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9196 Birds. 
left zygomatic bone. The second plate presented an outer view of the 
sacrum covered with skin which is dotted over with the quill-points of 
feathers ; a femur having a portion of flexible cartilage still 7m situ; the 
anterior margin of the sternum showing the fossz within which are 
contained the articulory surfaces for the attachment of the wing-bones ; 
the tarsus; the head as seen from below, showing the absence of the 
left zygomatic bone; and the lower mandible. The following bones 
were wanted to make the skeleton complete: the left zygomatic, the 
atlas, two, three, or more cervical vertebre, the first pair of dorsal ribs, 
the first pair of sternal ribs, one of the wing-bones, and the middle left 
toe. The skeleton was found by gold-diggers, near Dunedin, in the 
middle island of New Zealand, under a deposit of shifting sand, and 
the bird had been surprised whilst sitting on its young ones, the bones 
of which were exhibited with those of the parent. 
A long discussion, in which Professor Busk, Professor Huxley, 
Dr. Hooker, Henry Deane and others took part, followed the reading 
of the paper. Dr. Hooker suggested that the perfect condition and 
high state of preservation which the bones exhibited, might possibly 
be the result of preservation in ice, similar instances being on record, 
especially that of the Siberian Mammoth, in which even the flesh was 
preserved; but the other speakers took an entirely different view of 
the subject, and thought that the bird to which these enormous bones 
belonged had probably been living within ten years. If this conclusion 
be correct, it seems extraordinary that no more precise information can 
be obtained from the natives, a race remarkable for their intelligence ; 
for, if so gigantic a creature were living ten years ago, it seems im- 
possible that no more accurate information respecting it should exist, 
than the vague and most unsatisfactory reports which have been col- 
lected by English emigrants. However, a very important point is 
settled in bringing the history of the bird down to the time when New 
Zealand was colonized by the British: it were indeed presumptuous 
to affirm that a moa will still be found alive; but the evidence now 
before us shows that such an event is anything but impossible. In 
considering this subject, we must bear in mind that, being continually 
at war with the natives, we are debarred from that free access to the 
interior and from that unrestrained exploration which are absolutely 
necessary in such a case as this. The wary character of the ostrich 
tribe is well known: in the Great Sahara the ostrich himself is only 
to be discovered at an immense distance, and yet there are no inter- 
vening objects behind which he could shelter: it is very different in 
New Zealand: there the moa, if possessed of half the subtlety of the — 
