694 PROF. OWEN ON THE STERNUM OF NOTORNIS. [NoV. 28, 



with Lamarck's theory of the 'Origin of Species,' would become 

 enfeebled, and ultimately atrophied to the degree exemplified in 

 Apteryx and Dinornis. The legs, then monopolizing the functions 

 of locomotion, would attain, through the concomitant force and fre- 

 quency of exercise, proportional increase of power and size. Under 

 these conditions may be comprehended, by veree causa, the origin of 

 the great flightless Anserine which is entered as a "species "in 

 Ornithological Catalogues under the name of Cnemiornis calcitrans. 

 It has become such through no choice or selection, but by a combi- 

 nation of circumstances enforced, with operative conditions of organic 

 vitality, first taught us by the immortal author of the ' Philosophie 

 Zoologique.' 



The same course of cogitation, so guided, leads to the same conclu- 

 sion as to the origin of Notornis, of Jptornis, of Dinornis. The ten- 

 dency to variation in size and proportions, after the reduction and loss 

 of wings, leads to the minor modifications of such flightless genera. 



The genus Notornis is now known to be represented by species, 

 living in the present generation of New-Zealand colonists, in loca- 

 lities nearly one hundred miles apart, and which have belonged to a 

 once gregarious family. 



The first captured specimen of the species, iV. mantelli, was taken 

 by seal-fishers (1847) near the coast of "Duck Cove," Resolution 

 Island, Dusky Sound; the second specimen was caught (1869) at 

 "Deas Cove," Secretary Island, Thompson's Sound; the third 

 specimen, which afforded the subject of Prof. Jeffery Parker's 

 memoir^, was caught (1881) by a rabbit-hunter in Captain Han- 

 kinson's " Run," on "Bare-patch Plains," east of " Te anau" Lake, — 

 all in the South Island of New Zealand. 



In 'Phillip's Voyage to Botany Bay' a large ralline bird was 

 noticed on what is now " Norfolk Island," under the name of Fulica 

 alba (1789, p. 160). A good coloured plate of the same species is 

 given in Surgeon White's 'Voyage to New South Wales,' 4to, 1790, 

 with a brief notice at p. 238, under the name of " Gallinula 

 alba" (the "plates" are not numbered in this work). In size and 

 shape of head and beak, in the reduced proportions of the wings, in 

 the strength of the legs and feet, iu the carpal spur, and the colour 

 of the beak, this bird seems but a variety of Notornis mantelli ; it is 

 at least a species of the same genus, as von Pelzeln has pointed out 

 in 'The Ibis' of 1873, p. 44'. 



But no "Redbill" or "Takahe" has since rewarded a naturalist's 

 quest in " Lord Howe's " or " Norfolk Island." A species of the 

 New-Zealand genus Ocydromus (O. sylvestris, Sclater) still exists 

 there, and is said to be easily captured. 



The Wood-hens flourish in both South and North Islands of New 

 Zealand, as in the smaller tract nearer the Antarctic latitudes ; Ijut 

 they are severally represented by modifications noted as Ocydromus 

 eurli, O. austraiis, and O. sylvestris, 



' Loc. cif. p. 245. 



'"' A copy ofWliite's figure is given in 'The Ibis,' 1873, pi. x. 



