6 THK FE.\THi:HF,D TRUiKS. 



arficnlatcrl extremity. In liis time, the comparison was limited to the external 

 config-uration of bone. The study of the internal structure had not proceeded so far. 



" In the year 1830, Professor Owen was sitting alone in his study, when a shaliV)ily- 

 dressed man made his appearance, announcing that he had got a great curiosity, wliich 

 he had brought from Now Zealand, and wished to dispose of it to him. Any one in 

 London can now see the article in question, for it is deposited in the Museum of tho 

 College of Surgeons, in Lincoln's Inn Fields. It has the appearance of an old marrow- 

 bone, about .six inches in length, and rather more than two inches in thickness, with both 

 extremities broken off; and I'rofessor Owen considered, that, to whatever animal it might 

 have belonged, the fragment must have lain in the earth for centuries. At first, ho 

 considered this same marrow-bone to have belonged to an ox — at all events, to a 

 quadi'uped ; for the wall or rim of the bone was six times as thick as the bone of any 

 bird, even the ostrich. He compared it with the bones in the skeleton of an ox, a horse, 

 a camel, a tapir, and every quadruped apparently possessing a bone of that size and 

 configuration ; but it corresponded with none. On this, ho very narrowly examined the 

 surface of tlie bony rim, and at length bcramc satisfied that this monstrous fragment 

 must have belonged to a bird ! to one at least as large as an ostrich, but of a totally 

 different species ; and, consequently, one never before heard of, as an ostrich was by far 

 the biggest bird known. From the difference in the strength of the bone, the ostrich 

 being unablo to fly, so must have been unable this ludvuown bird ; and so oiu- anatomist 

 came to tho conclusion, that this old shapeless bone indicated the former existence, in 

 New Zealand, of some huge bird, at least as great as an ostricli, but of a far hoavier and 

 more sluggish kind. Professor Owen was confident of the validity of his conclusions, but 

 coiJd conomimicato that confidence to no one else ; and notwithstanding attempts to 

 dissuade him from committing his views to the public, he printed his deductions in tlio 

 Transactions of the Zoological Socicfij for the year 1839, where fortunately they remain on 

 record as conclusive evidence of the fact of his having then made this guess, so to speak, 

 in the dark. lie caused the bone, however, to be engraved ; and liaving sent 100 copies 

 of the engraving to New Zealand, in the hopes of their being distributed, and leading to 

 interesting results, he jjatiently Avaited for three years — namely, till the year 1842 — -when 

 he received Intelligence from Dr. Buckland, at Oxford, that a great box, just arrived from 

 New Zealand, consigned to himself, was on its way, unopened, to I'rofcssor Owen ; who 

 found it fiUcd with bones, palpably of a bird, one of which AVas three feet in length, and 

 much more than double the size of any bone in the ostrich ! And out of the contents of this 

 box the professor was j^'sitivel}^ enabled to articulate almost the entire skeleton of a huge 

 Avinglcss bird, between ten and elcA'en feet in height, its bony structure \\\ strict 

 eonfonnity Avith the fragment in question ; and that skeleton may be at any time seen at 

 the Jluseum of the College of Surgeons, towering over, and nearly twice the height of 

 the skeleton of an ostrich; and at its feet is lying the old bone from wliicli alone 

 consimirrmte anatomical science had deduced such an astounding reality : the existence of 

 an enonnous extinct creature of the bird kind, in an island Avhere previously no bird had 

 been known to exist larger than a i)heasant or a common foAvl !" 



Of a Avingless bird, the apteryx (fig. 4) Avill aflbrd an rxamjjle; Avhile as the far greater 

 number of the feathered tiil)es are designed for progi'cssion in the air, so for this they arc 

 speciallj' adajited. Look, for exiimple, at the swallow, having an osseous framcAVork, like 

 that already described. Its body is not like that of a snake, for then it Avould have Avanf cd 

 the central point of graAnty, Avhich is necessary for the maintenance of an CA'cn and steady 

 course. Nor does it ajiproach the fonn of u glob(<, like one of the tenants of the Avalei's, 

 since in this ca.sc it could not luiAe ])assed like an arroAV through the air. It is, in fact, 

 an aerial boat, of Avhich the head and pointed beak form the jn-oAV, and the tail (he rudder. 

 All its muscles, too, are cii'hi\\e(l a\ itli enormous strength, its lungs are of great extent ; 



