ANIMALS EXTINCT IN THE HISTORIC PERIOD. 345 



one slightly red spot under the wing ; they have the bill of a goose, 

 but little more pointed, and their toes are A'ery long and somewhat 

 separated. They feed in marshy places, where dogs often surprise 

 them, because they take some time to lift themselves from the ground. 

 We saw one one day at Rodriguez, of such a size that we caught him 

 by hand. ; this is the only one we observed there, which leads me to 

 think he must have been driven thither by the wind, not being able 

 to resist its force. The bird is tolerably good eating." Much unsuc- 

 cessful conjecture as to what this "giant" might be was wasted, but 

 at length the able Dutch naturalist Schlegel proved that the species 

 was a kind of water-hen, quite peculiar in character, and in naming it 

 (Leguatia gigantea) he meant to perpetuate the memory of the Prot- 

 estant fugitive whose misfortune became a gain to science. 



Nor is this yet all : the bones of a coot much larger than the Euro- 

 pean one have been found at Mauritius, as well as remains belonging 

 to a parrot, contemporary with the dodo, of the size of a cockatoo ; a 

 fragment of another parrot, now extinct, has been found at Rodriguez. 

 We are filled with astonishment in reflecting on what must formerly 

 have been the richness of Nature in the Mascarene Islands ; magnifi- 

 cent or wonderful birds were the embellishments of those regions lost 

 as it were in ocean, and amid a world of weaker creatures they seemed 

 to be the sovereigns. 



Thirty years ago a discovery of the most unexpected kind pro- 

 duced a real sensation in the scientific world : the bones of birds of 

 gigantic proportions had just been brought to light in the rivers of 

 New Zealand. Nothing more was needed to stimulate men of science, 

 who were exploring the country of the Maoris, with the desire of 

 pushing their researches actively. They excavated in water-courses, 

 marshes, and caves, and bones in considerable quantity were soon 

 found. They obtained the entire skeleton of a bird approacliing the 

 giraffe in size, and those of several other species of the same group of 

 smaller dimensions. These remarkable fragments coming into the 

 hands of the eminent English naturalist, Richard Owen, were the sub- 

 ject of continued profound studies. The birds of New Zealand, ex- 

 tinct at an epoch doubtless very near our own, and yet known to us 

 only by relics, have been called the Dinornis ; the species of largest 

 size has received the name of gigantic dinornis. The English explor- 

 ers, finding the bones of dinornis in the beds or on the banks of rivers, 

 often mixed with the bones of animals yet living in the country, or 

 with those of man even, sometimes in cavities full of ashes and char- 

 coal, where food had been prepared, were convinced that these relics 

 came from individuals whose destruction was recent. The hope oc- 

 curred to every one of finding yet living specimens either in the woods 

 or the mountains, encouraging them to scour the country ; but all re- 

 searches till now have remained unsuccessful. The natives of New 

 Zealand, asked a thousand times about the origin of these bones of 



