A moa’s egg, broken evidently juot as it was about to be hatched, as the bones of the chicken were mingled with the shell fragments, was found recently by Mr. E. T. Frost on the foreshore at Doubtless Bay. The shape and curve of the pieces suggest that the egg would have been more than six inches long. Other finds of well-preserved bones were made close by, and it is probable that the nest and bird were overwhelmed by a fire, as the charred remains of scrub can be seen on the same level. A curious feature of these old remains is that the jawbones and other small bones of the tuatara are to be found mingled with them. The tuatara was apparently an abundant contemporary with the nioa. The foreshore at Doubtless Bay was evidently the home of hundreds of moas. It is suggested that the Maoris hunted and ate them, as their bones can be found round the old oven sites with the bones of seals, fish and birds.
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Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 153, 24 March 1939, Page 7
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171Untitled Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 153, 24 March 1939, Page 7
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