128 PETRIFACTIONS AND THEIR TEACHINGS. CHAP. II. 



had seen such a bird, but all agreed that it was the tradi- 

 tional Moho or Takahe, which they had believed was utterly 

 extinct. 



This beautiful bird is about two feet high, and much re- 

 sembles in its general form the Porphyrio melanotus, but it 

 is larger and stouter, and generically distinct : the characters 

 predicated by Professor Owen from the fossil remains, being 

 clearly marked in this recent example. 



The beaks are short and strong, and, as well as the legs, 

 were 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 short 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 Notornis 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 

 " Birds of Australia." 



Thus we have at length obtained a recent example of one 

 of the supposed lost types that were coeval with the gigantic 

 bipeds, whose stupendous proportions, and mighty strength, 

 are celebrated in the songs and traditional tales of the New 

 Zealanders, and whose bones, and even eggs, have been 

 transmitted to Europe, and excited the wonder and delight 

 of the natural philosopher and the multitude. 



This discovery is of the highest interest alike to the orni- 

 thologist and the palaeontologist, for this extraordinary form 

 of Rallidse was previously only known by its fossil remains, 

 and would, probably, like the Dodo of the Mauritius (of 

 which the only vestiges are a head and foot), have soon 

 become wholly traditional. 



It is possible that another living Moho may be obtained, 

 but the latest communication from my son forbids the 

 sanguine expectation that such will be the case. 



FOSSIL PARROT (Nestor). Table-Case 16. The islands of 

 the South Pacific are inhabited by a very remarkable genus 

 of nocturnal Parrots (Nestor), of which but two species are 

 known. One of these (N. hypopolius), is restricted to New 

 Zealand ; the other (N. productus) to Philip Island, a mere 

 speck of dry land in the vast Southern Ocean, being only 

 five miles in extent ; and yet, as the eminent ornithologist 



