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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 118, 25 May 1863, Page 3

Another Moa seen. — A man of the name of Cottier, who is now in Nelson, reports that, on a morning near the end of January last, while walking along the banks of a creek running into the river Mokihinui, he saw, at a distance of about 200 yards from him, a large bird picking at something on the ground. Ho describes the bird aa resembling a woodhen both in plumage and form, but of gigantic size. Its head was hard looking, dark coloured, and flat at the top, with a semi-circle*of red below the eyes. The head of the bird was as large as that of a calf, and standing about eight feet from the ground. Cottier after making his observations on this huge bird, stole back to his camp for a gun,“but when lie returned to the spot with liis mates, the bird had disappeared. Cottier is a man from the north of England, and has not been a year in the colony, and had never heard of a bird resembling the one he saw as having at any time existed in the country. We regard the statement made by Cottier as confirmatory of the testimony of Mr. Brunner,'who, about two years ago, saw the foot-prints of this gigantic bird on the Takaka ranges, that in the hitherto unbroken solitudes of the vast tract of country lying between the strip of settled country on the eastern side of this island, and the west coast, living specimens of she moa yet exist. —Nelson Examiner , May. 6.