660 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



a society, have been a matter of equal surprise and delight to me, 

 especially considering how fully you are occupied with the ordinary 

 duties of your profession. We hope to enlist the interest of others and 

 bring them into our ranks, to accumulate a library of books bearing 

 on this subject, secure a large number of correspondents from widely 

 separated parts of the continent, and in various other ways stimulate 

 the study which we feel calls for and is worthy of man's earnest 

 attention.* I can not close this address without making grateful 

 reference on behalf of this society to the kind manner in which, in 

 many ways, Principal McEachran, and the professors of the Veterin- 

 ary College, have lent their support to our projects. 



THE GIANT BIEDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 



Br HORATIO HALE. 



THE discovery of the Dinornis by the illustrious zoologist, Richard 

 Owen, is famous as one of the most notable feats in the history 

 of science. From a single imperfect bone, a femur broken at both 

 ends, he deduced the fact that an enormous bird of the Struthious 

 order, but far exceeding the ostrich in size, formerly inhabited New 

 Zealand. This discovery, published in 1839, aroused much interest, 

 and led to further inquiry. Four years later, Owen was able to show, 

 from the comparison of many fragments of skeletons which had 

 reached him, that there had been at least six species of these gigantic 

 birds. With additional materials, in 1850, he had increased the num- 

 ber of species to eleven, classed in three genera, and varying in size 

 from a kind no larger than the great bustard (or about five feet 

 high) to one — the Dinornis giganteus — at least ten feet in height. 

 Still later researches have shown that even this stature was in some 

 instances surpassed, and that birds must have existed in New Zealand 

 whose height attained fourteen feet, or twice that of the largest 

 ostrich. 



When Owen's first paper on this subject was published, the only 

 white residents in New Zealand were a few missionaries and traders. 

 Since then it has become one of the most flourishing of British colo- 

 nies, especially distinguished for the educated intelligence of its peo- 

 ple. Several scientific associations exist among them, whose members 

 pursue with zeal their researches into the natural history of their 



* This young society, so far as known, the only one in America for the study of com- 

 parative psychology, is composed at present almost entirely of the students and teachers 

 <>f the School of Comparative (Veterinary) Medicine in Montreal, though its membership 

 is open to all eligible persons. On behalf of the society, the president takes this oppor- 

 tunity of soliciting written accounts of accurate personal observations bearing on the sub- 

 ject, especially on any of the obscure problems treated in this paper. 



