INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1875. ccv 



product of the accumulated experiences of past genera- 

 tions." 



A specimen of an almost complete Solitaire (Pezophaps 

 solitarius) was found, with a second, in the island of Rod- 

 riguez by Mr. J. Caldwells. These specimens, together with 

 that procured by Mr. Slater, one of the naturalists of the 

 Venus Transit Expedition, will settle some points in the os- 

 teology of the peculiar extinct Columbine birds, of which so 

 many separate bones have been obtained. 



New light has been thrown on the mode of occurrence in 

 New Zealand of the bones of the moa (Dinomis) by Dr. Hec- 

 tor. He demonstrates most conclusively, according to Nature^ 

 that the Maoris told the Europeans of their existence. He be- 

 lieved that there was no hope of ever finding the birds alive, 

 for he had been over the whole of the islands very thoroughly 

 without seeing them. He thought that these gigantic birds 

 lived in the open and low scrub, in which they could walk, 

 not among the forests. In all this region, within his own 

 memory, the moa bones were extremely abundant in the 

 South Island, all over the ground. In the enormous extent of 

 subalpine country in the South Island, which was covered 

 by only a light vegetation, large quantities of well-preserved 

 moa remains have been recently found, associated with the 

 remains of the natives. It appeared to him that the natives 

 had pressed up the country for the purpose of capturing, kill- 

 ing, and eating the moas ; and as the natives could not follow 

 them through the sharp bayonet-grass and other underscrub, 

 they drove them together and destroyed them by fire. Moa 

 remains also occur in caves, turbary deposits, and dried-up 

 Swamps; the bones got out of a swamp remains indicating 

 at least 1700 individuals. He did not think that moa bones 

 occur in the tertiary deposits, but a true bird-bone, which had 

 been found in such deposits in New Zealand, he was inclined 

 to think belonged to a gigantic extinct penguin. A new con- 

 tribution to the anatomy of the gigantic birds of New Zea- 

 land, by Professor Owen, in the Transactions of the Zoolog- 

 ical Society, contains a restoration of the skeleton of Cnemi- 

 ornis calcitrans. It was a goose-like bird as large as a cas- 

 sowary. Those gigantic birds, the cassowaries, are found to 

 be more numerous in species than formerly supposed. A 

 short .time ago. but one cassowary was recognized by natural- 



