132 M. de Quatrefages on 



a young foetus were found, and Dr. Hector has been able to 

 compare them with those of an embryo of the emou [D^^omceus] 

 of the same age *. It is interesting to find that, even at this 

 period of life, the principal differential characters are distinctly 

 marked, and that the pelvis, the bones of the leg, &c. are 

 much more voluminous in the Moa than in its near relative 

 from New Holland. 



Lastly, isolated feathers of Moas belonging to various parts 

 of the body have been collected from time to time at different 

 places, as also even portions of the skeleton, to which muscles, 

 tendons, shreds of skin, and feathers still adhered in a remark- 

 able state of preservationf. I shall revert hereafter to the 

 consequences to be drawn from these facts. I only speak of 

 them here to complete the description of these birds. 



Prof. Hutton has investigated the feathers found in two 

 localities in the midst of bones of Moas. These feathers 

 belonged to the same species. They were as fresh and their 

 colours were as bright as if they had just been pulled out. 

 But all were broken except a single one, of which he gives a 

 figure { . The total length is 16 centim. (6 inches) . The tube 

 is only 5 or 6 millim. [I inch) long, and bears two very slender 



species. In particular tlie bones of the metatarsus were still stouter and 

 more massive tlian even in P. eJephantopus. Its height must have been 

 about 2 metres. Its eggs, several of which are in existence, have a capa- 

 city of more than 8 litres, and represent in volume six ostrich eggs and 

 148 hen's eggs. 



* " On recent Moa-remains in New Zealand,' by James Hector (' Trans- 

 actions' &c. vol. iv. pi. vi. figs. 3, 4). The same plate gives drawings of 

 the eggs of the moa and of the emou {Dromceus), reduced to one third 

 the natural size (figs. 1, 2). — Letter from Mr. T. M. Cockburn Hood to 

 Dr. Hector (' Transactions' &c. vol. vi. p. 387). 



t " Address on the Moa," Extracts, by the Plon. W. B. Matltell (Trans- 

 actions &c. vol. i. p. 19) ; " On some Moa-feathers," by Oapt. F. W. 

 Hutton [ibid. vol. iv. p. 172) ; " On recent Moa-remains in New Zealand," 

 by James Hector, M.D., F.R.S. (ibid. vol. iv, p. 110). Analogous facts 

 are often referred to in other memoirs, and I shall have to i-eturn to them. 



[It is curious that throughout the articles published in New Zealand on 

 the Moa, there is scarcely any mention of the finest and most interesting 

 Moa-skeletou in existence, namely that of Dinornis rohistus in the museum 

 at York, and M. de Quatrefages also says nothing about it. And yet 

 this specimen not only is a nearly perfect skeleton of an individual bird, but 

 its bones were in part united by ligaments and covered with skin, which 

 bore the bases of feathers : parts of the skin of the foot were preserved, 

 and much dried muscle was attached to some of the bones. With the 

 skeleton were some bones of yoimg chicks and a few fragments of gi-een 

 eggs. — See Thomas Allis, in Journ. Linn. Soc. vol. viii. pp. 50 & 140 ; 

 R. Owen, " On Dinornis, nos. ix. & xi.," Trans. Zool. Soc. vols. v. & vi. : 

 and W. S. Dallas, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1865.— Tb.] 



X Loc. cit. pi. ix. 



