On Extinct and Vanishing Birds. 193 



North Island^ very small species ; didinus, a small species 

 which had blackish-grey feathers tipped with white, and 

 was feathered on the legs down to the phalanges ; it evidently 

 was the Dinornithine representative of the Rhea darwini 

 among existing Eatitae ; M. dromaeoides was found, in the 

 North Island, and plenus is the South Island, representative 

 of this race. M. casuarinus is a species common to both 

 islands, and. known not only by several more or less complete 

 skeletons, but by masses of bones from the South Island, as 

 well as complete eggs, and. the feathers were pale brown, with 

 darker centres and edges, similar to those of Aptéryx australis. 

 Emeus, 3 species ; crassus, from the South Island, is very common, 

 as also is the larger rheides ; gravis was a smaller form also 

 found in the South Island. Pachyomis, 5 species ; elephantopus, 

 a short but extremely bulky bird, with enormous, nay, gigantic, 

 legs and feet ; it came from the South Island, as do all the 

 Pachyomis ; P. ponderosus is a form distinguished from the 

 former principally by smaller size and higher and rounder 

 processes at the hinder angles of the basi-sphenoid of the 

 skull ; P. pygmaeus is very rare, and imperfectly known from 

 2 metatarsi, 1 femur, and 1 tibia, but is evidently a 

 Pachyomis, and a dwarf one ; P. immanis, the fourth sjDecies ; 

 the fifth species is P. rothschildi, Lydekker, of which the type 

 bones are exhibited. Megalapteryx, 2 species ; hectori is the 

 South Island species and tenuipes is the North Island species 

 which has the distinction of being the only North Island 

 form of which the skull is known properly. Palaeocasuarius, 

 with 3 species, was discovered by Dr. H. 0. Forbes, and 

 the following are the 3 forms : haasti, larger than any 

 cassowary, elegans, as big as C. casuarius, and velox, a small 

 form. Pseudapteryx, 1 species, gracilis, is a North Island form, 

 to my mind also a Moa, and not an ancestor of Aptéryx. 



The Moas, except M. dromaeoides and plenus, were distin- 

 guished by the total absence of wings and many species 

 even having completely lost the shoulder girdle as well. 

 They probably all had a hind toe, but it has been only 

 proved in four or five. 



The Moas were probably exterminated in the North 

 Island about 500 years ago, and in the South Island 

 practically so about 100 to 150 years later, though it is 



