Curiosities of Science. 139 



the Trilobites, inhabiting the ancient ocean. These Crustacea 

 remotely resemble the common wood-louse, and like that ani- 

 mal they had the power of rolling themselves into a ball when 

 attacked by an enemy. The eye of the trilobite is a most re- 

 markable organ ; and in that of one species, Phacops caudatus, 

 not less than 250 lenses have been discovered. This remark- 

 able optical instrument indicates that these creatures lived 

 under similar conditions to those which surround the.crustacea 

 of the present day. Hunt's Poetry of Science. 



PEOFITABLE SCIENCE. 



In that strip of reddish colour which runs along the cliffs 

 of Suffolk, and is called the Redcrag, immense quantities of 

 cetacean remains have been found. Four different kinds of 

 whales, little inferior in size to the whalebone whale, have left 

 their bones in this vast charnel-house. In 1840, a singularly 

 perplexing fossil was brought to Professor Owen from this Red- 

 crag. No one could say what it was. He determined it to be 

 the tooth of a ceta'cean, a unique specimen. Now the remains 

 of cetaceans in the Suffolk crag have been discovered in such 

 enormous quantities, that many thousands a-year are made by 

 converting them into manure. 



EXTINCT GIGANTIC BIEDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 



In the islands of New Zealand have been found the bones of 

 large extinct wingless Birds, belonging to the Post Tertiary or 

 Recent system, which have been deposited by the action of rivers. 

 The bird is named Moa by the natives, and Dinornis by natu- 

 ralists : some of the bones have been found in two caves in the 

 North Island, and have been sold by the natives at an extraor- 

 dinary price. The caves occur in limestone rocks, and the bones 

 are found beneath earth and a soft deposit of carbonate of lime. 

 The largest of the birds is stated to have stood thirteen or four- 

 teen feet, or twice the height of the ostrich ; and its egg large 

 enough to fill the hat of a man as a cup. Several statements 

 have appeared of these birds being still in existence, but there 

 is every reason to believe the Moa to be altogether extinct. 



An extensive collection of remains of these great wingless 

 birds has been collected in New Zealand by Mr. Walter Mantel], 

 and deposited in the British Museum. Among these bones 

 Professor Owen has discovered a species which he regards as 

 the most remarkable of the feathered class for its prodigious 

 strength and massive proportions, and which he names Dinor- 

 nis elepkantopus, or elephant-footed, of which the Professor has 

 been able to construct an entire lower limb : the length of the 

 metatarsal bone is 9^ inches, the breadth of the lower eud 



