| OCR Text |
Show 1870.] MESSRS. MARSHALL ON THE CAPITONIDAE. 117 Kakapo (Strigojjs), a bird now extinct in the districts where I found the ovens, exactly as the Moa is. " I have seen many hundreds of old ovens undistinguishable from those in which Moa-bones were found; and in some of these cases the natives were able to tell m e the circumstances under which way-parties or travellers had formed these very ovens many years since. I would observe that the native word ' Moa' is a Polynesian word, and the very word which new comers to the islands of N e w Zealand would have been likely to apply to the Dinornis, if they had found it in existence there. The natives all know the word Moa as describing the extinct bird; and when I went to New Zealand twenty-five years ago, the natives invariably spoke to me of the Moa as a bird well-known to their ancestors. They spoke of the Moa in exactly the same manner as they did of the Kakapo, the Kiwi, the Weka, and an extinct kind of Rails in districts where all these birds had disappeared. "Allusions to the Moa are to be found in their poems, sometimes together with allusions to birds still in existence in some parts of the islands. For instance, in page 9 of ' K o nga Moteatea, m e nga Hakirara o nga Maori'*, you will find a man speaking of the death of all his sons, who says, ' K a ngaro, i te ngaro, a te moa' (' they have disappeared as completely as the Moa'); and, again, at page 324 of the same work you will find in another poem as follows : - " ' Kua rongo 'no au, Na Hikuao te Korohiko Ko te rakau i tunua ai te Moa.' " That is, ' I have heard, indeed, that from Hiknao was the Korohiko, the tree or shrub with which the Moa was cooked.' " Probably the meaning is, that the boughs, leaves, and flowers of that tree were used to cover up the flesh of the Moa in the oven where it was cooked. In the same poem the Weka (Ocydromus australis) is immediately afterwards alluded to. "From these circumstances, and from former frequent conversations with old natives, I have never entertained the slightest doubt that the Moa was found by the ancestors of the present New-Zealand race when they first occupied the islands, and that, by degrees, the Moa was destroyed and disappeared, as have been several other wingless birds from different parts of New Zealand." The following papers were read :- 1. Notes on the Classification of the Capitonidce. By C. H. T. M A R S H A L L and G. F. L. MARSHALL. In examining the classification of this family for our forthcoming monograph, a few points have occurred to us which we should wish to bring to the notice of ornithologists. W e have primarily grouped the Capitonidae into three well-defined * New Zealand: printed by Robert Stokes, Wellington, 1853. 1 vol. 8vo. |
