346 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



enormous size found abundantly in so many localities, answered gen- 

 erally that the remains were those of a sort of bird known among 

 them as the moa. The Maoris often declared that moas still existed in 

 certain parts of the mountains ; several pretended to have seen them, 

 perhaps by way of boasting, for no precise fact occasioned the asser- 

 tion to be taken as expressing the truth. Still, a vague tradition does 

 seem to have been kept up among the native New-Zealanders with 

 regard to enormous extinct birds. 



The dinornis had marked relations with ostriches, and yet more so 

 with cassowaries; in a word, they belonged, at least the greater part 

 of them, to that family of running birds called Struthio7iids. The 

 comparison of bones, rigorously made by Richard Owen, leaves no 

 doubt on this point. N'ew Zealand was formerly inhabited by numer- 

 ous species of dinornis, perfectly distinct from each other, and varying 

 much in their proportions. The gigantic dinornis we have mentioned 

 might attain the height of more than eleven feet ; other species were 

 of the height of an ostrich, or less, and others had a much more mas- 

 sive shape and a slow gait, as is proved in the elephant-footed dinornis 

 (Mjieus ele2yha7ito2nis) by the thick, stout, enoi-mous leg-bones. Each 

 species inhabited a very limited region ; the dinornis of North Island 

 and that of Middle Island were not the same, and many of them seem 

 to have lived in a very narrow space. Incapable of flying or swim- 

 ming, these animals had very sedentary habits. Though it is proved 

 that the great birds of New Zealand must for the most part present 

 close resemblances to the cassowaries, the fact is less certain for some 

 species. 



We have observations, descriptions, and even sketches of the birds 

 of the Mascarene Islands, derived from travelers of more or less 

 learning; vague descriptions indeed, sketches often very imperfect, 

 which yet have become precious. They give us at least a general idea 

 of the look, the gait, the colors and habits of the lost animals. We 

 have nothing like this as to the birds of the Austral Islands ; some 

 scattered bones, merely, have enabled us to reconstruct skeletons, and 

 to frame comparisons with the nearest species existing in other coun- 

 tries. If the extinct creature differed but slightly in its forms from 

 a well-known living species, the relations are easily established by 

 that single comparison ; the differences appear readily to the eye of 

 a practised naturalist, an almost exact notion of the extinct being is 

 gained, a sort of new life seems given to the creature whose mere relics 

 have been seen. On the contrary, if the animal to be reconstructed 

 had very peculiar characteristics, or in its general form proportions 

 unknown elsewhere, it becomes impossible to reach a satisfactory re- 

 sult. We attempt to call the animated being before us in thought, but 

 reflection tells us that the image cannot be a faithful one. This is 

 probably the ease with some of the extinct birds of New Zealand. 



The question has been asked whether the hope of finding any liv- 



