Page:Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute - Volume 1 (2nd ed.).djvu/37

Rh

locality in question, situate on the property of Messrs. Kermode and Co., north of the river Waipara, has long been celebrated for the great number of Moa bones found there, and which have been dug out of drainage channels cut in various directions through the swamp. The New Zealand partner, G. H. Moore, Esq., at my request, not only handed over all the bones in his possession to the Canterbury Museum, but allowed me, moreover, to make extensive excavations, the results of which exceeded my most sanguine expectations. Last October, when sending a collection of Moa bones to W. H. Flower, Esq., F.R.S., the Conservator of the Hunterian Museum, for exchange with the British Museum, I gave a list of the measurements of the different species of Dinornis and Palapteryx for publication in England. Since then some more excavations have been undertaken for the Provincial Government of Canterbury; and as I consider that the exact measurements of the bones found will not be without interest to scientific societies in New Zealand, I have the honour to forward a copy of the list sent previously to England, after adding to it the results of the latest excavations made since that time. Next winter I hope to embody the results of my observations on Dinornis in a more extended paper, with a full description of the ground in which the bones were embedded, the probable causes through which the numerous specimens were destroyed, and to which they owe the preservation of their osseous remains.

Before proceeding to the main subject of these notes, namely, to give the measurements of the different species and their varieties, I wish to state that it was on very few occasions only that I was able to obtain all the bones of a specimen lying together in situ, as in general a great quantity of the remains of different species were mixed together. In fact, as I shall show in some future notes, there were often twenty-five to thirty specimens so closely embedded and packed together that the whole formed one mass, rendering it impossible to separate the bones of each bird from the rest. Consequently I was compelled, with the active co-operation of my assistant, Mr. F. Fuller, to select, first, all the bones belonging to the same species, and afterwards to articulate each specimen from the whole material, a work which required much time, as the quantity of excavated bones was so great.