sa 



nn.rvi.u. FORMATION. 



DINOKNIS. 



Amour UMM occur specie* of the euriotu genus Ple*ra*<lra, in which 

 UMtUmetM an developed on one side only of the flower, all those on 

 UM opposite aide being abortive. There are few analogic* to this in 

 the rentable kingdom. BMerti* ro/fc.7 is showy twiner, but it- 

 flown are intoUrably offensive in their smell. The Indian 



are in almost all MM plant, of great beautv. They are ** 

 both for the grandeur of their foliage and the magnificence of 

 flowers. Several species of DiUentaeta are large trees, aud afford 

 valuable timber. 





I, * (lowering thoot of Jfiltn-Ha rolukilii ; 2, the calyx and carpels, with 

 oo< itamcn aalj remaining ; the other stamens cut away to >how the carpcli in 

 the centre of the flower ; S, the ripe fruit. 



DILUVIAL FORMATION. The superficial deposits of gravel, 

 clay, and sand (sometimes containing shells and bones of land Mam- 

 malia}, which lie far from their original sites on hills, and in other 

 situations to which no forces of water now in action could transport 

 them, are thus termed. The explanations proposed by geologists are 

 various, and aa yet unsatisfactorily demonstrated. Violent floods 

 pawing over the land ; streams flowing formerly at levels and in lines 

 now impossible ; the littoral action of the sea during the time of the 

 uplifting of the land ; glacier movements ; and the flotation of ice- 

 bergs over the surface while yet it was covered by the ocean, have all 

 been strongly proposed for adoption : but the phenomena are very 

 complicated, and seem to require many partial solutions, involving 

 change of level of aea and land as the fundamental condition. 

 [AU.CTIUIL] (Lyell, Principle! of Oeoloyy ; Jukes, Physical Geoloyy ; 

 De la Beche, Iliac to Obterre in Gtoloyy.) 



DIMEROCRINITE3, a genus of Crinaidev, proposed by Phillip* 

 ('SiL System,' t. 17) to include species of Orinoidea inarhculata of 

 Miller, with the finger-joints in double rows. From the Wenlock 

 Limestone. 



DIMORPHANTHUS, a genus ( Plants belonging to the natural 

 order Araliaceir. One of the species, formerly Aralia edulit, is eaten 

 in China. [ARALIACEJL] 



DIMYARIA. [CosciHFEBA.] 



IMNKMOURA. [I'o.i II.I.I-ODA.] 



I>INI'.TI"8, a genus of Hymenopterous Insects, of the section 

 Foaora. [LAJUUOJL] 



I ) I X OO, or A MtrolfaM Doy. [C AX is. 1 



I'lNoDKS. [CHL.KXICS.J 



DINOPS. [ClIEIRDITCRA.] 



MN"KN1S, a genus of Birds probably extinct, the remains o: 

 several species of which have been found in New Zealand. 



In November, 1889, Professor Owen exhibited, at a meeting of the 

 Zoological Society of London, the fragment of the shaft of a femur 

 8 inch** in length, and 5J inches in its smallest circumference, with 

 both extremities broken off. This bone of an unknown struthious 

 bird of large *i*e, presumed U> be extinct, was put into the Professor's 



1* i 1 1 i . i t . i 



bands for examination, by Mr. Rule, with the statement that it 

 found in New Zealand, where the natives have a tradition that 

 belonged to a bird of the eagle kind, which has become extinct, and 

 to which they give the name Movie or Moa, Similar bones, it 

 said, were found buried on the banks of the rivers. 



After a minute description of the bone, Professor Owen made the 

 following statement : " There is no bone of similar nizo which pre- 

 sents a canoellous structure so closely resembling that of the preseu 

 bone, as does the femur of the ostrich ; but this structure is inter 

 ruptwl in the ostrich at the middle of the shaft, where the parietcs o 

 UM medullary, or rather air-cavity, are smooth and unbroken. From 

 this difference I conclude the struthious bird indicated by the proven 



fragment to have been a heavier and more sluggish species than th.< 

 ostrich ; its femur, aud probably its whole leg, was shorter and 

 thicker. It is only in the ostrich's femur that I have observed super- 

 ficial reticulate impressions similar to those on the fragment in ques- 

 tion. The ostrich s femur in subcompressed, while the present i* 

 cylindrical, approaching in this respect nearer to tin- femur of the 

 emeu ; l>ut its diameter is one-third greater than that of the largest 

 men's femur with which I have compared it. The bones of the 

 xtremities of the great Tatudo rtri.hantu/.iii are solid throughout : 

 hose of the crocodile have no cancellous structure like the present 

 "me. The cancellous structure of the mammiferous long bones i of 

 much finer and more fibrous character than in the fossil. Although 

 speak of the bone under this term, it must be observed that it does 

 not present the characters of a true fossil ; it is by no means mine- 

 ralised ; it has probably been on or in the ground for some time, but 

 still retains most of its animal matter. It'weighs 7 ounces 12 drachms 

 avoirdupois. 



" The discovery of a relic of a Urge struthious bird in New Zealand 

 s one of peculiar interest, on account of the remarkable character of 

 ho existing Fauna of that island, which still includes one of the most 

 extraordinary and anomalous genera of the struthious order ; and 

 >ecause of the close analogy which the event indicated by the present 

 relic offers to the extinction of the Dodo of the island of the Mau- 

 ritius. So far as judgment can be formed of a single fragment, it 

 seems probable that the extinct bird of New Zealand, if it prove to 

 je extinct, presented proportions more nearly resembling those of the 

 Dodo than of any of the existing Struthivnidtr. Any opinion however 

 as to its specific form can only be conjectural. The femur of the Stilt- 

 Bird (Ifimantoptu) would never have revealed the anomalous develop- 

 ment of the other bones of the leg; but so far as my skill in 

 nterpreting an osseous fragment may be credited, I am willing to 

 risk the reputation for it on the statement that there has existed, if 

 there does not now exist, in New Zealand, a struthious bird nearly if 

 not quite equal in size to the ostrich." 



It was not long before an opportunity occurred of testing this very 

 remarkable statement, and of proving the sagacity of the naturalist 

 who had thus staked his reputation upon his conviction of the truth 

 of the general principles of the science of comparative anatomy. 

 Professor Owen received a communication from the Rev. \V. Cotton 

 describing several other remains of animals of the same kind, aud 

 in 1843 a collection, comprising vertebra; and bones cf the hinder 

 extremities, pelvis, 4tc., were transmitted by the Itev. W. Williams to 

 the dean of Westminster (Dr. Bucklaud) ; and in 1846 many specimens 

 were sent to England by Dr. Mackellar, Mr. Percy Earle, and Colonel 

 Wakefield. These were placed in the hands of Professor Owen, and 

 form the subject of his first and second ' Memoirs on the Dinornis,' 

 in the ' Zoological Transactions,' vol. iii. 



In these Memoirs Professor Owen pointed out that the bones which 

 had been thus sent over from New Zealand contained the remains of 

 no less than nine species of a remarkable group of birds, which he 

 at first supposed belonged to the family of Struthionida. Subsequent 

 examination however has led Professor Owen to the conviction that, 

 although wingless, these birds have as little connection structurally 

 aud physiologically with the ostriches as with any other group of 

 recent birds. 



From an examination of the various bones thus collected, Professor 

 Owen was enabled to point out that the fragment of bone whieh he 

 had first received belonged to a species of the genus not only much 

 larger than any of the other species indicated by these remains, but 

 larger than any form of existing bird. To this species he gave the 

 name of IHnomii gigantttu, and found that the height of this bird 

 must have been from 10 feet to 10 feet 6 inches. The other species 

 described were It. inyrnt, attaining a height of 9 feet; D. itriitlii- 

 ida; D. didiformit, 4 feet; I), droaucoidet, 5 feet; D. ilruthioidet 

 upwards of 6 feet. In addition to these were described D. ciirtiu, 

 D.crotnu, . otidiformit, and/), catuariniu. Thus these remains 

 showed the existence of a number of birds, varying in size from the 

 almost flightless Bustard to birds of the size of the Dodo, the Kmen, 

 mid the Ostrich, and one larger than all. 



On a subsequent examination of the bones of D. inyetu and T). dro- 

 maoidei, Professor Owen discovered a back toe which he had seen 

 nowhere in the other species, and for these he proposed the generic 

 name Patapteryjr. To these two was afterwards added a third species, 

 P. geranoidri. Dr. Mantell gives the following account of a further 

 discovery of the remains of birds in New Zealand : 



In 1846 and 1847 my eldest son, Mr. Walter Mantell, of Wellington, 



"In 1846 and 1847 my eldestson, Mr. Walter Mantell, of Wellington, 

 who had resided several years in the colony, explored every known 

 locality of these fossil bones within his roach in the North li-hnul, 

 iiml went into the interior of the country, and located with the natives, 

 for the purpose of collecting specimens, and of ascertainin \\ In I In T 

 any of these gigantic birds were still in existence, resolving, if there 

 appeared to be the least chance of success, to penetrate into the 

 unfrequented regions, and obtain a live Moa. The information 

 gathered from the natives offered no encouragement to follow up tho 

 pursuit, but tended to confirm the idea that this race of coloured 

 bipeds was extinct, the last individuals having in all probability, like 

 the Dodo, been exterminated by human agency within a comparatively 

 recent period ; or that if any of the species, whose bones occur in a 



