18 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



tion o£ the doctrine of evolution. But much still remains 

 to be done. Both as regards its fauna and its flora New 

 Zealand has always been treated too much as a whole quan- 

 tity, and in consequence percentage schedules prepared for 

 comparing with the fauna and flora of other areas fail from 

 this cause. It is absolutely necessary not only to discrimi- 

 nate localities, but also to study more carefully the relative 

 prevalence of individuals as well as of species before insti- 

 tuting comparisons. The facility and rapidity with which 

 changes are effected at the present time should put us 

 on our guard against rashly accepting species which may 

 have been accidental intruders, though wafted hither by 

 natural causes, as belonging to the original endemic fauna 

 or flora. The most striking feature in the New Zealand 

 fauna was the extraordinary development of many forms 

 of the Dinornis, or the moa of the Maoris, which were 

 struthious birds, and also of the other birds in which 

 the power of flight was either altogether absent or only 

 feebly developed. They represent many genera and 

 species J and the individuals, up to a comparatively re- 

 cent date, must have been exceedingly numerous. How 

 sucli an astonishing variety of bird-forms, many of which 

 were of gigantic size, came to be crowded together on a 

 small island like New Zealand is one of the most difiicult 

 problems in geographical zoology. There is only one 

 ostrich in the vast continent of Africa, one emu in Aus- 

 tralia, one rhea in South America. The only large 

 struthious birds now existing which have a limited dis- 

 tribution are some of the cassowaries ; but here in New 

 Zealand there Avere many species living intermixed within 

 a limited area. Their bones were found by the early 

 settlers scattered in great profusion on the surface in some 

 parts of the country, buried in swampy places, and heaped 

 in caves, into which they had been washed just as the 

 bones of sheep and cattle are at the present time. The 

 ample material which has been collected during the past 

 fifty years has been elaborated by the masterly genius 

 of the great anatomist Owen, whose work on the osteo- 

 logy of the extinct birds is, perhaps, the most famous 



