XII. 



THE OSTRICH 181 



though I thought you would say so. You have been 

 misled by a hymn is it one of Dr. Watts'a ? which 

 speaks of a missionary on the plains of Timbuctoo who 

 met a cassowary of a fierce and hungry nature. I assure 

 you the learned doctor was incorrect in his geographical 

 distribution of animals ; for the cassowaries are found only 

 in the Molluccas, New Guinea, and the neighbouring 

 islands, and North Australia. Thus the distribution of the 

 existing forms of these strange birds is world-wide. And 

 when one remembers their large size and their incapacity 

 for flight, this becomes the more remarkable, and shows 

 that they are an ancient race, which has seen many 

 geographical revolutions. Moreover, when we come to 

 take into consideration also the extinct forms, the remains 

 of which have been found in recent geological deposits, we 

 find that the clan was once more numerous and even wider 

 spread than it is to-day. In North America (New 

 Mexico), in France, and in our own England there were 

 large ostrich-like birds. In South America there were 

 fossil rheas ; in Australia fossil emus ; Madagascar had a 

 large form, and New Zealand one as large. In New 

 Zealand, in fact, the present home of the kiwi, there were 

 no less than twenty-four different kinds or species of 

 struthious birds. 



These range in size from, a height of thirty-six inches to 

 a height of over ten feet. Some were tall and slender 

 and probably swift of foot like the ostrich ; others were 

 powerful and heavy-limbed, and of one Professor Owen 

 says that the frame-work of the leg is the most massive of 

 any in the class of birds, the toe-bones almost rivalling 

 those of the elephant. Some of these great birds are 

 probably but recently extinct, and were certainly known 

 to man, for charred bones and egg-shells have been found 

 among the long extinct embers of native fires. Doubtless 

 the primitive Maories, when first they took possession of 



