148 Transactions. — Zoology. 



duals living together must have been very great, if we may 

 judge by the number of bones found in the swamps and in the 

 alluvial deposits of rivers. Writing in 1871, Sir James Hector 

 says, "It is impossible to convey an idea of the profusion of 

 bones which, only a few years ago, were found in this district 

 [central Otago] , scattered on the surface of the ground, or 

 buried in the alluvial soil in the neighbourhood of streams and 

 rivers."''' Sir Julius von Haast estimated that there were the 

 remains of more than a thousand birds, belonging to fourteen 

 different species, in the Glenmark Swamp. At Hamilton I 

 obtained from a small basin, about 50ft. in diameter and 4ft. in 

 depth, bones of at least four hundred birds, belonging to eleven 

 species ; and Mr. Forbes estimates that at Enfield the remains 

 of more than three hundred birds were crowded together into 

 a small space not more than 3ft. deep. 



The great number of different species of struthious birds- 

 lately living together in New Zealand is a remarkable fact, un- 

 paralleled in any other part of the world, f The Continent of 

 Africa, together with Arabia and, formerly, central Asia, con- 

 tains but three species of ostrich, differing in the colour of the 

 skin of the neck. South America, from the Straits of Magellan 

 to Peru, has but three species of rhea. Australia possesses 

 two species of emu and one species of cassow^arj^ ; while 

 eight other species of cassowary inhabit detached islands from 

 New Britain and New Guinea to the Aru Islands and Ceram. 

 Outside of New Zealand two species of struthious birds are 

 hardly ever found living in the same district ; while a few 

 hundred years ago there were in New Zealand, besides several 

 kinds of kiwis, twelve species of moas in the North Island and 

 seventeen species in the South Island. Many years ago I 

 found, as I thought, a solution for this problem by examining 

 the present distribution of the cassowaries.]: Here we have 

 eight species, inhabiting five different islands, and if thi& 

 region of the earth were to be elevated and the islands 

 joined these eight species might mingle together. If the 

 region were to sink again all would undoubtedly be driven 

 to the highest land, and we might have a single island in- 

 habited by eight species of cassowaries. Now, we know that 

 New Zealand has actually gone through a series of changes in 

 level similar to those just mentioned. In the Oligocene and 

 Miocene periods it consisted of a cluster of several islands, 



possibly the bird was taken there by the Maoris. No moa-bones have 

 been found on the Chatham Ish\nds by Europeans, but the Maorioris. 

 have a tradition of a large bird which was called i^uoa (Trans. K.Z. 

 Inst., vol. vii., p. 117, footnote). 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. iv., p. 115. 



t Owen, Ext. Birds of N.Z., p. lOG. 



\ Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. v., p. 233. 



( 



