Wellington Philosophical Society. 548 
established beyond doubt. Their extinction is also beyond doubt; and it has now become 
abundantly clear that that extinction took place in comparatively recent times. But 
although we have reason to believe that the Maoris are possessed of full accounts of the 
habits of these birds, and of their own modes of hunting and otherwise capturing them, 
we have, as yet, collected only the most fragmentary portions of those accounts, and but 
little even of what we have collected has been published. And we know absolutely 
nothing of the origin, in past time, of these remarkable animals, no remains of any birds 
which can be identified as belonging to the Struthionide, having yet been discovered 
even in later tertiary formations, although those of the penguin have been found in the 
upper chalk or older eocene rocks. 
There is one especial point, too, in connection with these huge birds which merits 
particular attention. The existing species of the Struthionide are peculiar to the 
southern hemisphere, and, looking to New Zealand as an instance, it would not have 
een surprising had we found many species in each of the several localities which this 
family now inhabits. And yet South America is the only one of those habitats which 
affords more than one species—namely, the Rhea americana and the R. darwinii, which 
never associate together, and each of which is confined to a particular range of country. 
Africa possesses only one species, the Struthio camelus ; Australia also one, the emeu or 
Dromaius nove-hollandie ; whilst the cassowary is confined to Java, Sumatra, Banda, 
and the Moluecas. Another large struthious bird, the mooruk, the nearest living form of 
the extinct moas, has been found in the Solomon group; and, as you are no doubt aware, 
the remains of a huge struthious bird, the ZEpyornis, have been discovered in Madagascar, 
but as yet, at all events, only the remains of one species haye been obtained. 
We have therefore this very remarkable fact presented for our observation in regard 
to the extinct Struthionide of New Zealand—that, within a comparatively small range, 
a large number of different forms presenting apparent specific distinctions co-existed, and 
must, looking to the circumstances in which their remains were obtained, have associated 
together freely. I may here remark that Professor Owen does not subscribe to the 
further generic subdivision of Dinornis, as proposed by Dr. von Haast. He says :—'* Dr. 
von Haast has followed his ornithological eouniryman's procedure in a further generic 
subdivision of the Dinornithide. Dinornis didiformis—the type of Reichenbach's genus 
Anomalopteryx (1850)—is the type of Von Haast's genus Meiornis (1874). The Eurap- 
teryz of Von Haast (1874) is the Syornis of Reichenbach (1850), both represented by 
Dinornis casuarinus. * * * These generifications of the accomplished author of the 
‘Handbuch der speciellen Ornithologie’ have not met with acceptance or favour at the 
hands of subsequent systematists. Whether the parallel labours of Dr. von Haast will 
be more fortunate remains to be seen."* It must, however, be noted as regards New 
Zealand that, except man, these huge birds had no enemy, and must have remained 
completely undisturbed for a period quite sufficiently long to account for the formation 
of the many apparent species whose remains have been discovered. 
Another point of great interest presented to us, and already alluded to in this 
address, is “ The whence of the Maori?” Upon this subject, as I have before observed, 
many papers have appeared in the Transactions of the Institute, but the various writers 
have as yet failed to solve the problem. Mr. Wallace, in his most valuable and 
in ting account of the natural history of the Malay Archipelago, has pointed out, 
as the result of careful study and observation, that all the varieties of people which 
* Trans. Zool. Soc., X., pt. iii., p. 174. 
