694 PROF. OWEN ON THE STERNUM OF NoTORNIS. [Nov. 28, 
with Lamarck’s theory of the ‘Origin of Species,’ would become 
enfeebled, and ultimately atrophied to the degree exemplified in 
Apteryx and Dinornis. The legs, then monopolizing the functions 
of locomotion, would attain, through the concomitant force and fre- 
quency of exercise, proportional increase of power and size. Under 
these conditions may be comprehended, by vere cause, the origin of 
the great flightless Anserine which is entered as a ‘‘species” in 
Ornithological Catalogues under the name of Cnemiornis calcitrans. 
It has become such through no choice or selection, but by a combi- 
nation of circumstances enforced, with operative conditions of organic 
vitality, first taught us by the immortal author of the ‘ Philosophie 
Zoologique.’ 
The same course of cogitation, so guided, leads to the same conclu- 
sion as to the origin of Notornis, of Aptornis, of Dinornis. The ten- 
dency to variation in size and proportions, after the reduction and loss 
of wings, leads to the minor modifications of such flightless genera. 
The genus Nogornis is now known to be represented by species, 
living in the present generation of New-Zealand colonists, in loca- 
lities nearly one hundred miles apart, and which have belonged to a 
once gregarious family. 
The first captured specimen of the species, V. mantelli, was taken 
by seal-fishers (1847) near the coast of ‘‘ Duck Cove,’’ Resolution 
Island, Dusky Sound; the second specimen was caught (1869) at 
“Deas Cove,” Secretary Island, Thompson’s Sound; the third 
specimen, which afforded the subject of Prof. Jeffery Parker’s 
memoir’, was caught (1881) by a rabbit-hunter in Captain Han- 
kinson’s “ Run,” on ‘‘Bare-patch Plains,” east of “Te anau’’ Lake,— 
all in the South Island of New Zealand. 
In ‘Phillip’s Voyage to Botany Bay’ a large ralline bird was 
noticed on what is now “‘ Norfolk Island,’’ under the name of Fulica 
alba (1789, p. 160). A good coloured plate of the same species is 
given in Surgeon White’s ‘ Voyage to New South Wales,’ 4to, 1790, 
with a brief notice at p. 238, under the name of “ Gallinula 
alba”’ (the ‘‘plates”’ are not numbered in this work). In size and 
shape of head and beak, in the reduced proportions of the wings, in 
the strength of the legs and feet, in the carpal spur, and the colour 
of the beak, this bird seems but a variety of Notornis mantelli ; it is 
at least a species of the same genus, as von Pelzeln has pointed out 
in ‘The Ibis’ of 1873, p. 44°. 
But no “Redbill’’ or “Takahe”’ has since rewarded a naturalist’s 
quest in “‘ Lord Howe’s”’ or ‘ Norfolk Island.” A species of the 
New-Zealand genus Ocydromus (O. sylvestris, Sclater) still exists 
there, and is said to be easily captured. 
The Wood-hens flourish in both South and North Islands of New 
Zealand, as in the smaller tract nearer the Antarctic latitudes; but 
they are severally represented by modifications noted as Ocydromus 
earli, O. australis, and O. sylvestris. 
1 Loe. cit. p. 245. 
* A copy of White's figure is given in ‘The Ibis,’ 1878, pl. x. 
