On the fossil remains of birds collected in New Zealand by Walter Mantell, Esq., of Wellington / by Gideon Algernon Mantell.

  • Mantell, Gideon Algernon, 1790-1852.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the fossil remains of birds collected in New Zealand by Walter Mantell, Esq., of Wellington / by Gideon Algernon Mantell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    The Rev. W. Williams, ii liis letter of Feh. 1841, states, “that none of the bones have been found on dry land, but are all of them from the beds and banks of freshwater rivers, buried only a little distance in the mud. The largest number are from a small stream in Poverty Bay, the river Wairoa, and from many inconsiderable streams, all of which are in immediate connection with hills of some altitude.” A mutilated cranium, described by Professor Owen*, was obtained by Mr. Williams from the bed of a mountain-stream descending to the coast at Poverty Bay in the North Island. Another, sent over by W. Swainson, Esq.f, is from the vicinity of the Bay of Islands. “ Both of these have a ferruginous tint and great weight, arising from an infiltration of peroxide of iron ; but the cancelli of the bone contain only a little of the dry powdery alluvium of the stream into which the specimens have been washed J.” The Rev. W. Colenso, who in 1841-1842 accompanied Mr. Williams in search of the Moa, has given a very interesting account of the circumstances under which the bones were procured in the bed of the Waiapu river by the natives, hy whom they were sought for to make fish-hooks §. He states, that travelling southward from Poverty Bay, he came within sight of Wahapunake, the mountain celebrated among the natives as the residence of the surviving Moas ; but no bones were obtained from thence. “TheMaories affirmed that Moas lived there, but admitted that no one had seen any of these gigantic bipeds. The Moa’s bones wrere only to be found after the floods occasioned by heavy rains, when they were to be seen after the waters subsided, washed up on the banks of gravel and mud on the river-side ; but none were then to be procured. I offered large rewards for any that should be met with, and directed them to be taken to Mr. Williams in Poverty Bay. At the base of the moun- tain is the river Wangarao, which is a branch of the Wairoa, which runs into Hawke’s Bay; and down this we paddled for some distance, but perceived no bones. Finding that we were willing to pay largely for specimens, a hundred persons set about hunting for them, and i brought those they collected to Mr. Williams.” Mr. Colenso states, that hitherto (in 1842) bones have only been found within the waters ! and channels of those rivers which discharge themselves into the southern ocean between the East Cape and the south head of Hawke’s Bay, on the east coast of the North Island. They only occur on the banks of gravel, &c. in the shallowest parts of the rivers after floods occasioned by heavy rains, and when the waters have subsided to their usual level. “ These rivers are in several places at a considerable depth below ; the present surface of the soil, often possessing a great inclination, , as is at once perceived by the rapidity of their currents. They have I all a delta of greater or less extent at their mouths, from an inspec- tion of which it is obvious that their channels have considerably | * Zool. Trans, vol. iii. p. 308, pi. 38. t Ibid. I Prof. Owen in Zocl Trans, vol. iii. p. 308. § See Annals of Nat. Hist. vol. xiv. New Series, p. 81.