268 NATURAL SCIENCE. 



JUNE, 



be the largest accumulation of these remains yet discovered. This 

 " find," as we learn from a newspaper report, occurred in a cultivated 

 field near Oamaru point in the South Island. Here, on removing 

 the top layer of soil, an accumulation of bones was revealed, which 

 are estimated to have belonged to several hundred individuals of 

 various ages and species. What could have been the cause of such 

 a vast accumulation of bird-bones in so small an area, remains at 

 present a complete mystery. 



In addition to the moas of New Zealand, the discovery of the 

 remains of the huge /¥lpyornis of Madagascar — first made known 

 to us by its monstrous eggs — and of those of the somewhat smaller 

 Dromornis of Australia, has for many years made it a matter of 

 common knowledge that huge Ratite birds were widely spread over 

 the islands of the Southern hemisphere at a comparatively recent 

 epoch. To find evidence of the existence of such gigantic birds in 

 the European area, we have, however, to go back to the very 

 commencement of the Eocene division of the Tertiary period — viz., 

 the London Clay and the underlying Woolwich and Reading beds, 

 or their continental equivalents. Thus, in England we have the 

 genus Dasornis represented by a skull from the London Clay, and 

 the allied Gastornis by limb-bones from the Woolwich and Reading 

 beds near Croydon ; while on the continent, in Belgium and 

 France, the birds of the latter genus are so well represented that 

 we now know nearly the whole of their skeleton. In spite, however, 

 of this comparatively full knowledge of their osteology, there has 

 been great doubt as to whether we ought to regard Gastornis as a 

 gigantic swan-like bird deprived of wings, or as a member of the 

 Ratite group. The available evidence points very strongly in favour 

 of the latter reference ; and accordingly in the Museum Catalogue 

 these Eocene giants succeed the moas and Dromornis. 



For some years it has been known that the Lower Eocene of the 

 United States yields remains of an ally of Gastornis, described under 

 the name of Diatryma, but it is only during the latter half of the past 

 year that we have acquired definite information as to the existence of 

 a number of apparently allied, and equally gigantic, birds in the 

 lower Tertiaries of South America. For our knowledge of these 

 birds we are indebted to the memoirs marked i, 2, and 7 in our list. 



In the first memoir on our list, Professor Ameghino tells us that 

 as far back as the year 1887 he described a peculiar mandible from 

 the lower Tertiary beds of Patagonia, under the name of Phorusrhachos 

 (now amended to Phororhachos) which he then believed to belong to 

 an Edentate Mammal. It turns out, however, as clearly shown by 

 the figure given in the memoir, that this specimen is really the 

 anterior half of the mandible of a gigantic bird ; and, from the same 

 deposits, there have now been obtained a number of the limb-bones of 

 this and other gigantic birds, which have been provisionally described 

 by Professor Ameghino. These remains, it is stated, indicate birds of 



