344 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



similar to each other, may in certain instances be supposed to be able 

 to communicate to another ovum the force which has spread to them 

 all, from the contact of a spermatozoon. In the case of the aphides, 

 the females which are produced directly from the act of impregnation 

 retain in themselves the property of awakening the power of develop- 

 ment in the ova produced in their ovaries, and this power is transmit- 

 ted from one brood to another until it finally dies out, a process 

 which seems to have its analogue in the disposition to the production 

 of adventitious growths in the ovary, which is sometimes seen to be 

 hereditary in the human female. In the bumblebee it would seem 

 that the ova from which the first brood are produced are fertilized 

 directly by spermatozoa ; that the ova transmit the awakened force 

 to those which produce the second, and these in their turn to those 

 which produce the third. 



DISCOVERY OF A LIVING SPECIMEN OF A BIRD SUPPOSED TO 



BE EXTINCT. 



A LETTER from Dr. Mantell, published in Silliinari's Journal for 

 Jan., 1851, states that his son, Mr. Walter Mantell, of New Zealand, 

 has discovered a living specimen of a genus of Rallidae, of which 

 crania, with the humerus, sternum, and other parts of the skeleton, 

 were found by him associated with the remains of the colossal Moas 

 in the sand deposit near Waingongoro, on the western shores of the 

 North Island. The fossil bird was referred by Prof. Owen to a new 

 genus, and he named it Notornis Mantelli. There was a tradition 

 among the natives that contemporaneously with the gigantic birds 

 there existed several small ones of various kinds, and a species of 

 swamp-hen was particularized as having been abundant down to a late 

 period, but was supposed to have been exterminated by the wild cats 

 and dogs. It was said to be of the size of a small turkey, black, with- 

 out wings, and with red beak and legs. It was called Takehc and 

 Moho. On a second visit to the southern parts of the Middle Island, 

 Mr. Mantell obtained a fine example of the supposed extinct Notornis. 

 The sealers when frequenting the coasts of Dusky May perceived on 

 the snow the track of a large and strange bird, which they followed a 

 considerable distance, and at length caught sight of the object of their 

 search, which fled very rapidly from the dogs, but was driven up a 

 gulley in a sound behind Resolution Island and caught alive. It 

 screamed loudly, and resisted fiercely. After being kept alive for a 

 few days, it was killed, but the skin, with the head and legs, were pre- 

 served. The bird is about two feet high, much resembling in its 

 general form the Porphyris melanotus, but it is generically distinct. 

 The beak is short and strong, and was, as well as the legs, when the 

 animal was alive, of a bright red color. The neck and body are of a 

 dark purple, the wings and back being shot with green and gold. The 

 w r ings are short and rounded, and remarkably feeble, both in structure 

 and plumage. The tail is very scanty, and white beneath. It is un- 

 doubtedly identical with the fossil. This discovery has an important 

 bearing on the problem as to the contemporaneity of the Moa and its 

 kindred with species of which there are still living representatives. 



