170 



"The texture of the bone, which affords the chief evidence of its 

 ornithic character, presents an extremely dense exterior crust, vary- 

 ing from one to two lines in thickness ; then there occurs a lamello- 

 cellular structure of from two to three lines in thickness. The la- 

 mellae rise vertically to the internal surface of the dense wall, are 

 directed obliquely to the axis of the bone, decussate and intercept 

 spaces which are generally of a rhomboidal form, and from two to 

 three lines in diameter. This coarse cancellated structure is con- 

 tinued through the whole longitudinal extent of the fragment, and 

 immediately bounds the medullary cavity of the bone, which is about 

 one inch in diameter at the middle, and slightly expands towards 

 the extremities. There is no bone of similar size which presents a 

 cancellous structure so closely resembling that of the present bone 

 as does the fenmr of the Ostrich ; but this structure is interrupted 

 in the Ostrich at the middle of the shaft where the parietes of the 

 medullary, or rather air-cavity, are smooth and unbroken. From 

 this difference I conclude the Struthious bird indicated by the pie- 

 sent fragment to have been a heavier and more sluggish species than 

 the Ostrich ; its femur, and probably its whole leg, was shorter and 

 thicker. It is only in the Ostrich's femur that I have observed su- 

 perficial reticulate impressions similar to those on the fragment in 

 question. The Ostrich's femur is sub-compressed, while the present 

 fragment is cylindrical, approaching in this respect nearer to the 

 femur of the Emeu ; but its diameter is one-third greater than that 

 of the largest Emeu's femur, with which I have compared it. 



" The bones of the extremities of the great Testiulo ehphantopus 

 are solid throughout. Those of the Crocodile have no cancellous 

 structure like the present bone. The cancellous structure of the 

 mammiferous long bones is of a much finer and more fibrous charac- 

 ter than in the fossil. 



" Although I speak of the bone under this term, it must be ob- 

 served that it does not present the characters of a true fossil ; it is 

 by no means mineralized : it has probably been on, or m, the ground 

 for some time, but still retains most of its animal matter. It weighs 

 seven ounces twelve drachms, avoirdupois. 



" The discovery of a relic of a large struthious bird in New Zea- 

 land is one of peculiar interest, on account of the remarkable cha- 

 racter of the existing Fauna of that island, which still includes one 

 of the most extraordinary and anomalous genera of the struthious 

 order, and because of the close analogy which the event indicated 

 by the present relic offers to the extinction of the Dodo of the island 

 of the Mauritius. So far as a judgment can be formed of a single 

 fragment, it seems probable that the extinct bird of New Zealand, 

 if it prove to be extinct, presented proportions more nearly resem- 

 bling those of the Dodo than of any of the existing StruthionidcB. 



" Any opinion, however, as to its specific form can only be con- 

 jectural ; the femur of the Stilt-bird {Himantopus) would never have 

 revealed the anomalous develoiiment of the other bones of the leg ; 

 but so far as my skill in interpreting an osseous fragment may be 

 credited, I am willing to risk the reputation for it on the statement 



