362 ADDITIONAL NOTES. 



ternal surface is smooth : in others it is marked with short intercepted 

 linear grooves, resembling the eggs of some of the Struthionidce, but 

 distinct from all known recent types. In this valuable collection onlv 

 one bone of a mammal has been detected, namely, the femur of a dog. 

 An interesting memoir on the probable geological position and age 

 of the ornithic bone deposits of New Zealand, by Dr. Mantell, based 

 on the observations of his enterprising son, is published in the Quarter 

 ly Journal of the Geological Society of London (1848). It appears that 

 in many instances the bones are imbedded in sand and clay, which I'e 

 beneath a thick deposit of volcanic detritus, and rest on an argillaceous 

 stratum abounding in marine shells. The specimens found in the rivers 

 and streams have been washed out of their banks by the currents which 

 now flow through channels from ten to thirty feet deep, formed in the 

 more ancient alluvial soil. Dr. Mantell concludes that the islands of 

 New Zealand were densely peopled at a period geologically recent, 

 though historically remote, by tribes of gigantic brevi-pennate birds 

 allied to the ostrich tribe, all, or almost all, of species and genera now 

 extinct ; and that, subsequently to the formation of the most ancient 

 ornithic deposit, the sea-coast has been elevated from fifty to one hund- 

 red feet above its original level ; hence the ten-aces of shingle and 

 loam which now skirt the maritime districts. The existing rivers and 

 mountain torrents flow in deep gulleys which they have eroded in the 

 course of centuries in these pleistocene strata, in like manner as the 

 river courses of Auvergue, in Central France, are excavated in the 

 mammiferous tertiary deposits of that country. The last of the gigantic 

 birds were probably exterminated, like the dodo, by human agency : 

 some small species allied to the apteryx may possibly be met with in 

 the unexplored parts of the middle island. 



THE DODO. A most valuable and highly interesting history of the 

 dodo and its kindred* has recently appeared, in which the history, 

 affinities, and osteology of the Dodo, Solitaire, and other extinct birds 

 of the Islands Mauritius, Rodriguez, and Bourbon are admirably eluci- 

 dated by H. G. Strickland (of Oxford), and Dr. G. A. Melville. The 

 historical part is by the former, the osteological and physiological por- 

 tion by the latter eminent anatomist. We would earnestly recommend 

 the reader interested in the most perfect history that has ever appear- 

 ed, of the extinction of a race of large animals, of which thousands ex- 

 isted but three centuries ago, to refer to the original work. We have 

 only space enough to state that the authors have proved, upon the most 

 incontrovertible evidence, that the dodo was neither a vulture, ostrich, 

 nor galline, as previous anatomists supposed, but afrugiverous pigeon. 



* Tke Dodo and its Kindred. By Messrs, Strickland and Melville. 1 TO! 4K 

 with numerous plates. Reeves, London, 1846. 



