EXTINCT FAMILIES 



2345 



yet referred to, seeing that this bridge is present in the majority of the Carinate 

 birds, and has thus been lost in the existing Ratites. While agreeing in some parts 

 of their organization with the kiwis, the moas are distinguished by the short beaks, 

 and the presence of aftershafts to the feathers; and in the larger forms, at any rate, 

 not only was the wing, but likewise the whole shoulder girdle wanting. There 

 is, however, reason to believe that some of the pygmy moas which from their size 

 were evidently the most generalized members of the group retained some of the 

 bones connected with the wing. The moas were represented by several very dis- 

 tinct structural modifications; the largest being the long-legged or true moas 

 (Dmornis), characterized by their long and comparatively-slender leg bones, as 

 shown on p. 1467 of the preceding volume, 

 and also by their large and depressed skulls. 

 In marked contrast to these were the short- 

 legged or elephant- footed moas (Pachyomis], 

 in which the limb bones, as shown in the 

 accompanying figure, were remarkable for 

 their short and massive form, the metatarsus 

 being most especially noteworthy in this re- 

 spect. In these birds the skull was vaulted 

 and the beak narrow and sharp; but in the 

 somewhat smaller and less stoutly-limbed 

 broad-billed moas (Emeus} it was broad, 

 blunt, and rounded. The other species, in 

 all of which the beak was sharp and narrow, 

 are of relatively-small stature, and include 

 the smallest representatives of the family, 

 some of which were less than a yard in 

 height. The eggs of the moas were of a 

 pale green color, and probably formed a 

 favorite food of the Maories, by whom these 

 birds were evidently exterminated. 



For a long period the marshes 

 of Madagascar have yielded the 

 eggshells of enormous extinct birds, in 

 search of which the natives are accustomed 

 to probe with iron rods; the largest of these 

 eggs having a longer circumference of 



upward of thirty-six inches, and a girth of thirty inches. For the monster birds 

 that laid these eggs (which, by the way, may well have given origin to the far- 

 famed roc of Arabian romance) the name of ^Pyornis was proposed; and in the 

 course of time naturalists were rewarded by the discovery of its bones. Some of these 

 recently disinterred indicate a bird of larger build than the most gigantic moa, the 

 metatarsus being especially remarkable for its massiveness. Certain of these birds 

 appear to have had four toes, and they all differ from the moas in the absence of a 

 bony bridge at the lower end of the tibia. They form the family ^pyornithidce. 



RIGHT TIBIA AND METATARSUS OP 



SHORT- LEGGED MOA. 

 (One-sixth natural size.) 



