186 Ornithichnites of the Connecticut River Sandstones. 
We must bear in mind the conflicting opinions to which the Chi- 
rotherium impressions have given rise: next, in regard to the 
Ornithichnites, it is important to remember that there were rep- 
tiles at the age of the New Red Sandstone, the Rhynchosaurus, 
e. g. (see Trans. of the Cambridge Phil. Soc., Vol. VII, Part III, 
p- 355,) which presented a singularly close approximation to 
birds in the form and structure of their edentulous skull; and 
might not a corresponding modification of the feet complete the 
resemblance of these ancient reptiles to the fabled cockatrice ? 
A biped reptile would not be more anomalous than a jerboa or 
kangaroo. 
- In the foregoing remarks, I wish to be understood as merely 
indicating the grounds which justify caution in assuming the ex- 
istence of a highly organized, warm-blooded, quick-breathing, 
perhaps volant, feathered biped, from foot-prints merely. I have, 
however, recently acquired very important additional evidence of 
the former existence in the north island of New Zealand, of a 
gigantic bird, having the same low grade of organization, as re- 
gards the respiratory system, which I have demonstrated in the 
Apteryx of the same island. (Zool. Trans. Vol. II.) It is to 
this circumstance, perhaps, that Dr. Daubeny alludes in his letter 
to you. My evidence is not however foot-prints, but the bones 
themselves. If you will refer to the Transactions of the Zoolo- 
gical Society, Vol. Ill, Part I, p. 29, you will see the first indi- 
cation of the gigantic Struthious bird of New Zealand, which 
indicates Cuvier’s principle, as showing what may be made out 
of asingle fragment of bone. Three years after that fragment 
was interpreted, a box containing femora, tibie, a metatarsal 
bone, and portions of pelvis, vertebra, &c. was transmitted to Dr. 
Buckland from New Zealand, who generously placed them at 
my disposal. They were described at the meeting of the Zoo- 
logical Society, January 24, 1843, and established the fact that 
at no very remote period, say a couple of centuries ago, there 
existed in New Zealand a tridactyle Struthious bird, one third 
larger than the African ostrich, resembling the apteryx in the 
proportions of the tibia to the metatarsus, and in the absence of 
air in the former, and therefore, most probably in the rudimental 
state of the wings. Now the metatarsal bone of this bird, which 
I have called Dinornis Nove Zelandie, is fully large enough to 
have sustained three toes equivalent to produce impressions of 
the size of those of the Ornithichnites giganteus of Prof. Hitch- 
