470 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



copies of his first memoir, as printed in the Proceedings of 

 the Zoological Society ; and they were received before the 

 close of 1840. Mr. Colenso's paper is dated the 1st May, 

 1842. ' In 1841-42,' proceeds Mr. Colenso, ' I again visited 

 those parts.' He procm-ed from the natives some bones de- 

 clared by them to be true moa-bones. ' These bones, seven in 

 number, were all imperfect, and comprised five femora and one 

 tibia, and one which I have not been able satisfactorily to 

 determine. . . . Leaving Waiapu, and proceeding by the 

 coast towards the south, I arrived at Poverty Bay, where the 

 Eev. W. Williams resided. This gentleman had had the good 

 fortune to procure a nearly whole tibia of an immense bird, 

 without, however, the entire processes of either end. Mr. 

 "Williams wishing to send this unique relic to Oxford, I left a 

 pair of femora to accompany it, in order, if possible, to obtain 

 from that seat of learning some light on these interestmg 

 remains.' . . . Dr. Mantell, who takes no account of the 

 influence of the dispersion of the first memoir in New Zealand 

 between 1839 and 1841-42, seems only to be acquainted with 

 Mr. Colenso's paper as printed in the Annals of Nahiral His- 

 tory in 1844. We have been at the pains to look through the 

 numbers of the Tosvianian Journal, and we find Mr. Colenso's 

 accomit of his excursion in 1841-42, in vol. ii.. No. 8, printed 

 in 1844. From this it appears that Mr. Colenso embarked on 

 the excursion which led to his first recognition of the remains 

 of large birds in New Zealand on the 19th November, 1841 — 

 just two years after the publication of Owen's first memoir on 

 the New Zealand struthious birds. . . . The statement 

 of these facts detracts nothing from the merit of Mr. Colenso's 

 observations ; but what becomes of Dr. Mantell's affirmation 

 * that Mr. Colenso was the first observer that investigated the 

 nature of the fossil remains with due care and the requisite 

 scientific knowledge '?" {L.c, pp. 404, 405.) 



Here it is apparent that the Eeviewer hits Dr. Mantell 

 very hard ; but I cannot see any real grounds for his so doing 

 — rather, much to the contrary. No doubt, had Dr. Mantell 

 wholly ignored, or slightingly, or even slightly, mentioned 

 Professor Owen's early discovery, the Eeviewer would have 

 had fair grounds for his heavy charges. But Dr. Mantell could 

 not do that. And now, what did Dr. Mantell say? (I quote 

 from tlie very same paj^er that the Eeviewer had quoted from — 

 Quarterly Journal Geographical Society, August, 1848.) 



The doctor thus begins his very excellent paper "On 

 the Fossil Eemains of Birds collected in Various Parts of New 

 Zealand by Mr. Walter Mantell, of Wellington:" "It is not 

 a little remarkable that one of the most interesting palteonto- 

 logical discoveries of our times — namely, the former existence 

 of a race of colossal ostrich-like birds in the islands of New 



