BIRDS. 383 



has existed among naturalists as to the tribe of birds to which 

 the Dodo should be referred. From the bulky figure some 

 thought it resembled the Turkey; while, from its hooked bill, 

 it was thought by others to have belonged to the birds of prey. ' 

 A recent examination of the bones composing the skull and 

 foot, now in the Ashmolean Museum, in Oxford, has, however, 

 proved that it is allied to the Pigeons, a tribe with which it 

 was not supposed to have had any connection. Other birds 

 allied in character to the Dodo inhabited the neighbouring 

 islands of Bourbon and Rodriguez, all of which appear to have 

 been sought for with uncalculating eagerness by the early 

 colonists, and thus were speedily extirpated.* 



We have mentioned (p. 273) that a gigantic reptile had 

 left its foot-prints on the moist beach of the ancient sea. 

 Similar testimony has made known the existence in former 

 times of birds which have left no other trace behind. These 

 foot-prints have been noticed in England, but more abundantly, 

 and of larger size, in America, suggesting the idea of birds 

 possessed of dimensions far beyond those attained by any living 

 species. The impress of the human footstep on the beach of 

 that island which Robinson Crusoe believed to be his own 

 solitary domain, was scarcely more startling. Yet here, as 

 in other instances, the marvel of the truth surpassed that of 

 the conjecture. 



Numerous bones Avere transmitted from New Zealand to 

 England, which, on examination by Professor Owen, were 

 found to belong to wingless birds of nine different species,! 

 some of them of gigantic size. They were referred by him 

 to the same genus, under the name Dinornis.\ 



The annexed outline (Fig. 285), exhibits the figure of one 

 of these birds and that of a man, the relative proportions of 

 both being preserved; it thus furnishes an easy mode of esti- 

 mating their comparative dimensions. 



The number of wingless birds, and the vast stature of some 

 of the species peculiar to New Zealand, have suggested the 

 idea, that the present island may be but the remnant of a 

 larger tract or continent, over which they formerly ranged. 



* Natural History and Osteology of the Dodo, Solitaire, and other 

 extinct birds, by H. E. Strickland, Esq. and Dr. Melville. 



f Professor Owen's Memoirs on the genus Dinornis. Transactions of 

 the Zoological Society, parts 3 and 4, vol. iii. 



f Literally, u enormously large bird." 



