96 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



Owen drew up a wonderful notice of the bird. So extraordinary, so- 

 improbable, did the conclusions be arrived at seem that his friends 

 tried all they could to suppress the publication of the paper, from a 

 belief that it would shipwreck his scientific reputation. Yet that 

 paper is alone sufficient to immortalise him. Since then not only 

 has Professor Gwen satisfied the world of the former existence of 

 the moa, but he has established, on the evidence of fossil remains 

 sent to him by various settlers, the former existence of no less 

 than fourteen species of wingless birds in I^ew Zealand." 



" I must observe to my readers that, although I have in this 

 article merely skimmed the surface, yet all the subjects I have 

 touched upon are of almost unfathomable depth, and each and all 

 — such as the presence of the dingo among our marsupials, the 

 admixture of our bird fauna with that of other countries, the 

 anatomy of marsupials, the platypus and echidna, and the important 

 fossil discoveries made in Jenolan and Wellington (New South 

 Wales) caves — furnish inexhaustible material for profound and 

 interesting essays. When we consider that Professor Owen has 

 devoted 40 years to a study of the fossil remains of the monster 

 lizard found in the Darling Downs, and has only just recently 

 completed his great treatise on that most horrible and extraordinary 

 reptile, it is not too much to say that human life is too brief for a 

 thorough study of even one branch of natural science. I may 

 mention that the fossilised reptile to which Professor Owen has 

 devoted so much study is a monster ally of our curious little horned 

 lizard, Moloch horridus.'''' 



Mr. Broadbent, the energetic collector attached to. the Queens- 

 land Museum, is at Niagara, in the Herbert District, Northern 

 Queensland, where he has succeeded in " bagging " a lot of new 

 specimens. 



FLIES AS SANITARY INSPECTORS. 



The Sanitarian records an instance of flies acting as sanitary 

 inspectors. In one of the rooms of a residence in an American city 

 offensive odours were detected, but their exact source could not be 

 located. The carpets were raised, and a carpenter was engaged to 

 take up the entire floor. At this moment a visitor suggested that 

 an appeal be made to the instincts of the fly. Two " blue bottles" 

 ■were accordingly brought from a neighbouring stable, and the 

 doors and windows of the room closed. The flies soon settled 

 upon one of the cracks in the floor, and when the boards were 

 raised at this point a decomposed rat was found. 



