1864. | Zoology and Physiology. 357 
coryx), eight months; Eland (Oreas Canna), nine months; and 
Nylghai Antelope (Portax picta) between eight and nine months. 
The Hippopotamus has twice produced young in the Amsterdam 
Gardens,—on the first occasion she went seven months and sixteen 
days, and on the second seven months and twenty days. 
Mr. Sherbrooke Walker, who has lately come from New Zealand, 
brought with him some fine bones of the Moa (Dinornis giganteus, 
Owen), which he has deposited in the Liverpool Museum in very per- 
fect condition. They consist of right and left femur, two left tibiz, 
two left metatarsi, and two vertebre. These bones were found in a 
limestone cave at Blue Cliff station, in the province of Canterbury, to 
enter which the explorers had to let themselves down by a rope, and 
crawl in on their hands and knees. Mr. Walker reports that the 
Maories assert that formerly the Moa was very numerous, and used to 
kill the native children, so that they at length determined to exter- 
minate the birds, and to burn the island for this purpose; and, ac- 
cording to them, on a day fixed upon, the whole of the east coast was 
fired at the same time. Whether this be true or not, it is very evident 
that all the east side of the middle island was once heavily timbered, 
for go where you will, on hills or plains, you will find large burnt 
logs of a species of pine, called by the natives Totara, which never 
decays in the ground ; and also, more rarely, logs of a species of cedar, 
now extinct there.. These logs are only charred on the outside. Wood, 
however, still exists on the island which may have been protected by a 
swamp or river, in which swamps Moa bones are sometimes found, as 
though they had found shelter there. Mr. Walker is incredulous of 
this Moa still being existent on the island, ‘and only heard of one per- 
son who professed to have seen one, when a child. The Maories also 
have a tradition that these birds used to go into caves, and that their 
ancestors made large nets of New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax) for 
the purpose of catching them for food. 
Mr. Walker describes the habits of another remarkable New 
Zealand bird, the Owl Parrot (Strigops habroptilus, G. R. Gray), called 
Rakapo, by the natives, found chiefly in the Middle Island. It is 
about the size of a common hen, with a varied black and green 
plumage, evidently a nocturnal bird, always hiding itself under some 
thick plant in the daytime. It cannot fly at all, and has a very 
singular mode of progression, giving a hop forward, and then putting 
its head down, and resting its forehead on the ground. Mr. Watts 
Russell, who has had frequent opportunities of observing these birds 
in their native haunts, confirms this singular account of their using 
their head asa third foot. It is entirely a ground bird, and in appear- 
ance singularly resembles an owl. 
While on the subject of Struthious birds, of whch the Moa was a 
grand type, it may be mentioned that Professor Hincks, of Toronto, 
in a paper recently published on their systematic relations, remarks 
that those who have arranged them among the Rasores have been 
guided by real and important analogies—those who have placed them 
among Grallatores have attached undue importance to a single cha- 
racter, which really only indicates the position of this in reference to 
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