EXTINCT ANIMALS 



fifty years ago to Professor Owen by a gentle- 

 man in New Zealand who had lately arrived 

 there, and who had found it in his garden. 

 Professor Owen, on examination, was able 

 to say from the general make and structure 

 of the bone that it was the bone of a bird. 

 It was about seven or eight inches long (Fig. 

 43). On examining the ridges and various 



Fig. 43. — Photograph of the original piece (seven inches long) 

 of a thigh bone of a gigantic bird, from the examination of 

 which Sir Richard Owen inferred the former existence of 

 a gigantic flightless bird in New Zealand. The specimen 

 is preserved in the Natural History Museum. (Original.) 



marks on the bones, Owen was able, from his 

 knowledge of the character of bones, to say that 

 it was identical with the middle part — the ends 

 were broken off — of the thigh bone of an 



68 



