The moa

The Moa

Sourced from: arbs

This task is about reading to find information and make inferences. Read the article below then answer the questions that follow.

Nobody today has seen a live moa – the bird is extinct.

The things we know about the moa come from accounts left by people who saw it in the past, and from the studies of scientists.

Thousands and thousands of moas have lived and died here, but their bodies have all rotted away long ago. In order to find out how the moa looked and lived, scientists must study the things which are still left – mainly bones.

As well as the bones, people often find little heaps of stones which came from the bird's gizzard. The moa swallowed these stones to help grind up its food. And in very dry parts of New Zealand, people have even found skin and feathers, still stuck to dried-up moa bones.

If you have been to a museum, you may have seen a model of a moa. The model has been built by using all this information as a guide.

Model-building is not very difficult to do. We have lots of moa bones. If you put a set of bones together to make a skeleton, you then have a shape of the bird.

There are places on the bones which show where the muscles should go. You can model the muscles from a plastic material and put them on to the skeleton. Then you put a skin over it.

It is more difficult to find the right sort of feathers. Most models use emu feathers. The moa feathers which have been found look soft and droopy, like emu feathers. But they have more colour than those of the emu – they are golden-brown, with a purple streak down the middle.

Even so, these feathers may be faded. Some early Maori, who were asked about moas, said that they had bright, bright feathers. It may be that the moa was more brightly coloured than the models that you see in the museum.

Source: School Journal, Part 2, No 3, Learning Media, 1982.

Use the text above to answer these questions. Highlight your answer

1. Information about moas comes mainly from

(A)   Studies of dried skin and feathers.

(B)   Scientific studies and records of people's observations.

(C)   Remains found in very dry parts of New Zealand.

(D)   Stories told by early Maori.

(E)   Making visits to museums.

2. What is often found together with moa bones?

(A)   Rotting bodies.

(B)   Skin and feathers.

(C)   Small piles of stones.

(D)   Birds' gizzards.

(E)   Ground-up food.

3. Which is the best description of a 'gizzard'?

(A)   Container for small stones.

(B)   Part of a bird's stomach.

(C)   What is left when a bird dies.

(D)   Part of a moa.

(E)   Part of a bird's digestive system.

4. How is the basic shape of the moa worked out?

(A)   By looking at the places where muscles attach to the bones.

(B)   From making a model out of plastic material.

(C)   By reading accounts left by people who once saw it.

(D)   From examining dried skins and feathers.

(E)   By putting together a complete set of bones.

5. Compared with emu feathers, moa feathers were probably

(A)   Softer and droopier.

(B)   Less colourful.

(C)   Harder and stiffer.

(D)   Faded and streaked.

(E)   Brighter.

6. Why has no living person ever seen a live moa?

• Because no person was alive when they were born

7. Why would moa skin and feathers only be found in 'very dry' parts of New Zealand?

• Because in the wet places they would have rotted away.

8. How do scientists know where the moa's muscles were attached to its skeleton?

• There are places  the bones that show where the muscles should go.