256 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Together with the Apteryx, there lived in jSTew Zealand a bird 

 that reached the height of nearly twelve feet — the Dinornis. It 

 and the Fhororhaces and the Brontornis, which have been recently 

 exhumed in Patagonia, might be regarded as the giants of birds. 

 This bird was known to the natives as the Moa, and lived in troops 

 like the ostriches. Its organization was very much like that of the 

 Apteryx, from which it was, however, distinguished by its great size, 

 long neck, and short beak. It seems to have had the aspect of an 

 ostrich, with a feathered neck and no wings or tail. The feet of 

 the Dinornis, with their three large toes, were really enormous. 

 Isolated fragments of its bones suggest very large mammals, rather 

 than birds. The femur and tibia are larger than those of a bear, 

 the tibia alone being about four feet long, and the thickness, in the 

 narrowest part, of the width of a man's hand, while it was more 

 than seven inches in the thickest part. The sternum, on the other 

 hand, was small, convex, and longer than broad. The wing could 

 not have been visible on the outside of the body, for the bones that 

 constitute them are proportionally smaller than those of the Apte- 

 ryx. There was, therefore, a maximum reduction of the wing in 

 this bird. 



The Dinornis was covered with a rich plumage, and this was 

 doubtless what led to its destruction, women preferring its plumes 

 to all other ornaments. The large number of bones which have 

 been discovered in the alluviums, the caves, and the peat bogs of 

 New Zealand authorize the thought that the island was once in- 

 habited by a considerable number of these birds, which were able 

 easily to repel the attacks of other animals by means of their big 

 feet. But they could stand no chance against Nature's more ter- 

 rible destroyer — man — who, when seeking the gratification of his 

 taste and fancy, does not hesitate to exterminate whole species. 

 The natives of New Zealand still recall the history of these singular 

 birds; their extermination seems to have occurred about the time 

 the island was visited by Captain Cook (1767-1778). Moreover, 

 some of the bones collected in later years still had animal matter 

 upon them. Even parts of the windpipe have been discovered, 

 mixed with charcoal, and evidences of cooking have been found. 



A near relative of the Dinornis, which the Maoris regard as 

 extinct, is the Notornis, of which only four living specimens have 

 been found since 1842, the last one having been captured in the 

 latter part of 1898. 



The eggs of the Dinornis were very large, having a capacity 

 of about a gallon and being equivalent to eighty hen's eggs. Still 

 larger eggs than these, however, are known. In 1851 Isidore 

 Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire exhibited, in the French Academy of Sci- 



