472 Transac tions . — Miscellaneous . 



viously transmitted from New Zealand, I have offered the 

 examination and description of every object in the series that 

 he may consider worthy his attention." (L.c., p. 231.) 



Then Dr. Mantell takes up seriatim my paper on the moa, 

 and quotes tlierefrom — not merely with reference to the few 

 bones of the moa that I had obtained, but also the many and 

 sundry other particulars I had brought forward relative to 

 their places of deposit (geologically), their aj)parent age, 

 whether the moa was still living or extinct, researches, 

 inquiries, traditions of the Maoris, &c. ; and finally he says, 

 "I do not deem it necessary," &c., as quoted in full above ; 

 which has caused the onslaught of the Eeviewer. 



Now, knowing, as I do, so much of the oldeu time — 

 " fifty years ago " — in New Zealand, including the very, very 

 few and isolated Europeans then resident who cared for scien- 

 tific matters at all, and our seeking the moa's remains, I must 

 again say that Dr. Mantell, in so writing, meant to say, and 

 verily says, that I was " the first" person to do so out here 

 at the Antipodes, and that this saying had nothing whatever 

 to do with Professor Owen's masterly scientific deductions 

 previously made in England, and already, very properly, 

 prominently, and kindly, brought forward by Dr. Mantell in 

 the beginning of the very same paper. 



Indeed, I can hardly comprehend why the Eeviewer should 

 have so chosen to run his head bang against a post unless his 

 eyes were shut ; for (as I read them) Dr. Mantell had chosen 

 several words in his sentence which would not so well apply 

 to Professor Owen and his deductions from his one small and 

 broken fragment— e.r/., " first observer that investigated the 

 nature of the fossil remains " {plural) " with dtie care," &c. 



And this is yet further and clearly shown in Dr. Mantell's 

 words on the same subject in his work on " The Fossils of the 

 British Museum " (published several years after, in 1851, and 

 almost certainly before the Eeviewer penned his aggression), in 

 which the doctor says (writing on the moa), " The first Euro- 

 pean who appears to have taken cognisance of these facts, and 

 paid attention to the native traditions on the subject, was the 

 Eev. W. Colenso," &c. Then Dr. Mantell (again) goes on to 

 say ("History of the Discovery"), "In November, 1839, 

 British naturalists were first made acquainted with the dis- 

 covery of bones of colossal ostrich-like birds in New Zealand, 

 by the fragment of a thigh-bone of a bird much larger than 

 that of the ostrich, which had been brought to England by 

 a Mr. Eule, who lent the specimen to Professor Owen, 

 by whom it was described in the Zoological Transactions." 

 (L.c, pp. 93, 94.) 



Moreover, Dr. Mantell says, " The first collection sent 

 to England by my son, in 1817, consisted of nearly nine 



