DISCOVERY OF A LIVE MOA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 270, 3 April 1873, Page 7

DISCOVERY OF A LIVE MOA.

A gentleman recently returned from the Waiau, and in whose integrity and intelligence we hrve tha fullest confidance, informs us that there appears to be-very little doubt that at last tbe Moa has actually been seen alive and in the flesh. The story is current and generally believed in the Waiau district, and our informant states that he took the trouble to see the runholder on whose station the bird has been seen, who states that there can be no doubt but that a very large bird — much larger than any emu — exists in the back portion of his run, on the west side of the Waiau, dfnd adjoining, the large bush which stretches to the West Coast. This gentleman has repeatedly seen its tracks and footmarks, and on a, recent occasion his shepherd— an intelligent man — started the bird itself out of a patch of manuka scrub with his sheep dog. The bird ran from the dog till it reached the brow of a terrace above him, and Some thirty or forty yards off, when it turned on, the dog, which immediately ran to the shepherd's heel. Ihe Moa stood for fully ten minutes on the brow of the terrace, bending its long neck up and down exactly as the black swan does when disturbed. It is described as being very much higher than any emu ever seen in Australia, and as standing very much more erect on its legs. The color of its feathers is described as a sort of silvery grey, with greenish streaks through it.— "Daily Times,"