240 Oh it uary— Eon. Walter Bahlock D. Mantell, F.G.S. 



south coast of Middle Island (now called the South Island, where he 

 was Government Commissioner for the Settlement of Native Claims) 

 a skin, together with the skull and some limb-hones, of a Notornis 

 recently hunted down with dogs, and killed and eaten by these men. 

 Not. long afterwards another smaller skin was obtained. Both these 

 specimens are preserved in the Natural History Museum. 



The bird was apparently unknown to the Maoris, but there are 

 traditions of a " Swamp-Hen," called on the North Island Moho, and 

 in the South Talcahe, which may have been the Notomis. 



In 1868 Mantell read a paper before the New Zealand Institute 1 

 "On the Moa," in which he insisted that these birds were con- 

 temporaries of man, their remains being found charred and broken 

 in the Maori ovens, together with stone implements. He also 

 discussed the cause of the extinction of the Moa, and ascribed it 

 chiefly to the agency of man, a view now generally' accepted. 



In a later paper read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 

 1872, he discusses statements that had been made, that Moa-bones 

 had been found beneath marine deposits with extinct shells; and 

 states that this idea arose from a misapprehension of some informa- 

 tion supplied by him to his father, who employed it in his paper 

 before the Geological Societ}'. 2 He also gave an account of some 

 new localities in which Moa-remains had been found, including 

 Waikonaiti and Te-Rangatapu. In the latter he obtained a large 

 number of fragments of Moa eggs, several of which he succeeded in 

 restoring. Some of these specimens are now in the Natural History 

 Museum. 3 



Mr. Mantell was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society in 

 1858. He died on September 7th, 1895, at the age of 75 years. 

 He was in correspondence with Sir William Flower at the time of 

 his death, as to a further donation of his remaining private collection 

 of Moa-remains to the British Museum, which it is hoped may still 

 be made by his representatives at Wellington, New Zealand. 



MISCELLAUEOTJ3. 



Geological Survey. — We learn that Mr. J. B. Dakyns, M.A., who 

 joined the Geological Survey in 1862, has just retired from the Service. 

 Mr. A. Strahan, M.A., has been promoted to the rank of Geologist on 

 the English branch of the Survey, and Mr. C. T. Clough, M.A., is 

 similarly promoted on the Scottish branch (in the room of the late 

 Hugh Miller). The two vacancies on the Staff of Assistant Geologists 

 are filled by the appointment of Mr. T. Crosbee Cantrill, B.Sc, in 

 England, and of Mr. E. H. Cuuningham-Craig in Scotland. 



1 Trans. New Zealand Institute, vol. i, 18G8. 



2 See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, Feb. 2nd and 22nd, 1848, vol. iv, pp. 225-241. 

 [The woodcut which gave rise to the misapprehension is probably that on p. 240.] 



3 See Notice of the Eeniains of Dinomis and other Birds, and of Fossils and 

 Rock-specimens, recently collected by Mr. Walter Mantell in the Middle Island 

 of New Zealand. By G. A. Mantell. With Notes by E. Forbes, and Sketch-map 

 and Notes by Walter Mantell. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vi (I860), p. 319. 



