362 DINOKNITHES. [CHAP.IX. 



we may safely divine the sad fate that impends over 

 the bird a century or two hence at furthest, unless 

 the refuge of domesticity be offered and accepted, from 

 the past history of the Dinornithes, or Wonder-birds of 

 New Zealand creatures whose existence has been so 

 marvellously interpreted and proved by the skill of 

 Professor Owen. A brief sketch of their history, com- 

 pressed from the Transactions of the Zoological Society 

 for 1849, will be an appropriate episode in what we 

 have to say about the Emeu. 



The first discovery of this numerous family of colossal 

 wingless birds arose from the finding of a fragment of 

 a bone, which the Professor, for elaborate reasons, pro- 

 nounced to have belonged to a large Struthious bird, 

 " heavier and more sluggish than the Ostrich." Three 

 years afterwards, a large collection of these bones was 

 received, that had been found by the Rev. W. Williams 

 and other Church of England Missionaries. From the 

 various size of these, they believed that the bird to 

 which they once belonged was many years in attaining 

 its full growth; and from their place of deposit and 

 condition, that the bird was in existence in New Zea- 

 land at no very distant time. The latter conjecture 

 proves even more correct than was anticipated ; the 

 former difficulty Professor Owen has explained, by 

 proving that the various relics belong to numerous 

 species, ranging from four to ten or twelve feet in 

 height. All the large existing Struthious birds derive 

 their subsistence from the vegetable kingdom. The 

 predominance of plants of the Fern tribe, and the nu- 

 tritious qualities of the roots of the species most com- 

 mon in New Zealand, are the characteristics of its pre- 

 sent, and appear to have been of its former Flora. 



