Henry "Woodward — Address to the Geologist^ Association. 547 



species; but in a second paper (Phil. Ti-ans. 1872, p. 241) the 

 author describes the remains of two very large species under the 

 names Pliascolomys magnus and P. gigas : — 



" Until comparatively lately," writes Prof. Owen, "the Wombat 

 was known to zoologists as a solitary exceptional form of small 

 Tasmanian Marsupial, peculiar in its scalpriform dentition, combined 

 with burrowing habits. We now know this generic form under 

 many specific structural modifications, and with gradations of bulk 

 rising from that of a Marmot to that of a Tapir ! 



" The rodent type of incisors, both as to number and kind, are 

 retained in all, certainly in the lower jaw of the gigantic species ; 

 but it would not be safe to infer that these extinct forms burrowed, 

 like the smaller living Wombats. 



"If we knew the Hare (Lepus timidus) only by fossil remains, we 

 should err in attributing to it the habits and mode of life of the 

 smaller species (Lepus cunicidus), the Eabbit, It is probable that the 

 larger extinct. Wombats did not conceal themselves underground." 



" Of the series of Phascolomys, the larger ones have all perished. 

 Here, as in the case of the gigantic wingless birds of New Zealand, 

 size and bulk seem to have been a disadvantage in the ' contest for 

 existence.' The small burro wing ' Kivis ' (Apteryx australis, Sh.a,w, 

 and Apteryx Owenii, Grould), like the small wombats, have survived. 

 " The extirpating cause of the larger wombats, especially if they 

 were unable to take refuge and conceal themselves underground, was 

 probably the hostility of man, No human remains, however, or 

 weapons, have yet been discovered in the stalagmitic breccias of the 

 caves, or in the freshwater deposits of Australia. But as the unseen 

 planet may be inferred by evidence of its force, so may the destroyer 

 be conjectured, and his discovery anticipated by the eifects of his 

 power — such, for example, as the disappearance of species which, 

 from their easier detection, capture, or bringing to bay, and greater 

 profit when slain, would be the first objects of chase to the primitive 

 Aborigines." (Owen, op. cit. p. 255.) 



In 1839 Prof. Owen drew attention to a "bone of an unknown 

 Struthious Bird of large size presumed to be extinct," stated to have 

 been obtained from New Zealand. 



Since that date various naturalists, collectors, and colonists have 

 sent home remains of this bird in such profusion that 17 siDCcies (or 

 probably more correctly speaking varieties) have been described 

 by the same indefatigable anatomist. 



To this interesting series Prof. Owen has now added the evidence 

 of the existence of another extinct Struthious bird, not from New 

 Zealand, but from the great Island-Continent of Australia. The 

 femur of this bird, described and figured (Trans. Zool. Soc. 1873, 

 vol. viii. pt. 6) by Prof Owen, agrees in size with that of Dinornis 

 elepJiantopiis (although from comparison of the details of its parts 

 he determines it to be generically distinct). He names it Dromornis 

 australis, and suggests the possibility of its having been ancestrally 

 conteinporary with the impressors of the Ornithicnites of Connecticut. 

 Some time since (Trans. Zool. Soc. 1870, vol. vii. p. 123) the 



