THE REPORTED DISCOVERY OF A LIVE MOA.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1063, 15 April 1873, Page 3

THE REPORTED DISCOVERY OF A LIVE MOA.

[OTJJSGO D&IMT TIMES.]

A gentleman recently returned from the Waiau, in whose integrity and intelligence we have the fullest confidence, informs us tliat there appears to be very little doubt 'that at last the imoa 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 hacik portions of his run, on the •west side-of the Waiau, and adjoining the large ! bush which stretches to the West Coast. This gentleman has reipeatedly.seen its tracks and footmarks, •and-on a recent 'occasion his shepherd 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 in to the shepherd's heel. The 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 an Australia, and as •standing very much more -erect on its legs. The colour of its feathers is •described as a -sort of silvery grey, with greenish, streaks through it.