WeUiiufton PJdlosophical 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 Ave 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 Struthionidce, having j^et been discovered 

 even in later tertiary formations, although those of the penguin have been found in the 

 ujDper 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 StrutMonida; are peculiar to the 

 southern hemisphere, and, looking to New Zealand as an instance, it would not have 

 been 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 Bhea americana and the R. darioinii, which 

 never associate together, and each of which is confined to a particular range of country. 

 Africa possesses only one species, the Struthio cavielus ; Australia also one, the emeu or 

 Dromaius novcs-liollandicR ; whilst the cassowary is confined to Java, Sumatra, Banda, 

 and the Moluccas. 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 JEpyornis, have been discovered in Madagascar, 

 but as yet, at all events, only the remains of one species have been obtained. 



We have therefore this very remarkable fact presented for our observation in regard 

 to the extinct Struthionidce 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 countryman's procedure in a further generic 

 subdivision of the DinornitJiidce. Dinornis didiformis — the type of Eeichenbach's genus 

 Anomalopteryx (1850) — is the type of Von Haast's genus Meiornis (1874). The Eurap- 

 teryx of Von Haast (1874) is the Syornis of Eeiehenbach (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 sjDecies 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 

 interesting 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. 



