upon this earth before the period of man's history began, 

 is that of the Moa, an extinct feathered giant of New Zea- 

 land. This splendid skeleton, rarely included in the collec- 

 tions of the smaller museums of our country, has been re- 

 cently removed from a dark and obscure corner of Agassiz 

 Hall. From its present position on the floor of Holmes Hall 

 it will command all the interest commonly attached to a new- 

 specimen. 



The height of this huge, wingless bird is exactly nine feet. 

 The giraffe, tallest of mammals, beside which it now stands, 

 exceeds it by three feet only, while the largest ostrich of to- 

 day measures but eight feet. Thus the Moa can well claim 

 the distinction of having h3ez\ the tallest of all known birds 

 and certainly deserves its scientific apellation Dlnornis 

 inaxinius, the "terrible bird."- Curiously enough, the head 

 of the Moa is very tiny and appears ridiculously small and 

 oat of proportion, topping this huge mass of bones. 



The Moa was a flightless bird, this species, as a glance at 

 the skeleton will show, being absolutely devoid of even the 

 vestiges of v/ings. Nature made up to it, hov/ever, in the 

 matt'^r of legs. These are so massively built that the limbs 

 of the great giraffe, close by, look as slim and fragile as those of 

 the daintiest gazelle in comparison. The use of these mighty 

 members is problematical. Very likely they were of service 

 in scratching up the roots of ferns on which the Moas are 

 believed to have fed. Perhaps they served also to keep 

 dangerous enemies at a respectful distance. "If a blow from 

 an irate ostrich is sufficient to fell a man, " says Mr. F. A. 

 Lucas in Animals of the Past, "what must have been the 

 kicking power of an able-bodied Moa ?" 



The length of the leg-bones given for an ordinary 7>?^»o/72 is 

 ma.umm are as follows : Femur, 18 inches; tibia, 32 inches; 

 tarsus, 19 inches; a total of 5 feet 9 inches. The tibia of 

 the Museum specimen measures somewhat more : viz. , 34 

 inches. The tibia of an ostrich, the largest living bird upon 

 the earth to-day, is but 19 inches in length, while that of a 



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