156 PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE GENUS DINORNIS. 



The first evidence of the Dinornis crassus reached me from a turbary . deposit at 

 Waikawaite, in the Middle Island ; it formed part of the collection there made by 

 Mr. Earl. I have never received any evidence of this species of Dinornis from the 

 North Island. 



In like manner the bones of the much larger bird, which I have called Palapteryx 

 robustus and Dinornis robustus, and which I was formerly inclined to regard as not only 

 specifically but generically distinct from Dinornis giganteus, appear to be peculiar to 

 the Middle Island ; or at least have not, hitherto, been found in any locality of the 

 North Island. 



The richer series of illustrations of both Dinornis robustus and Din. crassus in the 

 collection of Mr. Walter Mantell are from localities in the Middle Island ; and the 

 abundant illustrations of Dinornis elephantopus are exclusively from one locality in that 

 island : they were obtained at Ruamoa, three miles south of Oamaru Point, or that 

 called the "First Rocky Head" in the New Admiralty Map. This fact might give 

 rise to the idea that the original range or locality of Dinornis elephantopus had been 

 a restricted one ; unless, at the period when the species flourished, the geographical 

 extent of the Middle Island of New Zealand was widely diflerent from what it now is. 

 Yet Mr. W. Mantell has obtained strong, if not unequivocal, evidence that Dinornis 

 elephantopus and Din. crassus existed contemporaneously with Maori natives in that 

 island. The bones described in the foregoing pages are in a recent and most perfect 

 condition. They retain the usual proportion of animal matter, and have undergone no 

 mineral change. 



They were discovered under circumstances closely resembling those described in a 

 previous Memoir, Zool. Trans, vol. iv. p. 146, under which the femur of Dinornis 

 gracilis was found in the North Island, by Mr. Cormack. Remains of native ovens, 

 with the baking stones, were not far from the chief collection of bones of Dinornis 

 elephantopus, discovered by Mr. W. Mantell, in the Middle Island. Both were covered 

 by drifted sand from three to seven feet in thickness. Some of the bones have been 

 scorched by fire. 



From the sum of our present information respecting the localities of the several 

 species of Dinornithidee, we may infer that most, if not all, of the species of the North 

 Island were distinct from those of the South Island. 



To birds that could neither fly, nor, probably, swim well or far, the channel called 

 Cook's Straits would prove an efl^ectual bar to any migration from one island to 

 another. With each successive addition of materials for the history of this most 

 remarkable family of birds, I feel, nevertheless, impressed with the conviction of how 

 little comparatively we still know respecting them, and how much more is likely, 

 through the enlightened cooperation of active, resolute and accomplished explorers, such 

 as Mr. Walter Mantell, to be, hereafter, contributed towards a complete history of the 

 New Zealand wingless birds. 



