46 Correspondence — Mr. Gerard Krefft. 



FUETHEE, DISCOVERT OF REMAINS OF A GREAT EXTINCT WING- 

 LESS BIRD IN AUSTRALIA. 



Sir, — In the Geological Magazine for 1869, Vol. YI. p. 383, 

 will be found a letter from the Eev. W. B. Clarke, F.G.S., St. 

 Leonard's, New South Wales, giving an account of the discovery of 

 the femur of a bird resembling Dinornis, found in sinking a well at 

 Peak Downs, Queensland. The bone in question was subm:itted to 

 me, and I pronounced it to be the femur of a bird about the size of 

 Dinornis robustus. 



Since then I learn that Prof. Owen has described it, from a cast ^ 

 which I had prepared and forwarded to him, as Dinornis (Dromornis ?) 

 Australis,^ in the Zoological Transactions for 1873, vol. viii. part vi. 



And here let me state that the mineralized condition of this bone 

 is precisely that of hundreds of other bones from various Australian 

 localities which are preserved in this Museum, the interior being full 

 of calc-spar crystals, or mineralized in such a manner as to remove 

 all trace of organic substance, and render the bone quite brittle like 

 a piece of stone. The modern fracture across the bone shows this 

 extremely well. The ancient " crushed-in fractures " may possibly 

 have been done with a stone tomahawk at the time when the bone 

 was fresh. I have found the fractured crown of a human molar in 

 the same matrix as Diprotodon and Thylacoleo at Wellington in this 

 Colony. Man may therefore have been the contemporary of these 

 animals and also of the Dromornis. 



Since the discovery of this bone at Peak Downs, I have gone over 

 the specimens in the Sydney Museum, and find more Australian 

 Moa-hones in the collection, but unfortunately without date or 

 locality, and of which therefore 1 can take no notice. 



But on the 5th September, 1873, I received a letter from Mr- 

 James F. Plunkett, informing me that he had forwarded me a parcel 

 of bones, etc. They were from an alluvial gold-mining claim on 

 the Black Lead, known as the Sand-hole, at a depth of 160 feet in 

 a " pot-hole," imbedded in brown dust. The bones are of a whitish 

 colour, and adhere strongly to the tongue. They consist chiefly of 

 fragments of vertebrae, and probably belonged to a bird rather 

 stronger built than our Emu {Dromornis) , but not larger in size. 



They are from Gulgang, one of our famous digging townships in 

 the Bathurst district.. 



I may mention that Dr. George Bennett, F.L.S., has just received 

 a very fine series of Diprotodon remains from his son. Mr. George 

 Bennett, from the Gamrie Creek, Darling Downs. I have examined 

 them, and with the assistance of our eminent formatore, Mr. Henry 

 Barnes, have succeeded in restoring the most important parts of this 

 great animal. 



The chief point established is the form of the jaw, the inflected 

 angle of which resembles that of the Phalangers, and was not as 



1 The original specimen is now in the Sydney Museum. 



2 I had ah-eady described it in one of our local papers, and proposed for it the 

 name of Dinornis Owenii, 



