364 THEIE NUMBEBS AND VARIETY. [CHAP. ix. 



time of Man than any other class of birds, perhaps than 

 any other in the whole animal kingdom. Both the Maori 

 (New Zealand) tradition of the destruction of the " Moa " 

 (or Dinornis) by their ancestors, and the history of the 

 extirpation of the Dodo by the Dutch navigators in the 

 isles of Maurice and Rodriguez, teach us the inevitable 

 lot of bulky birds unable to fly or swim, when exposed, 

 by the dispersion of the human race, to the attacks of 

 Man. It is not improbable that the species of Dinornis 

 were in existence when the Polynesian colony first set 

 foot on the island ; and if so, such bulky and probably 

 stupid birds, at first without the instinct, and always 

 without the adequate means, of escape and defence, 

 would soon fall a prey to the progenitors of the present 

 Maoris. In the absence of any other large wild ani- 

 mals, the whole art and practice of the chase must have 

 been concentrated on these unhappy cursorial birds. 

 The gigantic Dinornis, we may readily suppose, would 

 be the first to be exterminated : the strength of its kick 

 would less avail, than its great bulk would prejudice 

 its safety, by making its concealment difficult: at all 

 events, the most recent-looking bones are those of the 

 smaller species. Many of these bones were subse- 

 quently found by the Rev. Mr. Taylor in little hillocks 

 scattered over the valley of Whanganui ; each heap was 

 composed of the bones of several kinds of the Moa, as 

 though their bodies had been eaten, and the bones of 

 all thrown indiscriminately together. The closely- 

 allied, but comparatively diminutive Apteryx still (?) 

 survives by virtue of its nocturnal habits and subter 

 ranean hiding-places, but in fearfully diminished and 

 rapidly diminishing numbers. When the source of 

 animal food from terrestrial species was reduced by the 



