there cannot he found a more brilliant and striking .example of the value, of profound 'scientific knowledge or a. more triumphant application of philosophical reasoning. 11. THE MOA IN BEING. AVe have learnt a great deal from the broken thigh-bono of a moa which Sir Richard Owen handled ir Loudon 68 years ago. Ever since his bold statement that- a gigantic struthious bird existed in New Zealand was confirmed by the treasure trove of bones sent from Poverty Bay, the history of the moa lias been unravelled for us, -piece by piece, and to-day we know almost as much -about it as we would know if it was till alive.

'By this time, it may be supposed, iiis interest was at fever-heat. The general public cannot understand the. thrill of excitement- experienced by an ornithologist when he realises -that he may be on the point *of an important discovery. The finding of a new species of bird is ample reward for months, perhaps years, of toilsome search, hardships, * and dangers.- It is an honor and a pleasure to handle a skeleton which has a f, t been described before. To make known to science a bird of gigantic proportions, which might still be living in a remote corner of tho world, is an achievement that might well -lhako flip ornithologist’s blood ru-u quickly, and his heart beat- wildly.

THE LARGEST BIRD KNOAA'N the ' was tho ostrich, a.nd Owen hastened to an ostrich skeleton, with which he compared the wonderful .fragment. It corresponded with the thlgh-hcno of that bird in size, but not in shape. Both bones had the same reticulate impressions that arrested his attention when he made t-lie comparisons with the bone-s-of the animals. He now knew that lie was on tbe eve of a. great discovery. AAtitiiout resting, ho extended his ruinations, and made them'more mi auto. By the time -he had finished, lie liad come to tho conclusion that the boue from New Zealand had belonged to a •bird, that it was the shaft of a thigh-bone, and that it must- have formed part of the skeleton of a bird as large as 'a full-sized ostrich, or . larger. The specimen, however, still had a marked distinction. Ihe thigh-bone of tho ostrich, like tiie -thigh-iboho of a nea-glo, is pneumatic,• while there. wa.A no doubt, as he had seen at first glance, that the bone from New Zealand was a- fnarrow bone, like that of a beast. At that time, the kiwi was the largest bird reported from New Zealand. (It is not much larger than an ordinary domestic fowl." The irag-men-t seemed to represent a bird of ■almost fabulous proportions. Ihe ostrich and all the other members of the strange group of struthious birds' roam over vast continental areas. New Zealand is compos'd mainly of two small islands. 'Gwen’s contemporaries and seniors . pointed out that the evidence was against the probability of a large terrestrial bird being able to find sufficient loed supplies in a small country like New Zealand. Owen’s interpreitatio-n of the fragment, therefore, was c*>us-.-dered hazardous, far-stretched, and unwarranted.

"It was an ugly, clumsy, stupid, and ungainly bird. Its body was covered with soft-,, fluffy feathers. Its neck was long and strong, with a small brain. Its legs were remarkably massive. 'lt- could, with the utmost ease, have driven its sharp, beak' through a man’s skull, and a kick from one of its legswouid have felt like 11 kick from a horse. One of the most striking facts ill regard to the moa is tho large number of different species that existed, and the numbers in .which each species was represented. There were nearly 30 species altogether. Their habits were very similar. (~ fiey were all vegetable feeders, and they were all clumsy and ugly; but some were much larger than others, j'-.o largest species stood about 12ft. high., and the smallest about 3ft. The latter must have been an exceptionally comical bird. Its body was round and pi 11 nip. and, although its legs were surprisingly strong and sturdy, it must have found some difficulty in getting over the ground. It- probably waddled along slowly, and swung its body from side to side when it tried to put on pace. The feathers of these birds were not like tilie feathers of ordinary birds. They were soft and delicate, like the feathers of the kiwi. Several hundreds of feathers have been found, and they give a good idea of the appearance of the gigantic birds’ covering. In some species the feathers were grey, with wflri-te tips, like tlio feathers of the grey

Owen was convinced that liis surmise was rip, li, and be refused to relinquish liis opinion. (He made asketch of tho fragment, and wrote a short paper 011 it. This paper he read before the Zoo-Logical (Society of London. There seems to have been very little comment on it. Probable his follow scientists thought that the subject was hardly worthy o! serious consideration. Then came the question of publication. -Should the paper be admitted to the Zoological Society’s “Transactions?” The Publishing Committee discussed the point for a long time. On en already liad a high reputation, and , a statement by him could not bo swept aside lightly. He showed that he was very earnest. He placed his ' reputation side by side with the fragment. “Any opinion as to the specific form of this bird,” lie sail, “call only be conjectural; but so far as my skill in interpreting an osseous fragment may be credited, I

kiwi; in others, they wero brown, With dark dliiadings.

From an ornithological point of view, the moil’s most attractive feature is the absence of wings. Science knows of no other bird, living or dead, which was utterly devoid of its most useful limb. There are many living flightless birds, especially in New Zealand, but no wingless* ones. The kiwi approaches nearest to the moa in this unenviable respect. Its wing is so small that it is only a clawed appendage. It is still a. wing, although it is'quite useless for any purpose whatever. Several other Now Zealand birds are flightless. The Kakupo/for instance, has* large wings, ibut .the muscles attached -to .them have become so weak that the wings cannot he used for flying, and arc of no use except in breaking the bird’s 'fall from a 'tree which it has climbed. Tho weba is another New Zealand bird which has .been, condemned .to walk upon tho earth all (the days of its* life. The loss of the powers of flight tis a sure sign of „ degeneration. Birds started with wings*, and (those (that have lost their right- to- fly in the air are degenerates. It is (presumed that they have neglected their Godgiven power, and that it'lle-ir neglect has 'brought decay. -The utter loss of wings, therefore, Cannot ho taken as an indication -that- the -moa wu: a-u ancient type of bird. The oldest known fossil pil'd, the archaeopteryx, had very largo wings. Tho bird itself was about the size of a crow ,and its wings were strong enough for a much larger bird. There is no evidence to show that tho moil had AN ANOIE'NT LINEAGE.

.Mhnypooplei'un a way with itheddoathat- tho kiwi is the Jiving representative of tho mo a. There is nothing to support this supposition. All the evidence, In fact, points in the other drection. The moa is more likely to bo a descendant of .tho ancestors of tiie uno-a. The kiwi has a. just claim to he considered the most aristocratic (bird -in the world. -The Apteryzidea.ux house, which it represents, -is certainly the -oldest as far as men’s knowledge extends, pho kiwi stands for a remote time when birds wero not as highly sp eoia 1 i sed as they are now. 11l its caricature of a body it -represents no fewer (than three' .distinct orders of -birds. It lias the head and hill of -.the longbilled waders, .the legs and .feet of the gallinaceous birds, which include ■the domestic fowls, and .the .body of the st-rutliiios. The .moa, which iwas fairly highly specialised, stands or the sitruthius alone, and of them it is a typical representative. There are very few parts of New Zealand in which moa remains have not been found, AA’lien these birds had our Dominion practically .to themselves (they roamed over all parts, from mountain ranges 2250 ft high to the .gullies and valleys, itlie flats and plains, and the sea shore. One of itlie earliest and one of .the largest finds of moa bones was -made in the Poverty Bay district, on the east coast- of itlie North Island, by the Rev. AY. Colenso, the. Rev. AY. Cotton, and Bishop Williams, about 66 years ago. Sixty years ago Mr AA r . Mantcll found a treasure trove at AA’aingon.goro, near AYlan garni i, and 67 years ago Sir George Grey successfully exploited the same field.' Later oil, notable collections .were broil,glit- t oligjliit near Tbiiigariro, Lake Taupo, lAat-aua, (AA'hangarei), Te Ante (near Napier), AVaikouaiti (near Dunedin), and CoLlingwood. THE GREATEST DISCO AYER Y OF . ■ all .' _ however, was made 41 years ago, when Sir Judins von Haist, who was; curator of the Canterbury Museum, obtained tlio sole rights o-f exploiting the Glenmark field, about 5. miles from Christchurch. It! 'is estimated that the remains of more than a thousand birds, .belonging to 14 different species, were found in .that swamp. A r ou Haast dug up the bones by tons. Ho hired several American waggons, and these ho sent down, 'to Christchurch heavily laden with bones. In the museum he classified them, and ho then distributed them to the world’s museums. Lio-ns, tigers, leopards, monkeys, apes, armadillos, birds, reptiles, and -insects ca-me to the (Canterbury Museum in exchange. :i is estimated that tho specimens received from all parts o-f -the world in exchange for tlio Glenmark moa bones represent about 1120,000. (Canterbury Museum, in fact, owes -its proud position amongst itlie,museums of Australasia to tlio treasures '.the moas left behind them at Glenm-ark. It is- quite ill keeping with .the fitness of things .that that museum should have tlio best collection of moa bones in the -world. Another nicli field was discovered in Ham.iltons, Central .Otago, o 3 years ago. Captain Hutton obtained .from a small basin, about 50ft in diameter and 4ft deep, at that place tiie bones of a.t least 400 birds, belonging to eleven species. At Enfield the remains of more than birds were found in a small space about 3ft .deep. Besides feathers, they have been, -found muscles of the leg .and foot and the integument and muscles of the neck. Thirty-six years ago two specially interesting discoveries were made in Otago. One was a piece of dried skin, with feathers attached,, found in. the Dunstan district, and tlio other was a neck, with skin attached. Three years later a' tarsus, holding a large piece of skin, was found at Knobby Range, -Otago. This specimen shows us that' the tarsus as well at the toes was almost covered by small horny overlapping scales.

AA’hen these discoveries were announced ;it was thought 'that evidence- had been obtained to show that the extinction of the 1110 a hail been brought about in recent times. It is stated, however, that the districts in which skin lias been found possesses remarkable preservative properties. Soule rather remarkable evidence has been brought forward to show that when the skin is dried a lid protected from the sun it might be preserved iii the district- for centuries. There is still much difference of opinion amongst scientists in regard to itlie probable date of the nioa’s extinction, Tho weight of evidence seems to be in favor of Captain Hutton's theory that the moas were exterminated in 'the North Island soon after tlic Maoris arrived, 400 or. 600 years ago, anil in the South Island about 100 years later. AA'HERE DID THE MOAS COME FROM? Did they spring from the soil of this -Dominion, or did they come, as wc have come, from the great -northern continents, to settle on. this fertile -little corner of -the globe, where Nature has given all her best gift’s? These are questions which

cannot be answered with any degree of exactness. Dr A. H. Wallace believes' .that- they are descended from struthious birds, which made their way down to tlioso parts from the Northern Hemisphere, but this is only a surmise. They might just as well (have lived all (tlieir lives in 'this land, from which a few of them probably went out to Australia when communication was not sodifficult. 'Perhaps 'a better theory is .that they originated on itlie vast mysterious continent which lies beneath the waves of the Southern Ocean. Lost Antarctica, in ifaot, might well have been the homo of all the struthious birds. The -moa’w ancestors, there is no doubt, had wings like common birds, and it is unlikely that they -possessed gigantic proportions after they were domiciled in New Zealand.

In speaking of birds that have become extinct ill historical! times, our .minds naturally turn to the famous dodo. For many years its name was -a household word, and a common means of making comparisons. “As big as the dodo,” “As extinct as the dodo,” are still common, everyday expressions. The dodo, . however, was a very different bird from the moa. It was not a struthious bird, l’t was allied to tho pigeons and the doves. It figures in -the official records as “'Dudus ineptus,” but it is often called “'the degenerate clove.” The only tiling it had in common with tlio anoa was' the loss of the power of flight. It did not have the nioa’s gigantic proportions. It was about (as large as a turkey, and measured 3f>t from beak to tail. Its legs and feet were short and illshaped, and were, scarcely aide 'to support its fat and rotund (body. Its monstrous head, which apparently was loosely attached to its body, contained an enormous mouth. *lllO surface of its body Was covered with thick plumes, hut its wings were mere stumps, covered (with soft, ashcolorcil feathers. The tail was composed of a few small curled feathers of the same color.

The word “struthious” lias been frequently used in this article, and it seems to he fair to tlio general reader that its meaning should 00 explained. It is -applied to a remarkable order, group, or division of birds. They are all flightless, and they hear striking resemblances to each other. The word “struthio” was first- applied by scientists to the ostrich, which is the principal member o-f the group. The other living members are the kiwi, 'of New Zealand; the emu, of Australia; the cassowary, of New Guinea and Northern Australia; anil the r-liea, of South America. The moa (of New Zealand), the aepyornis (of Madagascar), and the dromornis (of Australia) are extinct members. Besides forming an isolated group, these strange creatures make one of the great divisions of birds. They are the Rattitae. All other birds in the creation are the Carinatae. 'The Katitae comprise about 40 species; the Carinate about 40 or 50 thousand. The word “ratitae” , conies from ratis, a raft; “carinatae” from carina, a -keel. The application of the words .lies in the fact- that all members of the grand division of the Carinatae, with the single exception of t-lie kakapo, have large keels 011 their sternnms, or breastbones, while all the members of the lesser division (the Ratitae) liia-vo sternnms that are flat, like a raft. All the ra-tite birds are struthious, and Ratitae and struthiones are -interchangeable designations. There is little doubt that the two divisions have descended 'from one common ancestry. 'The puzzle is whether the Ratitae are ail off-shoot- from the great Carinatae, or whether the Carinatae have been evolved 'from the keel-le.ss and flightless Ratitae. The very generalised structure of the kiwi, one of the most important members of the Ratitae, seems to show that that is tho oldest division; but the long, strong wings of the ancient archaeopteryx, lying outstretched in the limestone of .the •Jiiijrassic period, are sufficient evidence that the Adam bird was a splendid flier. It is likely, therefore, that tlio Carinia-tao represent the old stock, and that the Ratitae are degenerates.

In the moa, at any rate, we can see the result of laziness and neglect. Life was so easy in New Zealand that it first refrained from flying and then lost the power of flight, lit is the emblem of stagnation and decay, and its fate is a shocking example to all who are inclined to give way to slothful habits.