48 Transactions. — Zoology. 



of their native country, and by the severe changes of climate 

 which they had to submit to towards the end of the glacial 

 period. Nothing of the kind happened in New Zealand. 

 There the moas were really indigenous ; they never quitted 

 their centre of original creation ; they only underwent the 

 slightest modifications in their conditions of existence, as Dr. 

 Haast himself plainly shows. Q u ) 



The natural extinction of these birds is consequently diffi- 

 cult to understand. However, it must be admitted that 

 physical causes opposed themselves to the indefinite survival 

 of certain species. To judge by the known facts, it seems 

 proved that the largest Dinornis no longer existed when man 

 reached these insular lands in the midst of the ocean. The 

 other species of the same genus, and the Palapteryx, appear to 

 have been scarce from that period, and not to have long sur- 

 vived the advent of the moa-hunters. A natural decay was 

 then in operation. The Meionornis and the Euryapteryx seem, 

 on the contrary, to have been very numerous prior to the time 

 when the war of extermination was carried on with so much 

 recklessness. ( 1:: ) 



In consequence of geographical conditions, they could not 

 migrate like the reindeer, and their manner of life prevented 

 them from going to seek a retreat in the centre of glaciers, as 

 the chamois has done in Europe. They were therefore ex- 

 terminated — but only recently, like the dodo and other birds 

 belonging to the Mascarene Islands, the history of which M. 

 Milne-Edwards has restored and completed. ( 12G ) 



P.S.C' 27 ) — It seemed to me that it would be interesting 

 for those who are well up in the subject to be informed of a 

 document which brings fresh evidence in favour of the opinion 

 which I have always upheld. I am indebted for it to the 

 well-known ornithologist Sir Walter Buller, who kindly com- 

 municated to me a copy of the Neio Zealand Times of the 1st 

 November, 1888. At a meeting of the Philosophical Society 



(124.) " Address," loc. cit., and " Geology," passim. 



(125.) Here are, according to Haast, the proportions in which the dif- 

 ferent species of moa are represented at Glenrnark : The Meionornis 

 casuarinus alone represents a quarter, and the M. didiformis a fifth, of 

 the total number of individuals discovered ; afterwards, in decreasing num- 

 bers, the Palapteryx clephantopus, Euryapteryx gravis, P. crassus, 

 Euryapteryx rheides ; the Dinornis gracilis, struthioides, maxinvus, and 

 robustus are about equal in number ; the D. ingens is only represented 

 by a small number of individuals. 



(120.) " Recherches sur la Faune Ornithologique Etcinte des lies 

 Mascareignes et de Madagascar," by M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards ; 1SG6- 

 1879. 



(127.) " Nouvellc Preuve dc l'Extinction Recente des Moas " (Lc Katu- 

 raliste, No. 53, May 15, 1889, p. 117), by M. A. de Quatrefages. 



