ROOM II. RETROSPECTIVE SUMMARY. 133 



it is a phenomenon as startling as the exclusively reptilian 

 character of the inhabitants of the dry land during the 

 Wealden epoch. 



But the existing fauna of New Zealand presents a cha- 

 racter as exclusively ornithic and anomalous as the ancient 

 one ; for while there are upwards of fifty or sixty genera of 

 birds, there is but one species of indigenous mammalian known 

 to naturalists, a frugivorous Rat. The highest representatives 

 of the warm-blooded air-breathing classes, are the Apteryx 

 and Brachypteryx ! 



In this respect, therefore, as well as in its flora, in which 

 ferns and other cellulosse prevail to an extent unknown else- 

 where, New Zealand is a most remarkable instance of a centre 

 of creation of peculiar organic types. (See ante p. 104.) 



An important general conclusion of another kind has been 

 deduced by Professor Owen from the amount of agreement be- 

 tween the fossil genera and species of birds, and the existing 

 forms peculiar to New Zealand. For example, the affinity of 

 the fossil Parrot of Waingongoro to the living nocturnal genus 

 Nestor; of the Notornis (now known recent) with the Bra- 

 chypteryx ; of Palapteryx with Apteryx : and, we may add, 

 of species of Apteryx, Albatross, and Penguin, apparently 

 identical with living species. 



The Dinornis, if it have no near ally in any known exist- 

 ing bird of New Zealand, appears to have but little affinity 

 to any of the struthious, or other types, in the rest of the 

 world. 



The same general accordance in the existing and recently 

 extinct forms of the warm-blooded vertebrata is exemplified 

 in the newest tertiary deposits of Europe and Asia, by the 

 remains of Elephants, Rhinoceroses, Hysenas, <fec., and by the 

 absence of those families, and the occurrence of gigantic Sloths, 

 Anteaters, Armadillos, &c. in the pleistocene beds of South 

 America; and has recently been yet more strikingly eluci- 

 dated by the discovery of fossil gigantic Kangaroos, Wom- 

 bats, and Daysures, in the bone-caves and freshwater deposits 

 of Australia. 1 



1 Dr. Andrew Smith informs me that he has just received notice of 

 the discovery of fossil bones of a marsupial animal related to the Kan- 

 garoo, exceeding five times in magnitude those of any living species. 



