340 HISTORICAL PALZONTOLOGY. 
the existence during Post- Pliocene times, at widely remote 
points of the southern hemisphere, of various wingless, and for 
the most part gigantic, Birds. All the great wingless Birds of 
the order Cwursores which are known as existing at the pres- 
ent day upon the globe, are restricted to regions which are 
either wholly or in great part south of the equator. ‘Thus the 
true Ostriches are African; the Rheas are South American ; 
the Emeus are Australian ; the Cassowaries are confined to 
Northern Australia, Papua, and the Indian Archipelago; the 
species of Apteryx are natives of New Zealand; and the 
Dodo and Solitaire (wingless, though probably not true Cwr- 
sores), both of which have been exterminated within histori- 
cal times, were inhabitants of the islands of Mauritius and 
Rodriguez, in the Indian Ocean. In view of these facts, it 
is noteworthy that, so far as known, all the Cursorial Birds 
of the Post-Pliocene period should have been confined to the 
same hemisphere as that inhabited by the living representatives 
of the order. It is still further interesting to notice that the 
extinct forms in question are only found in geographical prov- 
inces which are now, or have been within historical times, inhab- 
ited by similar types. The greater number of the remains of 
these have been discovered in New Zealand, where there now 
live several species of the curious wingless genus Afferyx ; and 
they have been referred by Professor Owen to several generic 
groups, of which Dzornis is the most important (fig. 257). 
Fourteen species of Dinornis have been described by the dis- 
tinguished palzontologist just mentioned, all of them being 
large wingless birds of the type of the existing Ostrich, having 
enormously powerful hind-lmbs adapted for running, but with 
the wings wholly rudimentary, and the breast-bone devoid of 
the keel or ridge which characterises this bone in all birds 
which fly. The largest species is the Dinornis giganteus, one 
of the most gigantic of living or fossil birds, the shank (tibia) 
measuring a yard in length, and the total height being at least 
ten feet. Another species, the Dinornis elephantopus (fig. 257), 
though not standing more than about six feet in height, was 
of an even more ponderous construction—‘“‘the framework 
of the skeleton being the most massive of any in the whole 
class of Birds,” whilst “ the toe-bones almost rival those of the 
Elephant” (Owen). The feet in Dznornis were furnished with 
three toes, and are of interest as presenting us with an un- 
doubted Bird big enough to produce the largest of the foot- 
prints of the Triassic Sandstones of Connecticut. New Zea- 
land has now been so far explored, that it seems questionable 
if it can retain in its recesses any living example of Dinornis ; 
