348 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the Linnsean Society of London listened to the reading of a curious 

 memoir by Mr. Allis, on the discovery of a nearly complete skeleton 

 of the dinornis. This skeleton, found by some gold-hunters under a 

 mound of sand near Dunedin, in the province of Otago, was in an as- 

 tonishing state of preservation. Cartilages, tendons, and ligaments, 

 were still adhering to the bones ; a part of the skin, still undestroyed, 

 contained quills of parted feathers like those of the emu, a kind of 

 cassowary ; the feather part of some of these remained. A very ex- 

 perienced zoologist judged that the animal had very j^robably not 

 been dead more than ten or twelve years. A last point for reflection, 

 as to the existence of dinornis at the j^resent day, is given us by a dis- 

 tinguished naval officer. Commander Jouan, who has made a great 

 number of interesting observations during his long voyages. Tliis 

 accomplished navigator tells us that there are solitudes in Middle 

 Island into which the Maoris, and of course Europeans, have never 

 penetrated, and the interior of North Island is little known beyond 

 the valleys, the bottom of which is occupied by water-courses, which 

 allow traveling by canoes, or at most by pirogues. Therefore, great 

 birds might still have safe retreats. If tlie extinction of the dinornis 

 is not utter, it seems certain at least as to most species of the group. 



Other New-Zealand birds of moderate size seem to be threatened 

 in their turn with complete destruction in the near future. The brown- 

 feathered apteryx, with long, curved beak and stout feet, are very much 

 pursued since the colonization. These walking-birds, having their ves- 

 tiges of wings even smaller than ostriches and cassowaries, unable to 

 escape by swift flight, live on the ground, and merely hide themselves 

 in holes. Dogs trained to pursue them easily make them a prey, and 

 the poor apteryx has already almost vanished from the inhabited 

 country ; their destruction will be complete with the advance of coloni- 

 zation. A singular parrot, of the size of a common fowl, the strigops^ 

 peculiar to New Zealand, formerly quite common, but now extremely 

 rare, is also doomed to perish. The strigops, a true parrot in all char- 

 acteristics, an owl in its habits, dull in movement and plumage, is the 

 only nocturnal species of the parrot family, and for that reason ex- 

 tremely interesting to zoologists. This bird, light-green in color, 

 streaked with black lines, flies but little ; it Tuns along the ground 

 and takes refuge in holes ; the object of constant attack by dogs and 

 men, it exists nowhere but in solitudes as yet inaccessible. The 

 rarity of the native birds becoming every day more marked in New 

 Zealand, many persons have supposed that the rapid disappearance 

 of the most remarkable species might be accounted for by a lowering 

 of the temperature. They have forgotten that the apteryx and the 

 strigops do very well in the present state of the country, wherever 

 they are not disturbed. 



Among the creatures whose recent disappearance is very probable 

 without being actually certain, is reckoned a bird of Madagascar, ex- 



