408 



HISTORICAL GEOLOGY. 



nearly all our domesticated animals and useful plants 

 have been thus saved. 



A remarkable example of recent extinction of the Qua- 

 ternary species is found in the gigantic 

 wingless birds of New Zealand and Mada- 

 gascar. The bones of the Dinornis and the 

 Epiornis are very abundant in these islands. 

 The Dinornis giganteus (Fig. 357) was 

 twelve feet high. The drumstick was a 

 yard long, and as big as the leg- 

 bone of a horse. A perfect egg 

 of the Epiornis has 

 been found, six times 

 as big as the egg of 

 an ostrich. The ex- 

 tinction of these 

 birds, although it 

 occurred before the 

 discovery of these 

 islands by civilized 

 man, was so recent 

 that the feet have 

 been found with 

 dried skin upon 

 them, and eggs with 

 the skeletons of 

 chicks within. 



Now, in this 



FIG 357.-Dinorni 8 giganteus, x 3 V (Fromapho- gradual change from 

 tograph of a skeleton in Christchurch Museum, 6 . 



New Zealand.) the Quaternary to 



the present fauna 



and flora, when did man first appear upon the scene and 

 become an agent of change ? And what kind of man 

 was this primeval man? Those :ire questions of tran- 

 scendent importance. 



