The word is Maori, and is used by thatrace as the name of the gigantic struthious bird of NewZealand, scientifically called Dinornis (q.v.). It haspassed into popular Australasian and English use for allspecies of that bird. A full history of the discovery of theMoa, of its nature and habits, and of the progress of theclassification of the species by Professor Owen, from the soleevidence of the fossil remains of its bones, is given in theIntroduction to W. L. Buller's `Birds of New Zealand,' Vol. i.(pp. xviii-xxxv).
1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of New Zealand Language' (ChurchMissionary Society), p. 181:
«Moe [sic], a bird so called.»
1839. `Proceedings of Zoological Society,' Nov. 12:
[Description by Owen of Dinornis without the nameof Moa. It contained the words – – «So far as my skill in interpreting an osseous fragment may becredited, I am willing to risk the reputation for it, on thestatement that there has existed, if there does not now exist,in New Zealand a Struthious bird, nearly, if not quite equal insize to the Ostrich.» ]
1844. Ibid. vol. iii. pt. iii. p. 237:
[Description of Dinornis by Owen, in which he namesthe Moa, and quotes letter from Rev. W. (afterwards Bishop)Williams, dated Feb. 28, 1842, «to which they gave the nameof Moa.» ]
1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 137:
«The new genus Dinornis, which includes also the celebratedmoa, or gigantic bird of New Zealand, and bears someresemblance to the present Apteryx, or wingless bird of thatcountry . . . The New Zealanders assert that thisextraordinary bird was in existence in the days of theirancestors, and was finally destroyed by their grandfathers.»
1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand' (English translation),p. 214:
«First among them were the gigantic wingless Moas, Dinornis and Palapteryx, which seem to havebeen exterminated already about the middle of the seventeenthcentury.»
[Query, eighteenth century?]
1867. Ibid. p. 181:
«By the term `Moa' the natives signify a family of birds,that we know merely from bones and skeletons, a familyof real giant-birds compared with the little Apterygides.»
[Footnote]: «Moa or Toa, throughout Polynesia, is the wordapplied to domestic fowls, originating perhaps from the Malayword mua, a kind of peasants [sic]. The Maoris have no specialterm for the domestic fowl.»
1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' Introduction,p. lvi. [Footnote]:
«I have remarked the following similarity between the namesemployed in the Fijian and Maori languages for the same orcorresponding birds: Toa (any fowl-like kind of bird) = Moa( Dinornis).»