A despatch from Berlin a few days ago stated that the Ornithological Society had discovered in the north island of New Zealand a living species of bird twice as large as the ostrich, and supposed hitherto to be extinct.
    If the German scientist has really caught his bird the discovery is the most remarkable in natural history, and his prize is a much greater attraction than Barnum’s white elephant or any other animal that the most enterprising circus manager over exhibited to a curious audience. In short, this bird is the moa, which has interested ornithologists since white people first entered New Zealand. When the British settled in New Zealand they found numerous skeletons of a gigantic bird of the ostrich family. As the skeletons indicated, it was from twelve to sixteen feet high. Professor Owen made a study of forty-seven almost perfect specimens sent to England by Mr. Williams, a missionary, who had them taken from the banks and beds of rivers, where they were buried only slightly in the mud and evidently within recent times.
    The interest of the European investigations was further excited by the tales that New Zealand natives told of the gigantic bird. The scientists named it the dinornus gigantcus, but the Maoris called it the moa, and the native name prevailed. The Maoris said that the bird was alive in New Zealand not many generations ago, and their tribal lore contained many accounts of encounters with this enormous ostrich. There were legends of daring moa hunters, and some of the natives asserted that a few of the great birds still existed in lonely and almost inaccessible parts of the New Zealand Mountains. Thus everything pointed to the fact that the bird was not confined to some former geological era, but had existed until a comparatively late period. This theory received further confirmation from the fact that the Maoris themselves had been in New Zealand only a few centuries.
    According to their undoubted legends these Maoris were originally natives of Samoa. Their ancestors, cruising around in canoes, had been blown many hundred miles away to New Zealand in the thirteenth or fourteenth century of the Christian era. The island being uninhabited before they arrived, the great bird could have flourished there unmolested for ages. The Maoris slaughtered the birds in great numbers. The moa was not dangerous unless wounded or infuriated by the hunters, being similar in temper, as in form, to the ostrich. The moa captivated Professor Owen’s imagination. He pictured it the lord of the great Polynesian Islands of New Zealand, and ruling all its animals, until the human animal, with his superior intelligence, came. According to Prof. Owen’s theories, deduced from his studies of the skeletons, the moa was heavier and bulkier in proportion to its height than the ostrich, but less swift of foot. The shape of its skull indicated an affinity to the dodo, with a lower cerebral development, and consequently with greater stupidity. Thus this heavy, stupid bird became comparatively easy prey to the Maori hunters, who are the boldest and most vigorous type of the modern barbarian [ Our apologies for the author’s casual racism. ], a few hundred of them holding 10,000 perfectly armed, equipped and well-officered British troops at bay for more than two years.
    Some such discovery as this German scientist is reported to have made is not unexpected. Scientists have been inclined to believe the Maori stories, and of them have held that the living bird would be discovered yet in the wild interior of New Zealand.
    So far as can be ascertained, there were two distinct species of these birds. One habitat the North Island of New Zealand and the other was a native of the South or Middle Island. The South Island bird was the largest and stood sixteen feet in height. Prof. Owen, on account of its size, called it the elephantopus. It was extraordinary for the massive strength of its limbs, breadth and bulk as well as height.
    This story of the moa finds its parallel in the North American continent. Many persons have seen the skeleton of the mammoth in the museums of natural history. It is generally believed that the huge beast became extinct thousands of years ago.
    Far up in Alaska, almost to the coast of the Arctic Ocean, the Indians say that a herd of the mammoths still exist. The story is repeated with such persistency and with such an air of sincerity that some people believe that it is not a mere hunter’s tale. About a mouth ago this report was brought in again by Indian hunters to one of the Alaskan trading posts. They claimed that they had seen the mammoths running along the desolate shores of the Arctic Ocean. Their description of the animals tallied exactly with the mammoths of the museums.
    Perhaps the ordinary American citizen may some day look upon the living moa and the living mammoth.

From— The Evening World. (New York, N.Y.), 08 April 1893. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.