[ 345 ] 



XVI. On DiNORNis (Part III.) : containing a Description of the Skull and Beak of that 

 genus, and of the same characteristic parts of Palapteryx, and of two other genera of 

 Birds, Notornis and Nestor ; forming part of an extensive series of Ornithic remains 

 discovered by Mr. Walter Mantell at Waingongoro, North Island of New 

 Zealand. By Professor Owen, F.R.S., F.Z.S. &)C. ^c. 



Read January 11th, ]84'8. 



Seldom has a new idea more rapidly reached its full development than that of the 

 former existence of gigantic terrestrial birds in New Zealand, suggested by the frag- 

 ment of bone from that island described and figured in the ' Transactions of the 

 Zoological Society ' for 1839, vol. iii. p. 29. pi. 3. Three years had scarcely elapsed 

 when other remains, transmitted from New Zealand, led to the determination of one 

 genus of these birds and to the indication of five species, one of the astonishing stature 

 of ten feet, by the characters of bones of the trunk and extremities'. In 1846* a 

 second genus of large terrestrial bird, together with four additional species, and two at 

 least well-marked varieties, were established, principally by specimens of bones of the 

 extremities : different vertebrje, ribs, and a sternum, were at the same time contributed 

 towards the restoration of the entire skeleton of the extinct gigantic bird, and the 

 cranial portions of the skull of two distinct species were described, and compared with 

 that of the Dodo, so far as its characters could then he deduced from the dried head at 

 Oxford'. 



No trace, however, of the beak of either of the genera indicated by the bones of the 

 extremities had then reached England : but in the ' Athenaeum ' of September 25th, 1847, 

 Dr. Mantell, F.R.S., announced that his son, Mr. Walter Mantell, of Wellington, New 

 Zealand, " in an exploring tour in search of the remains of the colossal Ostrich-like 

 birds which once inhabited New Zealand, and whose bones occur in the alluvial sand 

 and silt of the rivers," — " had discovered imbedded with the bones, fragments of their 

 eggs ; " — that the bones collected and on their way to England amounted to 700 or 800 

 in number ; and included " portions of several skulls and mandibles." 



About four weeks ago I was favoured by an announcement from Dr. Mantell of the 

 arrival of the collection, accompanied by a most friendly invitation to inspect and 

 describe it ; and I soon had the extreme pleasure of viewing the unrivalled series of 



' Op. cit. vol. iii. p. 235. pis. 18-30 (1843). ' Tom. cit. p. 307. pis. 38-50. 



' The casts of the cranium of tlie Dodo, which the authorities of the Museum of Natural History of Copen- 

 hagen have liberally transmittid, and the exposition of the bones of the dried head at Oxford which the accom- 

 plished Curator of the Ashmolean Museum permitted to be made for the communications, by Messrs. Strickland 

 and Melville, at the Meeting of the British Association at Oxford, on the extinct Birds of the Mauritius and 

 neighbouring isles, have permitted the requisite comparisons to be carried further in the present Memoir. 

 VOL. III. — PART V. 3 B 



