20 Transactions. — Zoology. 



species of this group still exist in New Zealand. The natives 

 call them " kiwi "; and they have been placed by naturalists in 

 the genus Apteryx. The size of the body varies between that 

 of a fowl and a turkey. But the number of extinct species is 

 very considerable ; and amongst them were found some of 

 truly gigantic proportions. It is these extinct species which 

 are called by the common name of " moa," which is borrowed 

 from the Maori language. ( 9 ) The first researches in this 

 curious chapter of ornithology date from 1830. The celebrated 

 English anatomist, Eichard Owen, had received from a Mr. 

 Eule the middle portion of a femur ; and on examining this 

 single fragment he drew conclusions which everything has 

 since confirmed. ( 10 ) Materials more abundant and more 

 complete soon enabled him to recognise five distinct species, 

 which he united in the genus Dinomis. Later on this number 

 was progressively increased to thirteen, and there were found 

 in the representatives of an extinct fauna different character- 

 istics more and more pronounced : so much so that Dr. Julius 

 Haast, the eminent New Zealand geologist, thought he could 

 distinguish four genera, which he divided into two groups or 

 families. ( n ) It is easy to see that these palseontological dis- 



are speaking here is only represented by four species, each one of 

 different habitat, and isolated from each other by vast distances. 

 They are: the ostrich (Struthio camehis, Linnseus), which inhabits 

 nearly the whole of Africa, Arabia, and the hot parts of Asia on 

 this side of the Ganges ; the rhea, or American ostrich (Rhea 

 amcricana, Latham), which inhabits South America from Brazil to 

 Patagonia ; the crested cassowary (Casuarinus emeu, Latham ; Struthio 

 casuarius, Linnreus), which is only found in the Indian Archi- 

 pelago, and principally in the forests of Ceram ; lastly, the emu (Casu- 

 arizts novcB-hoUandicc , Latham), which seems to have spread all over 

 Australia, but is being rapidly destroyed by the European colonists, who 

 will shortly annihilate it. 



(9.) These species are A. australis, A. mantclli, A. oweni. A. haasti. 

 A fifth species of large proportions perhaps exists in the remote dis- 

 tricts of the Middle Island. It was actually described by Verreau, a 

 travelling French naturalist. But he had only seen one skin, the 

 feathers of which a Maori chief used for his mantle. (Note communi- 

 cated by M. Alphonse Edwards.) 



(10.) The kiwis lived at the same time as some species of moa. 

 Their bones have been found intermixed in caves, and also in the 

 kitchen-middens of which I will speak later on. The moas are not 

 the only species that have disappeared from New Zealand. Owen has 

 shown that it was the same with two species of rail of which he has 

 made the genus Aptomis. Haast has described the remains of a large 

 bird of prey which he called Harpagomis moorei. This is perhaps the 

 " weka " mentioned in some of the Maori traditions. ("Notes on Har- 

 pagomis moorei," by Julius Haast: Transactions, vol. iv., p. 192, pis. x. 

 and xi.) 



(11.) Professor Richard Owen made his first communication on this 

 subject to the Zoological Society of London the 13th November, 1839 

 (Laurillard, article on " Dinornis," in the " Dictionnaire Universel 

 d'Histoire Naturelle " by D'Orbigny). Professor Owen was able to pro- 



