

I'lN.'THKItirM. 



DIN" 



i- 



conUinuoraro* of the Mo*, that be wrote to mo and stated 

 .- skull iiil brmks were nlikc in both, and that the abbreviated 

 u.l feeble development f the bones and plumage of the wing wen in 

 perfect accordance with the indication* afforded by the humrnis and 

 itcrnnm found by him atWaingougou and now in the ltriti.-h Museum, 

 a* point..! out in the ' Zoological Tiunmictioiin,' vol. iii. To tin- 

 native* of the pahs, or village*, my son visited on his homeward route 

 >.!>!. in, the .Yofoniw was a perfect novelty, and excited grant 

 interest. No one had seen such a bird, but all agreed that it was the 

 traditional Hobo or Takahe, which they had believed was utterly 

 extinct. 



"This beautiful bird is about two feet high, and much resembles in 

 its general form, the Pvrjtkyrio mdanotiu, but it is larger and stouter, 

 and generically distinct ; the characters predicated by Professor < Hv.-n 

 from the fosml remains being clearly marked in his recent volume. 

 The lmks are short and strong, and as well as the legs wore of a 

 bright scarlet in the living animal. The neck and body are of a dark 

 purple colour, the wings and back being shot with green and gold. 

 The wings are abort and rounded, and remarkably feeble both in 

 structure and plumage. The tail is scanty and white beneath. The 

 specific identity of the recent and fossil A'ulornu is confirmed by 

 Mr. Gould, who has published a coloured figure the size of the 

 original in a supplementary number of his splendid work on the 

 ' Bird* of Australia.' " 



In addition to the bones of the animals mentioned, remains of other 

 birds were found in the Mantellinn collection. These were of a 

 species of nocturnal Parrot, belonging to the genus Kettor, of n pro- 

 bably extinct species of Aftteryjr, of a species of Albatross allied to 

 Dioiutdta Mvrorliynckiu, and also of tin- Penguin. 



Kor the structure of the Apteryx and its relations to other birds, see 

 the article STRI'TIIIUMDJL 



In 1851 Professor Owen received from Governor Grey a large 

 collection of specimens from New Zealand of the bones, and more 

 especially the skulls, of several of the species, which he described in a 

 fifth memoir presented to the Zoological Society. An almost per- 

 fectly restored skeleton of the Dinornii gigantciu exists in the Museum 

 of the College of Surgeons. Professor Owen concludes one of the 

 memoirs referred to with the following general remarks: " The 

 extraordinary number of wingless birds and the vast stature of pome 

 of the species peculiar to New Zealand, and which have finally become 

 extinct in that small tract of dry hind, suggest it to be the remnant 

 of a larger tract or continent over which this singular Struthious 

 Fauna formerly ranged. One might almost be disposed to regard 

 New Zealand as one end of the mighty wave of the unstable and 

 ever-shifting crust of the earth, of which the opposite end, after 

 having been long submerged, has again risen with its accumulated 

 deposit* in North America, showing us in the Connecticut Sand- 

 stones of the Permian period the foot-prints of the gigantic lih-.ls 

 which trod its surface before it sank ; and to surmise that the inter- 

 mediate body of the land-wave along which the Dinornit may have 

 travelled to New Zealand has progressively subsided, and now lies 

 beneath the Pacific Ocean." 



(Owen, iltmoiri on tke Dinornu; Zoological Traatactioni, vol. iii. ; 

 Owen, Proctedingi of Zoological Society, in Annaltuf Natural Jlittory ; 

 ManU-11, Pelrifactiotu ad their Teaching!.) 



DIXOTHK'RIUM, a genus of gigantic extinct Herbivorous Mam- 

 mifere, established by Professor Kaup. The remains have been found 

 most abundantly at Eppleshcim in Hease Darmstadt, in strata of sand 

 referrible to the second period of the tertiary formations (Miocene of 

 Lyell). Fragments are noticed as occurring also in several parts of 

 France, Bavaria, and Austria, by Cuvier, who, from the resemblance 

 of their molar teeth to those of the Tapirs, at first considered the 

 animals to have been an enormous species of the last-named genus. 



teeth are the principal remains hitherto found. A scapula in form 

 resembling more newly that of a mole than any other animal, ix the 

 principal bone of the body yet found, and this shoulder-blade has 

 been considered as indicating a peculiar adaptation of the fore leg to 

 the purpose* of digging. In the autumn of 1886, an entire head of 

 UM animal was disinterred at Epplesbeim, measuring about 4 feet in 

 length and 3 feet in breadth, of which Professor Kaup and Dr. 

 Klip-tein have given figures and a description. (' Beachroiuung und 

 AbbUdunyeovondemGiRhninhra.enaufgffuii.lcnenoolosMlenSche.lel 

 de* Dinotherii gigantei, mil geognostiachen Mittheilungen liber die 

 knocbenfUhreodcn Bildungen de* mittelrheinuichen Tertiurbeckeus : 

 von Dr. J. J. Kaup, & Dr. A. Klipstein. 4to., Darmstadt, 1836.') 



It will be wen from the cut* (which are copied from the works of 

 Dr. Kaup and those of Dr*. Kaup and Klipstein), as well as from the 

 ra*U in the British Museum, that though the form of the molar teeth 

 approximate* to that of the tapirs, the tusks placed at the anterior 

 extremity of the lower jaw and curved downwards somewhat after 

 * f n of those in the upper jaw of the Walrus, exhil.it a 

 remarkable deviation from this part of the dental formula in any 

 other known animal, whether living or fossil With this is combined 

 a form of the lower jaw iteelf which cannot but arrert the attention 

 of every observer. 



I)r. Buckland, in the first edition of his ' Hn-1 atise,' 



published before the appearance of the memoir : 1 >i. Kaiip nn.l I >. . 

 Klipstein, giving figures and a description of the entire bead, but 

 after tin- ]>M! lu :,'i,ni of I>r. Kaup's earlier publication, when n 

 ing to the Mammalia of tho Miocene Period.'!' I .yell, observe*, that 

 the second, or miooene system of tertiary deposit*, contains an admix- 

 ture of the extinct genera of Lacustrine Mammalia, of the first or 

 Eocene series, with the earliest forms of genera which exist at the 

 present time. This admixture, he adds, was first policed by M. 

 Desnoyers, in the marine formation* of the Faluns of Touraine, win-re 

 the remains of Palttotlui-ium, Anlhracotlitriuia, and Lopkiixion, wliieh 

 were the prevailing genera in tho Koc-eue Period, are found mixed 

 with bones of the Tapir, Mastodon, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, and 

 Horse. These bone* are fractured and rolled, mid -"in. times covered 

 with Pluttrie, thus giving indication of having been derived from 

 carcasses drifted into an acstimry or sex Similar admixtures, con- 

 tinues l)r. liuckland, have Keen found in Bavaria and m-ar Darmstadt, 

 and many of thc.w animals also indicate a lacustrine or swampy 

 condition of the regions they inhabited. One of them (JJinnlhti-itim 

 giganteum) in stated to have attained IS feet in length, and to have 

 been the largest of all terrestrial Mammalia yet discovered, exceeding 

 even the largest fo.wil elephant 



Profile of the skull of DinoHirrium fifaiitriiui. The dotted line shown the 

 edge of the eoronoid jtroce** of left lower jaw, through the ramtii of which the 

 laal molar tooth and a portion of the last but one are >uppocd to be Men. The 

 xygomatlc arch U fractured, and the intermediate portion of it lost. 



Profile of lower Jaw of Dinotlitrivm fij/antmm (another indiridual), with the 

 cornnoid proeesf (oar, and only two teeth lu tight. The length of this, 

 Including the tuik, U nearly four feet. 



