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191 



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I have the pleasure of submitting to this Society, having previously placed it in the hands of the 

 eminent ornithologist, Mr. Gould, to figure and describe, as a tribute of respect for his inde- 

 fatigable labours in this department of natural history. 



"This bird was taken by some sealers who were pursuing their avocations in Dusky Bay. 

 Perceiving the trail of a large and unknown bird on the snow with which the ground was then 

 covered, they followed the footprints till they obtained a sight of the Notornis, which their dogs 

 instantly pursued, and after a long chase caught alive in the gully of a sound behind Resolution 

 Island. It ran with great speed, and upon being captured uttered loud screams, and fought and 

 struggled violently ; it was kept alive three or four days on board the schooner and then killed, 

 and the body roasted and ate by the crew, each partaking of the dainty, which was declared to be 

 delicious. The beak and legs were of a bright red colour. My son secured the skin, together 

 with very fine specimens of the Kakapo, or Ground-Parrot, a pair of Huias, and two species of 

 Kiwi, namely Apteryx aiistralisnnd Ap, oweni; the latter very rare bird is now added to the 

 collection of the British Museum. 



"Mr. AValter Mantell states that, according to the native traditions, a large Eail was con- 

 temporary with the Moa, and formed a principal article of food among their ancestors. It was 

 known to the North-Islanders by the name of ' Moho,' and to the South-Islanders by that of 

 ' Takahe ; ' but the bird was considered by both natives and Europeans to have been long since 

 exterminated by the wild cats and dogs, not an individual having been seen or heard of since the 



arrival of the English colonists To the natives of .the pahs or villages on the homeward 



route and at Wellington the bird was a perfect novelty, and excited much interest. I may add 

 that, upon comparing the head of the bird with the fossil cranium and mandibles, and the figures 

 and descriptions in the 'Zoological Transactions' (pi. 56), my son was at once convinced of their 

 identity ; and so delighted was he by the discovery of a living example of one of the supposed 

 extinct contemporaries of the Moa, that he immediately wrote to me, and mentioned that the 

 skull and beaks were alike in the recent and fossil specimens, and that the abbreviated and feeble- 

 development of the wings, both in their bones and plumage, were in perfect accordance with the 

 indications afforded by the fossil humerus and sternum found by him at Waingongoro, and now 



in the British Museum, as pointed out by Professor Owen in the memoir above referred to 



In concluding this brief narrative of the discovery of a living example of a genus of birds once 

 contemporary with the colossal Moa, and hitherto only known by its fossil remains, I beg to 

 remark that this highly interesting fact tends to confirm the conclusions expressed in my com- 

 munications to the Geological Society — namely, that the Binornis^ Palapteryx^ and related forms 

 were coeval with some of the existing species of birds peculiar to New Zealand, and that their 

 final extinction took place at no very distant period, and long after the advent of the aboriginal 



Maoris." 



/ 



Mr 



of the bird with the following remarks : — 



" Dr. Mantell having kindly placed his son's valuable acquisition in my hands for the pur- 

 pose of characterizing it in the ' Proceedings' of this Society, and of afterwards figuring and 

 describing it in the appendix to my work on the birds of Australia, I beg leave to commence 

 the pleasing task he has assigned me. 



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