ADDITIONAL NOTES 



TO THE PRESENT EDITION. MARCH, 1819. 



GIGANTIC BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND. Vol. I. page 291. 



An extensive and highly interesting collection of bones, referable to 

 several species of the Moa (Dinornis of Owen), and to three or four 

 other genera of birds, formed by Mr. Walter Mantell, of Wellington, 

 New Zealand, has recently arrived in England, and is now deposited in 

 the British Museum. This series consists of between 700 and 800 speci- 

 mens belonging to different parts of the skeletons of many individuals 

 of various sizes and ages. Some of the largest vertebrae, tibise, and 

 femora, equal in magnitude the most gigantic previously known ; while 

 others are not larger than the corresponding bones of the living Apteryx. 

 Among these relics are the skulls and mandibles of two genera, the 

 Dinornis and Palapteryg; and of an extinct genus, Notornis, allied to 

 the Rallidce; and the mandibles of a species of Nestor, a genus of 

 nocturnal owl-like parrots, of which only two living species are known.* 



These osseous remains are in a very different state of preservation from 

 any previously received from New Zealand; they are light and porous, and 

 of a light fawn-colour ; the most delicate processes are entire, and the 

 articulating surfaces smooth and uninjured ; fragments of egg-shells, and 

 even the bony rings of the trachea and air tubes are preserved. 



The bones were dug up by Mr. Walter Mantell, from a bed of marly 

 sand, containing magnetic iron, crystals of hornblende and augite, and the 

 detritus of augitic rocks and earthy volcanic tuff. This sand had filled 

 up all the cavities and cancelli, but was in no instance consolidated or 

 aggregated together ; it was, therefore, easily removed by a soft brush, 

 and the bones perfectly cleared without injury. 



* See Professor Owen'a Memoir on these fossil remains, in Zoological Transactions, 

 1848. 



