On Extinct and Vanishing Birds. 195 



two species, a smaller, only known by one almost complete 

 skeleton in the Canterbury Museum, New Zealand, and the 

 type bones, and which was named otidiformis by Owen, and the 

 larger A. defossor, to which all other known bones belong. This 

 genus is distantly related to Ocydromus. We next find a 

 large extinct Woodhen, Ocydromus insignis, Eorbes, of more 

 than double the size of the living forms. We now come to 

 the remarkable genus Notomis, which was founded by Owen, 

 on a North Island skull. I propose to deal further with this 

 genus under ' Birds on the verge of Extinction,' and so will 

 only mention here the species known from bones only. These 

 are Notomis mantelli and Notomis pariceri, both from the 

 North Island, the latter being smaller and slenderer. 



Then New Zealand had, at the period dealt with, a number 

 of very remarkable flightless Geese, allied to the Butterfly 

 Goose of Australia, Cereopsis; these giant geese were found in 

 several species all over New Zealand, of which Cnemiornis 

 calcitrans and minor occurred in the South Island, and 

 0. gracilis in the North Island. A large Duck allied to the 

 Australian B. lobata, and called Biziura lautouri, as well as a 

 true Gereopsis Goose, Gereopsis novaezealandiae, have turned up 

 in the New Zealand bone deposits of this epoch. A very large 

 Cormorant, Phalacrocorax major, has also been described, and 

 Cheno-psis sumnerensis, an extinct ally of the Australian black 

 Swan. 



In addition to these we find that there lived contempora- 

 neously with the Moas, a huge Eagle, Harpagornis moorei, 

 which probably fed on small Moas, and was, apparently, like 

 the famous Samar Eagle, Pithecopliaga jefferyi, discovered 

 by Whitehead. We also have bones of two very large 

 Harriers, Circus liamiltoni and G. teauteensis, discovered by 

 Mr. A. Hamilton, and a giant Penguin, over 6 feet high, 

 Palaeeudyptes antarcticus, as well as a Raven, Palaeocorax 

 antipodum. 



By far the most interesting discovery of late years has been, 

 however, that of the beds of bird remains on the Chatham 

 Islands. Here were found, half buried in the sand of the 

 low cliffs, great masses of bird bones of many species, both 

 living and extinct, and the condition and situation of these 

 bones prove very conclusively that the cause of extinction in 



