THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 



29 



giants were wingless, so their means of defense, like that of the ostrich, 

 consisted in speed and in the defensive blows dealt in kicking. Their 

 leg bonfs were so powerful that they exceeded those of the horse and 

 ox in size and it may be that such development was not only defensive 

 but also enabled them to dig roots for food. Their bones occur literally 

 in heaps in swampy places. A bird's safety is in flight, but these wing- 

 less or flightless birds found their safety in the absence of natural 

 enemies; man being their arch-enemy. New Zealand and Madagascar 



\ 





Fig. 85 — Dinornis nuixhnus (ffiganteus). Skeleton and restoration, compared 

 with the skeleton of man. 



are quite remote from the main land and the intervening water was 

 a barrier to the carnivorous beasts of the continent and for a time 

 to the tribes. So with ample food supply, a favorable climate, and 

 absence of enemies, there was no check to their increase, and it is said 

 no limit to the size to which they might attain. 



MEGISTANES 



The emeus and cassowaries have fossil representatives, the emeus at 

 least occurring in the Pleistocene of Australia. Of the Ehaeornithes 

 It is sufficient to mention the occurrence of their fossil remains in 



