CoLENSO. — On the Moa. 75 



reference to the family of Struthionid(B), that it would be morally impossible 

 to fit such heavy bodies with wings sufficient to enable them to fly.* In 

 the latter, however (the Gallinaceous or Rasorial Order), we have the 

 largest and stoutest birds known. These, too, are terrestrial in their 

 habits, some exclusively so, and very often possess only three toes. It is 

 true that in general the different known members of the family containing 

 the largest birds have their tarsi long (whereas those of the Moa, as we have 

 already seen, are short). Yet to this we have exceptions in the extinct 

 Dodo and the Apteryx ; and I think it is highly worthy of notice, that the 

 latter, the only known existing genus of the family possessing short tarsi, 

 is entirely confined to these islands. 



From a conviction, then, that it is in this order only that the affinities 

 of the Moa are to be sought with any prospect of success, and that it is in 

 the family StruthionidcB where they will doubtless eventually be found, we 

 are induced, for the present at least, to place the Moa in that gigantic 

 group. In the absence, however, of a specimen of an Apteryx,\ with which 

 to compare the few bones we at present possess of the Moa, I should, I 

 confess, be hazarding an opinion in saying that it was most nearly allied to 

 that peculiar genus ; yet when we consider that out of the five existing 

 genera of this family, three at least, apparently possessing the nearest 

 -affinities to the remains of the bird before us, belong exclusively to the 

 southernmost parts of the southern hemisphere,! and that a connecting link 

 is, as it were, wanting between the PJiea of the Straits of Magellan, the 

 Dromiceius of New Holland, the Casuarius of the Indian Archipelago, and 

 the Apteryx of New Zealand, and that this connecting link may, in all pro- 

 bability, be supplied in the Moa, I think we shall be constrained to assign 

 our Moa a place between the genera Casuarius and Apteryx, possessing as 

 it does (only in a much greater degree) the immense size and strength of 

 the former, combined with the short tarsi, and probably wingless structure, 

 of the latter. 



I venture, however, to suppose, that we may gain an additional gleam 

 of light, both upon the probable period at which the Moa existed, and also 



* The Baron's words are : — " It appears as if all the muscular power which is at the 

 command of nature would be insufficient to move such immense wings as would be re- 

 quired to support their massive bodies in the au'." [Regne Animal, Class Aves, Ord. V., 

 Fam. 1.) If such were the spontaneous remarks made by that illustrious naturalist, on 

 contemplating the size of the known members of that family, what would he not have 

 said had he but lived to examine the colossal structure of the Moa ! 



t It has been my good fortune to have at diiierent times several specimens of the 

 Apteryx in my possession ; at present, however, I have not one, nor do I know in 

 whose possession one is to be found in New Zealand. 



J See Note E, Appendix I, 



