348 HISTORICAL PALAAON TOLOGY. 
but that the Moas of New Zealand have been exterminated at 
quite a recent period—perhaps within the last century—by the 
unrelenting pursuit of Man,—a pursuit which their wingless 
condition rendered them unable to evade. 
In Madagascar, bones have been discovered of another huge 
wingless Bird, which must have been as large as, or larger 
than, the Dinornis giganteus, and which has been described 
under the name of 4fiornis maximus. With the bones have 
been found eggs measuring from thirteen to fourteen inches in 
diameter, and computed to have the capacity of three Ostrich 
eggs. Atleast two other smaller species of fzornis have been 
described by Grandidier and Milne-Edwards as occurring in 
Madagascar; and they consider the genus to be so closely allied 
to the Dinornis of New Zealand, as to prove that these regions, 
now so remote, were at one time united byland. Unlike New 
Zealand, where there is the Apferyx, Madagascar is not known 
to possess any living wingless Birds ; but in the neighbouring 
island of Mauritius the wingless Dodo (Didus ineptus) has been 
exterminated less than three hundred years ago ; and the little 
island of Rodriguez, in the same geographical province, has in 
a similar period lost the equally wingless Solitaire (Pezophaps), 
both of these, however, being generally referred to the Fasores. 
The JZammats of the Post-Pliocene period are so numerous, 
that in spite of the many points of interest which they present, 
only a few of the more important forms can be noticed here, 
and that but briefly. The first order that claims our attention 
is that of the Marsupials, the headquarters of which at the 
present day is the Australian province. In Oolitic times 
Europe possessed its small Marsupials, and similar forms 
existed in the same area in the Eocene and Miocene periods ; 
but if size be any criterion, the culminating point in the history 
of the order was attained during the Post-Pliocene period in 
Australia. From deposits of 
this age there has been disen- 
tombed a whole series of re- 
mains of extinct, and for the 
most part gigantic, examples 
of this group of Quadrupeds. 
Not to speak of Wombats and 
Phalangers, two forms stand 
ae out prominently as represen- 
Fig. 258.—Skullof Diprotodon Australis, tatives of the Post-Pliocene 
animals of Australia. One of 
these is Diprotodon (fig. 258), representing, with many differ- 
ences, the well-known modern group of the Kangaroos. In 
