PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE GENUS DINORNIS. 269 



appear to have been the conditions of the former peculiarities of the Fauna of this 

 island. Some at least of the characters of the skeleton of the Dinornis may well have 

 related to rhizophagous habits. The unusual strength of the neck indicates the appli- 

 cation of the beak to a more laborious task than the mere plucking of seeds, fruits, or 

 herbage. The present small Apteryx of New Zealand has a relatively stronger neck 

 than any of the existing Struthionidm , in relation to the needful power of perforating 

 the earth for the worms and insects which constitute its food. Such small objects can- 

 not be supposed to have afforded sustenance to the gigantic Dinornithes : but the still 

 more robust proportions of their cervical vertebrae, and especially of their spinous pro- 

 cesses,- — so striking when contrasted with the corresponding vertebrcE of the Ostrich or 

 Emeu, — may well have been the foundation of those forces by which the beak was asso- 

 ciated with the feet in the labour of dislodging the farinaceous roots of the ferns that 

 grow in characteristic abundance over the soil of New Zealand'. 



The great strength of the leg, and especially of the metatarsal segment, which is short- 

 ened, as in the burrowing Apteryx, almost to the galhnaceous proportions, must have 

 had reference, especially in the less gigantic species, to something more than sustaining 

 and transporting the superincumbent weight of the body, and this additional function 

 is indicated by both the analogy of the Apteryx and the Rasorial birds to be the scratch- 

 ing up the soil. 



Thus far, at least, the positive facts justify the attempt to restore, and, as it were, to 

 present a living portrait of the long-lost Dinornis ; and, without giving the rein to a 

 too exuberant fancy, we may take a retrospective glance at the scene of a fair island, 

 offering, by the will of a bountiful Providence, a well-spread table to a race of animated 

 beings peculiarly adapted to enjoy it ; and we may recall the time when the several spe- 

 cies of Dinornis ranged the lords of its soil — the highest living forms upon that part of 

 the earth. No terrestrial Mammal was there to contest this sovranty with the feathered 

 bipeds before the arrival of man^. 



Without laying undue stress on the native tradition of the gigantic Eagle or ' Movie,' 

 cited by Mr. Rule', or on that of the great creature of the cavern, called ' Moa,' which 

 first attracted the attention of Mr. Williams to the remains of the Dinornis ; and ad- 

 mitting with the cautious scepticism due to second-hand testimony, the tale of the still- 

 existing nocturnal gigantic bird which scared the whaling seamen on the hill at Cloudy 



' " New Zealand is favoured by one great natural advantage, namely, that the inhabitants can never perish 

 from famine. The whole country abounds with fern ; and the roots of this plant, if not very palatable, yet 

 contain much nutriment." Voyage of the Adventure and Beagle, vol. iii. ' Darwin,' p. 504. 



* Mr. Darwin says, " It is a most remarkable fact that so large an island, extending over more than 700 miles 

 in latitude, and in many parts 90 miles broad, with varied stations, a fine climate, and land of all heights from 

 14,000 feet downwards, with the exception of a small rat, should not possess one indigenous mammal." — Loc. 

 cit. p. 511. 



' Polytechnic Journal, July 1843. 



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