De Quatrefages. — On Moas and Moa-hunters. 23 



ceptibly in the different species of moa. The smallest — 

 Meionornis clidiformis — was only three or four feet high.( 16 ) 

 It was therefore very inferior to the ostrich, the height of which 

 varies from six to seven feet. But the Palapteryx ingens was 

 of precisely similar size to the latter. Dinornis robustus was 

 from eight to nine feet high, and Dinornis maxunus nine or ten 

 feet in height. It therefore exceeded our largest ostriches by 

 about three feet.( 17 ) According to Thompson, quoted by 

 M. Alphonse Edwards in an unpublished paper which he was 

 good enough to communicate to me, there existed individuals 

 reaching to thirteen or fourteen feet in height. The accom- 

 panying plate :;: will give an idea of what these enormous 

 jbrevipennate birds must have been. ( 18 ) 



In comparing a large number of bones of adult individuals 

 of the same species, Dr. Haast recognised that they always 

 formed two series of slightly different sizes. He attributed 

 this inequality to the sex, and, guided by what exists in the 

 Apteryx, he considered the larger bones as having belonged to 



St. Paul and Campbell, under command of Admirals Mouckey and 

 Bouquet de Lagrye. Both of them brought back valuable collections. 

 But M. De L'Isle, prevented by illness, could not realise all that his 

 experience and zeal had given promise of. M. Filhol fulfilled his mission 

 in a remarkable manner. After having thoroughly explored Campbell 

 Island, he went twice to New Zealand, running through the principal pro- 

 vinces. He finally visited the Viti Islands, New Caledonia, the Sandwich 

 Islands, returning to France by way of San Francisco. From every part 

 he brought back remarkable collections, and observations full of interest. 

 Captain Hutton, Director of the Otago Museum, gave M. Filhol, for our 

 Museum, numerous rnoa-bones and two complete skeletons — one of 

 Palapteryx elephantopus, the other of P. crassus. (" Rapport sur l'Exposi- 

 tion faite au Museum des Objets d'Histoire Naturelle recueillis par 

 MM. De L'Isle et Filhol," loc. cit.) Dr. Haast sent us, with a large 

 number of isolated bones, four almost perfect skeletons, which have been 

 mounted, of Dinornis crassus, giganteus, elephantopus, and clidiformis. 

 The Museum possesses, besides, a model in plaster of the magnificent 

 Dinornis ingens procured by Hochstetter, which he reconstructed and 

 figured in his book, pp. 187 and 1S8. The objects brought by MM. 

 De L'Isle and Filhol were publicly exhibited, and filled the large 

 hothouse of the Museum. A report was made on these collections, which 

 I have often quoted. 



(16.) Hochstetter, loc. cit., p. 138. 



(17.) I borrow all these figures from Hochstetter's table of measure- 

 ments (loc. cit., p. 198). The learned traveller seems to have judged of 

 the size, not by measuring the distance from the beak to the extremity of 

 the feet, but by supposing the bird at rest in its natural position, the 

 neck inclined forward and presenting a double curve, as he represented 

 the Palapteryx ingens the skeleton of which is at Vienna (loc. cit., p. 1S8). 

 (IS.) This figure, taken from a photograph, was published first by Dr. 

 Haast, "Geology of the Provinces of Canterbury and Westland." M. De 

 Quatrefages reproduced it in a work recently published, " Homines Fossiles 

 et Hommes Sauvages," 1 vol. in Svo., 209 figures in the text, and a map 

 (J.-B. Bailliere). The editors were kind enough to put at our disposal 

 the woodcuts, for which we here express our thanks.* 



* Not republished.— Ed. 



