AVES 91 



parts of a single individual here exliilnted. One of the Table-case 



largest species, FhororhacJios longissimiLS, is represented by a case^AA 



nearly complete lower jaw and the sharp tip of the upper 



jaw, which are enough to justify the model of a restored 



skull and mandible of this bird mounted in an adjacent 



special Case (A A). The model (Fig. 8fi) measures nearly 



two feet in length, and is much larger than the head of any 



other known bird. The use of the powerful hooked beak is 



unknown. 



Okdek II.— RATITiE. 



The ostrich-like flightless birds were much more numerous ^|^"^^®®^ 

 and more widely distrilauted in the Pleistocene perit)d than Table-case 

 they are at the present day. They were especially charac- 12. 

 teristic of the southern hemisphere, and some of them 

 attained a gigantic size. 



These birds were most numerously represented in New 

 Zealand, where they survived until the arrival of the Maoires, 

 and may even have existed in some places at the time of 

 Captain Cook's visit in 1777. They are referred to in many 

 native legends under the name of " Moa," but they remained 

 unknown to science until 1839, when the shaft of a small 

 thigh-bone, now exhibited in Table-case 12, was described 

 l)y Owen. He recognised that this bone belonged to a 

 flightless bird of a heavier and more sluggish kind than the 

 ostrich, which he proposed to name Dinornis strathioidcs 

 (" terrible bird like an ostrich "). By the exertions of the 

 Hon. Walter jNIantell and numerous later explorers a won- 

 derful series of Dinornithidse of many genera, species, and 

 varieties has gradually been discovered, and these birds are 

 now well represented in the collection. Of the largest species, 

 IHiwr/iis maximus, there is a nearly complete skeleton of 

 one individual 8 ft. Gin. in heiglil in Case GG (see Case GG. 

 I'late V). AVith this is placed another complete skeleton of 

 one of the smallest species, Anomaloptcri/x 2^c(-i"va, only three 

 feet in height. There is also a stuffed s])ecimen of a kiwi 

 (AjJte/'Tjx), which is the sole survivor of the IJatihe in New 

 Zealand at the present day. In boxes on the floor of the 

 case are some of the Ijouy rings of the windpipe found witli 

 the fossil skeletons. The skeleton of a medium-sized bird 

 with very stout legs, rdchyornis elqjhantopifs, is mounted in 

 (Jase FF, and in front of this there is a small slal) of sand- Case FF. 

 stone from a hardened beach bearing the footprint of one of 

 the moas. Skeletons of two more slender small species, 



