312 PALAEONTOLOGY. 



upwards of twelve feet in height. Its femur (thigh-hone) 

 measures fourteen inches in length, and seven in circum- 

 ference. The tibia (leg-bone) twenty-eight inches and a 

 half. This gigantic bird was intermediate in structure be- 

 tween the cassowary (fig. 214) and the apteryx. 



In the caverns of Brazil are found an extinct species of 

 Rkea, of which the genus still lives on that continent. Cur- 

 sores with a compressed beak are represented by an extinct 

 genus, the Dodo (fig. 215) . This bird is known from a descrip- 

 tion given by one of the early Dutch navigators. A foot of this 



FIG. 215. Didus ineptus. 



remarkable genus is preserved in the British Museum, and 

 a head in the Ashmolean Collection at Oxford. It has, 

 therefore, become extinct during the human epoch.* 



6th Order. GRALLATORES (or Waders). An extinct 

 genus, Palceornis, has been found fossil in the wealden of 

 Kent. A species of Scolopax in the chalk of Jersey, U.S. ; 

 Tantalus, Scolopax, Numenius, and Fulua in the eocene of 

 Montmartre ; Giconia and Scolopax in the falunian of Wies- 

 baden and Wiesenau. 



Bones of Phcenicopterus are found at Auvergne, and those 



* For further details on the Dodo, the student is referred to the beautiful 

 monograph by Dr. Melville and Mr. Strickland. 



