ANTARCTICA: A VANISHED AUSTRAL LAND. 303 



the globe, there lived down to recent times, but now extinct (though 

 ornithologists still cling to the hope that a few survivors may yet be 

 holding out in the dense forests of southwest ^ew Zealand), giant and 

 flightless forms of blue water hens of two species, the Aptornis and 

 the JVb/ornis, of which as yet no remains have come to light in the 

 Mascarenes, but are still found in some abundance in the caves and 

 swamps of New Zealand. 



The late Mr. W. A. Forbes (who at the time of his death held the post 

 of prosector to the Zoological- Society of London, and had already be- 

 come distinguished as one of the best anatomists who had filled that 

 most coveted position), a man remarkable for the keenness of his 

 observational powers, for the amount and accuracy of his knowledge, 

 and for the tenacity of his memory in regard to details of structure, 

 investigated shorth' before his death the relationships of Acanthido- 

 sitta and Xenicus, lively little birds which are year by year becoming 

 rarer in the forests and on the rocky talus slopes among the hills of 

 New Zealand, and discovered that, in their anatomical structure, they 

 have their nearest allies in Australia (and in part of the Indian region), 

 in Madagascar, and in South America, but exhibit few affinities with 

 groups elsewhere. 



Professor Huxley many years ago, in a remarkable paper, read before 

 the Zoological Society of London, on the "Classification of the galli- 

 naceous birds," i^ointed out that they fall into two great groups, the one 

 broadly occupying the Northern Hemisphere, and the other the South- 

 ern Hemisiihere — Australasia and South xVmerica; thus dividing the 

 globe into two regions which In-, felicitously termed Arctoga\a and 

 Notoga?a. The Notoga^an section of these birds comjirises," according 

 to him, the mound builders or megapodes {Megupodklcv) in Australia 

 and Papuasia, and the curassows or guans {Cracidcc) in South America, 

 both of which jjossess structural peculiarities in common, pointing to 

 the fact that, though they now form different and easily distinguish- 

 able fajnilies occupying distant areas of the globe, they sprang from 

 the same stock. 



The relationships of the groups above referred to as distributionally 

 confined to the Southern Hemispliere are such as as can be made out 

 by a trained eye without going very far below the surface; they are 

 classified by characters either externally apparent or recognizable by 

 an examination of their osteology or their coarser anatomy. But we 

 have evidence of the same affinities existing between the fauna of the 

 same dissociated portions of the globe derived from a deeper source 

 than these. It is but a year or two since science had to mourn in the 

 death of Prof. W, K. Parker the loss of the very foremost of English 

 morphologists, and one whose knowledge of the anatomy — especially of 

 the cranial structure — not only of birds but of most of the vertebrates, 

 from their embryo onward, was unrivaled. In one of those numerous 

 erudite papers, lit up with brilliant thoughts and analogies expressed 



