PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
January 10, 1848. 
Richard Owen, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 
A portion of a letter from the Rev. W. C. Cotton, addressed to 
Professor Owen, was read. ‘This letter is dated Waimate, near the 
Bay of Islands, New Zealand, July 11, 1842, and the portion read 
refers to the remains of a gigantic bird in New Zealand. The Rev. 
Mr. Cotton observes, that upon meeting with the Rev. Mr. Wm. 
Williams, whose missionary station is at the East Cape, Bay of 
Islands, “1 spoke to him about the gigantic New Zealand Bird, 
of which you described a single bone. Oddly enough, he hada 
basket full of the bones in the next room, which he immediately 
showed tome. He has sent two cases of them to Dr. Buckland, 
together with a long letter, fully detailing the circumstances under 
which they were found. I have no doubt but that he will ere this 
have communicated the letter to you, that is, should it have safely 
arrived. The bones are very perfect, not at all fossilized ; and have 
been buried in the mud of freshwater streams communicating with high 
mountains. Mr. Williams had bones of thirty different birds brought 
to him in a short time after he set the natives about searching for 
them. One of the largest leg-bones, which measures two feet ten 
inches, and which has been sent to Dr. Buckland, leads him to think 
that the bird must have been sixteen feet high! A clergyman who 
came out in the Tomatia with us is going to be located in the Wairoa, 
a river about seventy miles south of Poverty Bay, a locality in which 
these bones have been found in the greatest plenty, and I will com- 
mission him to save for me all he can in case you should not have 
any in the distribution which Dr. Buckland is authorized by Mr. 
Williams to make. No bones of the wings have been found. The 
natives have some odd traditions about it, which you will see in the 
letter. Strangely enough, after Mr. Williams had obtained the 
bones, he heard of the bird as having been seen by two Englishmen 
in the Middle Island. They were taken out by a native at night to 
watch for the bird, which he had described to them ; they saw it, but 
were so frightened that they did not dare to shoot at it, though they 
Nos. CXX. & CXXI.—Procrzpines or THE Zoot. Soc, 
