A MOA'S FEATHER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1432, 15 December 1886, Page 3

A MOA'S FEATHER.

The Evening Press gives the following description of a moa’s feather which it has been shown, and which is said to be In a wonderful state of preservation :—“ It is exactly a foot long, but it is scarcely more than a third of an inch wide at the widest part, a Blender*plume of singularly graceful proportions and altogether unlike the feather of any bird now in exi-tence. tin of a d«rlc erey color and has a wiry appearance, as if it were hair rather than feather ; tut when closely examined It, is seen to consist rf a mn*t-tude of beau'ifully soft plnmeh ts, arranged in perfectly symmetrical order upon a quill of exceed lug fineness and flexibility So fl xible is it, indeed, that it can be coiled round in a circle a’d pressed between the leaves of a honk without any danger of i jurlng i k . This rare »pecimen of the plumage of the gigantic Vird so recently ex'inot, the history of which is such a profound mystery, was found about eight feet below the anrf«ca in a quarry on the property of the Hon. Mr Larnach, Minister of Mines, near Dunedin, and is In the possession of a man in the employment of Mr Bruce, for Raneftikel. ”