﻿Bib liograp hy. 195 



1842 a letter was received from Rev. Wm. Cotton of New Zealand, con- 

 firming this announcement ; and in the same year another letter was 

 addressed to Rev. Dr. Buckland from " Rev. Wm. Williams, a zealous 

 and successful church missionary" in New Zealand, dated Poverty Bay, 

 Feb. 28th, 1842, containing a full account of the discovery of the 

 bones, accompanied by specimens. These, with a second bone, and 

 three specimens from Dr. Richardson, were put into the hands of Prof. 

 Owen, and enabled him not only to confirm his first opinion, but to de- 

 scribe in the present paper, five distinct species of Dinornis, " ascend- 

 ing respectively from the size of the great Bustard to that of the Dodo, 

 of the Emeu, of the Ostrich, and finally attaining a stature far surpass- 

 ing that of the once deemed most gigantic of birds." The total num- 

 ber of bones received was forty-seven, dug out from the beds and banks 

 of fresh-water rivers, always in alluvium. Yet the bird had not been 

 in existence within the memory of any of the inhabitants, although 

 Mr. Williams gives a story from an American and two English sailors, 

 that they had been out hunting this bird, which was from fourteen to 

 sixteen feet high ; but which they did not fire at through fear. The 

 name given by the natives to the animal to which these bones belonged, 

 was Moa. 



From these bones Prof. Owen has made out five species satisfactorily, 

 and one (the D. ingens) "provisionally." Their names and the prox- 

 imate height of each are as follows. 



Dinornis giganteus, height at least 10 feet. 

 u ingens. " " 9 " 



u 



u 



(t 



u 



struthoides, " " 7 



dromceoides, " " 5 



didiformis, " " 4 



otidiformis, size of the great bustard. 



u 



ti 



tt 



Prof. Owen is of opinion that these birds are now extinct in New 

 Zealand ; but the chemical constitution of the bones shows that they 

 must have formed a part of living animals at no very remote period ; 

 for they contain just about as much animal matter (38 per cent.) as the 

 bones of the living Ostrich. He thinks it probable that their extinction 

 was the result of the persecutions of men ; for since, according to Mr. 

 Darwin, the whole of New Zealand, more than seven hundred miles long 

 and ninety miles broad, does not contain, with the exception of a small 

 rat, a single indigenous mammiferous animal, these birds would be 

 hunted constantly for food, and their great size would make them an 

 easy prey. Mr. Owen, with great probability, suggests that u when the 

 source of animal food from terrestrial species, was reduced by the total 

 extirpation of the genus Dinornis, to this low point, then may have 

 arisen those cannibal practices, which, until lately, formed the oppro- 



