Mantell on Fossil Remains from New Zealand. 29 



lated structure of the bone, which differs from that of mammalia, 

 and most closely resembles that of the Ostrich. And so confi- 

 dent was Professor Owen of the soundness of his inductions, that 

 he boldly added, "so far as my skill in interpreting an osseous 

 fragment may be credited, I am willing to risk the reputation for 

 it on this statement ;" and he further remarks, " The discovery 

 of a relic of a large struthions bird in New Zealand is one of 

 peculiar interest, on account of the remarkable character of the 

 existing fauna of those islands, which still include one of the 

 most extraordinary and anomalous genera of the strath ious order, 

 the Apteryx ; and because of the close analogy which the event 

 indicated by the present relic offers to the extinction of the 

 Dodo of the island of Mauritius. So far as a judgment can be 

 formed from a single fragment, it seems probable that the colossal 

 bird of New Zealand, if it prove to be extinct, presented pro- 

 portions more nearly resembling those of the Dodo, than of any 

 of the existing Strut kjonidrz" In 1843 the correctness of these 

 views was confirmed hi every essential particular by a large col- 

 lection of bones obtained by the Rev. W. Williams and trans- 

 mitted to the Dean of Westminster; and still further corrobora- 

 ted by another interesting series brought to England in 1846 by 

 Percy Earl, Esq.; and by the collection which forms the imme- 

 diate subject of this communication. 



My eldest son, who went to New Zealand in 1839, and settled 

 at Wellington, in one of his earliest letters to me after his arrival, 

 mentioned that a tradition was prevalent among the Maories 

 or native?, that gigantic birds, taller than a man, were formerly 



abundant throughout the islands ; and that some of the oldest 

 °f the natives averred that they had seen such birds; and 

 that although much reduced in numbers, some of the race still 

 existed in the unfrequented and inaccessible parts of the country. 

 They called these birds Moa, and affirmed in proof of their state- 

 ment, that enormous bones were occasionally met with in the 

 mud and silt of the streams and rivers ; but my son was unable 

 to obtain any of the bones in question. 



Upon learning from me of the discovery of the bone described 

 D y Professor Owen, he endeavored to obtain further information 

 °» this interesting subject ; but until 1846, when he resigned an 

 official situation, he was unable to follow up his inquiries with 

 success. In the meanwhile the collections of the Rev. W. Wil- 

 liams, Mr. Percy Earl, and of other gentlemen, had furnished the 

 materials from which Professor Owen drew up his two celebra- 

 ted memoirs on the Dinornis, an extinct genus of tridactyle Stru- 

 thious Birds, which were published in the third volume of the 

 Transactions of the Zoological Society. 



to 1846, and the commencement of 1847, my son explored 

 every known locality of these relics in the North Island within 



