THE EVENING WORLD — APRIL 08, 1893
LARGER THAN OSTRICHES ♢ (Living Moas Discovered in the Wilds of New Zealand.) ♢ Museum Managers and Showmen Have a New Object in Life.
A despatch from Berlin a few days ago stated that the Ornithological Society had discovered in the north island of New Zealand a living species of bird twice as large as the ostrich, and supposed hitherto to be extinct.
If the German scientist has really caught his bird the discovery is the most remarkable in natural history, and his prize is a much greater attraction than Barnum’s white elephant or any other animal that the most enterprising circus manager over exhibited to a curious audience. In short, this bird is the moa, which has interested ornithologists since white people first entered New Zealand. When the British settled in New Zealand they found numerous skeletons of a gigantic bird of the ostrich family. As the skeletons indicated, it was from twelve to sixteen feet high. Professor Owen made a study of forty-seven almost perfect specimens sent to England by Mr. Williams, a missionary, who had them taken from the banks and beds of rivers, where they were buried only slightly in the mud and evidently within recent times.
The interest of the European investigations was further excited by the tales that New Zealand natives told of the gigantic bird. The scientists named it the dinornus gigantcus, but the Maoris called it the moa, and the native name prevailed. The Maoris said that the bird was alive in
