24 Transactions. — Zoology. 



the females. ( 19 ) The discovery has not been limited to 

 osseous remains of moas of different sexes and ages. Myriads 

 of fragments of egg-shells have been found, and some entire 

 ones ; but unfortunately most of the latter have got broken. 

 However, a sufficient number of eggs have been restored. (-°) 

 These eggs, of a pale-yellow colour, had the surface picked 

 out, as it were, with minute pointed furrows. ( 21 ) Their 

 size was much superior to that of ostrich-eggs, without equal- 

 ling, however, in this respect, the eggs of the JEpyornis.^) 

 In one of them were found the bones of a young chick, 

 and Dr. Hector was able to compare them with those of an 

 emu chick of the same age.( 23 ) It is interesting to notice 

 that in the birds belonging to this period the principal dis- 

 tinguishing characters are very manifest, and that the lower 

 framework, the leg-bones, &c, are much more robust in the 

 moa than in its near ally inhabiting Australia. 



(19.) "Address," Transactions, vol. vi., p. 428. 



(20.) Mr. Mantell himself reconstructed a dozen of these eggs, which 

 have for the most part been given to the British Museum and the Koyal 

 College of Surgeons. Amongst these, which highly illustrate the skill 

 and patience of the manipulator, there are some which number no less 

 than two or three hundred fragments. ("On Moa-beds," Transactions, 

 vol. v., p. 94.) 



(21.) " On the Microscopical Structure of the Eggshell of the Moa," 

 by Captain E. W. Hutton (Transactions, vol. iv., p. 166, pi. ix., figs. 1, 2, 

 3, 4, and 5). The eggshell, about T 5u m - m thickness, is composed of 

 two layers. The outer part is marked by parallel furrows, the inner 

 part up to the surface being formed of a kind of small perpendicular 

 prism. Other observers speak of these eggs as being perfectly smooth. 

 It is quite possible that the little furrows in question are due to the 

 action of sand blown about by the wind. We know, really, that this 

 action is exercised even on rocks, much more capable of resistance than 

 eggshells, and this fact has been distinctly proved in New Zealand. 



(22.) The JEpyornis maximus inhabited Madagascar. It was destroyed, 

 by man, but it is not known at what epoch. The eggs and some bones have 

 been described for the first time by Isidore Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire (" Comptes 

 Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences," 1851, vol. xxxii., p. 101 ; and 

 " Annales des Sciences Naturelles," 3rd series, vol. xiv., pp. 206 and 213). 

 M. Alphonse Edwards, having received new materials, has prepared a 

 very complete work on this species, " Eecherches sur la Faune Ornitho- 

 logique Eteinte des ties Mascareignes et de Madagascar," p. 85 : 1873. The 

 result of the studies of this naturalist is that the ^Epyornis was closely 

 related to the moa, while presenting certain characteristics sufficient to 

 constitute the type of a family comprising probably three species. In 

 particular the bones of the metatarsus were still thicker and more massive 

 than with P. clephantoims. It was about 6ft. high. The eggs, several 

 specimens of which he possesses, have a capacity of about two gallons — 

 that is, the volume of six ostrich-eggs or a hundred and forty-eight fowl- 

 eggs. 



(23.) " On Recent Moa-remains in New Zealand," by James Hector, 

 M.D., F.R.S. (Transactions, vol. iv., pi. vi., figs. 3 and 4). The same plate 

 gives the drawing of moa- and emu-eggs reduced to a third (figs. 1 and 2). 

 Letter from Mr. T. M. Cockburn-Hood to Dr. Hector (Transactions, 

 vol. vi., p. 387). 



