34^ HISTORICAL PALAEONTOLOGY. 



but that the Moas of New Zealand have been exterminated at 

 quite a recent period perhaps within the last century by the 

 unrelenting pursuit of Man, a pursuit which their wingless 

 condition rendered them unable to evade. 



In Madagascar, bones have been discovered of another huge 

 wingless Bird, which must have been as large as, or larger 

 than, the Dinornis giganteus, and which has been described 

 under the name of jiLpiornis maximus. With the bones have 

 been found eggs measuring from thirteen to fourteen inches in 

 diameter, and computed to have the capacity of three Ostrich 

 eggs. At least two other smaller species Qi^Epiornis have been 

 described by Grandidier and Milne-Edwards as occurring in 

 Madagascar; and they consider the genus to be so closely allied 

 to the Dinornis of New Zealand, as to prove that these regions, 

 now so remote, were at one time united by land. Unlike New 

 Zealand, where there is the Apteryx, Madagascar is not known 

 to possess any living wingless Birds ; but in the neighbouring 

 island of Mauritius the wingless Dodo (Didus ineptus) has been 

 exterminated less than three hundred years ago ; and the little 

 island of Rodriguez, in the same geographical province, has in 

 a similar period lost the equally wingless Solitaire (Pezophaps), 

 both of these, however, being generally referred to the Rasores. 

 The Mammals of the Post-Pliocene period are so numerous, 

 that in spite of the many points of interest which they present, 

 only a few of the more important forms can be noticed here, 

 and that but briefly. The first order that claims our attention 

 is that of the Marsupials, the headquarters of which at the 

 present day is the Australian province. In Oolitic times 

 Europe possessed its small Marsupials, and similar forms 

 existed in the same area in the Eocene and Miocene periods ; 

 but if size be any criterion, the culminating point in the history 

 of the order was attained during the Post-Pliocene period in 



Australia. From deposits of 

 this age there has been disen- 

 tombed a whole series of re- 

 mains of extinct, and for the 

 most part gigantic, examples 

 of this group of Quadrupeds. 

 Not to speak of Wombats and 

 Phalangers, two forms stand 

 out prominently as represen- 

 tatives of the Post-Pliocene 

 animals of Australia. One of 

 these is Diprotodon (fig. 258), representing, with many differ- 

 ences, the well-known modern group of the Kangaroos. In 



