ANCIENT BIRDS 225 



The total number of species of Moa once inhabiting New 

 Zealand was probably at least fifteen, and, judging from the 

 enormous accumulations of their bones found in some districts, 

 they must have been extremely common, and probably went about 

 in flocks. " Birds of a feather flock together." 



Not only was the number of individuals very large, but they 

 belonged (according to Mr. F. W. Hutton) to no less than seven 

 genera, containing twenty-five different species, a remarkable fact 

 which is unparalleled in any other part of the world. The species 

 described by Professor Owen in his great work, 1 vary in size from 

 3 feet to 12 or even 14 feet in height, and differ greatly in their 

 forms, some being tall and slender, and probably swift-footed like 

 the ostrich, whilst others were short and had stout limbs, such as 

 Dinornis elephantopus (Fig. 85), which was undoubtedly a bird of 

 great strength, but very heavy-footed. Dinornis crassus also had 

 stout limbs. 



The Natural History Museum at South Kensington contains 

 a valuable collection of remains of Moa. These skeletons may 

 be seen in Gallery No. 2. In D. giganteus the leg-bone (see 

 Fig. 85) attains the enormous length of three feet, and in an allied 

 species it is even thirty -nine inches ! The next bone below 

 (cannon bone) is sometimes more than half the length of the leg- 

 bone (tibia). (See Plate XXXVII.) 



A skeleton in one of the glass cases has a height of about 

 10| feet, and it is concluded that the largest birds did not stand 

 less than 12 feet, and possibly were 14 feet high ! 



Dinornis parvus (the dwarf Moa) was only three feet high. 



1 Memoir on The, Extinct Wingless Birds of New Zealand. London, 1878. 

 The beautiful drawing by Mr. Smit (Plate XXXVII.) is from a photograph 

 in this valuable work representing the late Sir Richard Owen standing in 

 academic robes by the side of a specimen of the skeleton of the great Dinornis 

 maximus. 



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