346 HISTORICAL PALAEONTOLOGY. 



the existence during Post - Pliocene times, at widely remote 

 points of the southern hemisphere, of various wingless, and for 

 the most part gigantic, Birds. All the great wingless Birds of 

 the order Cursores which are known as existing at the pres- 

 ent day upon the globe, are restricted to regions which are 

 either wholly or in great part south of the equator. Thus the 

 true Ostriches are African ; the Rheas are South American ; 

 the Emeus are Australian ; the Cassowaries are confined to 

 Northern Australia, Papua, and the Indian Archipelago ; the 

 species of Apteryx are natives of New Zealand ; and the 

 Dodo and Solitaire (wingless, though probably not true Cur- 

 sores), both of which have been exterminated within histori- 

 cal times, were inhabitants of the islands of Mauritius and 

 Rodriguez, in the Indian Ocean. In view of these facts, it 

 is noteworthy that, so far as known, all the Cursorial Birds 

 of the Post-Pliocene period should have been confined to the 

 same hemisphere as that inhabited by the living representatives 

 of the order. It is still further interesting to notice that the 

 extinct forms in question are only found in geographical prov- 

 inces which are now, or have been within historical times, inhab- 

 ited by similar types. The greater number of the remains of 

 these have been discovered in New Zealand, where there now 

 live several species of the curious wingless genus Apteryx ; and 

 they have been referred by Professor Owen to several generic 

 groups, of which Dinornis is the most important (fig. 257). 

 Fourteen species of Dinornis have been described by the dis- 

 tinguished palaeontologist just mentioned, all of them being 

 large wingless birds of the type of the existing Ostrich, having 

 enormously powerful hind-limbs adapted for running, but with 

 the wings wholly rudimentary, and the breast-bone devoid of 

 the keel or ridge which characterises this bone in all birds 

 which fly. The largest species is the Dinornis giganteus, one 

 of the most gigantic of living or fossil birds, the shank (tibia) 

 measuring a yard in length, and the total height being at least 

 ten feet Another species, the Dinornis elephantopus (fig. 257), 

 though not standing more than about six feet in height, was 

 of an even more ponderous construction "the framework 

 of the skeleton being the most massive of any in the whole 

 class of Birds," whilst " the toe-bones almost rival those of the 

 Elephant" (Owen). The feet in Dinornis were furnished with 

 three toes, and are of interest as presenting us with an un- 

 doubted Bird big enough to produce the largest of the foot- 

 prints of the Triassic Sandstones of Connecticut. New Zea- 

 land has now been so far explored, that it seems questionable 

 if it can retain in its recesses any living example of Dinornis ; 



