44 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



The bones have been met with under the most different conditions, some scattered 

 over the surface, others buried loosely in the sand, others in the old native cooking- 

 places or graves, others again in the alluvium of rivers, marshes, or in caves, sometimes 

 so numerous that they have been dug out by the ton. The most remarkable find in 

 that line is the exhumation by Mr. Booth, at Hamilton, of three and a half tons of 

 moa-bones from a single half-dried lagoon surrounding a spring, the number of bird- 

 skeletons accumulated there being esti- 

 mated at more than four hundred. Moa 

 skeletons are therefore no longer rarities 



~ 



in the museums ; fine collections are in 

 London, in Vienna, and other European 

 museums, not to speak of the magnificent 

 series which are preserved in the colony 

 itself ; also museums in this country have 

 received valuable material, the American 

 Museum of Natural History in New York, 

 however, being in the lead with its elegant 

 collection of mounted moa skeletons. 



Thanks to this ample material we know 

 the moas pretty well, and about fifteen 

 species are now recognized. Owing to the 

 presence of a hind toe, as in the kiwis, a 

 number of species were first separated by 

 Owen as a distinct genus, Palapteryx. This 

 division was carried further by Dr. Haast, 

 who made Dinornis and Palapteryx, the 

 basis of two families, including two addi- 

 tional genera. Of these Meionornis was 

 made to include the species D. casuarinus 

 and didiformis, the former the type of 

 Reichenbach's genus Syornis^ the latter the type of the same author's Anomalopteryx, 

 both established in 1852. It is quite probable that the distinction derived from the pres- 

 ence or absence of a back toe will not hold, as it may have been present in all the species, 

 though not found with the skeletons, for no safe conclusion can be made from the 

 absence of an articular surface on the metatarsal bone, as proven by the presence of a 

 hind toe in D. parvus, notwithstanding the fact that it is not indicated in the charac- 

 ter of the metatarsus. 



The Dinornit7i.es are related to the kiwis, together with which they inhabited 

 New Zealand, as kiwi bones have been found associated with those of the more or 

 less fossilized moas, but in some characters they agree better Avith the emus and casso- 

 waries of the Australian mainland and the Papuan islands, and it is therefore a very 

 important discovery that remains of moas have also been found in Australia, in a post- 

 pliocene deposit in Queensland. 



The most striking peculiarity of this group is the enormously massive structure of 

 the hind extremities, which reaches its maximum in I), elephantopus, a name truly 

 suggestive of the extreme development of the feet. Concomitant with these large 

 hind limbs is the very rudimentary condition of the fore extremities, which were 

 nearly obsolete. The front edge of the small, flat, and keelless breast-bone has two 



^W 



FIG. 19. Dinornis inr/cns, Moa. from Hochstetter's restora- 

 tion. Tlie small birds are kiwis. 



