Fittingly I read this book during my sojourn in New Zealand. Moa don't get much press outside NZ, as people look at the Dodo as The extinct bird to write about. It's a shame because Moa were magnificent creatures that deserve more exposure.

"Moa" mainly deals with Robert Owen, the man who took one look at a bone and immediately recognised it as belonging to an enormous bird. It's a none-too-difficult read, although one can't help but read it with head bowed, knowing it was us humans that killed off the Moa (and many other great species, like the Haast Eagle, the largest bird that could fly, and is referred to in "Moa").

Besides the sad plight of the Moa, my memory of the book was losing my library borrowed copy in a gym in Wellington, New Zealand and while the copy soon turned up back at the Wellington library, it was soaking wet and I had to pay for a replacement copy. ( )