﻿Haast. — On an Extinct Gigantic Bird of Prey. 195 



remarkable size and strength of tke raptorial bird of wMch they are a portion. 

 They consist of two ungual phalanges, of which the largest one (PL XL, figs. 1 

 and la), measures as follows : — 



Inchss. 

 Length frcni summit of articular end to point . 2 '92 



Circiimfsrence near articular end, including 



lov/er process . . . . . . 3 "17 



As far as the scant material for comparison will allow, I believe that this 

 bone is the ungual phalanx of the hallux or first toe of the left foot. 



A comparison with fig. 3, PI. XL, the ungual phalanx of the left foot 

 (halliix) of the Aquila aiidax, the great Wedge-tailed Eagle of Australia, and 

 with fig. 4, the corresponding bone in the New Zealand Harrier, will not only 

 prove tiie close resemblance between that bone, belonging to these birds and 

 the Harpagornis, but also their sti'iking difference in size, and gives evidence of 

 the enormous strength this extinct moa-hunter of the feathered tribe must have 

 possessed. Only the lion and tiger, amongst the recent carnivorous mammalia, 

 perhaps have larger ungual phalanges than this extinct raptorial bird, and after 

 having seen its curved talons, the fable of the bird Roc no longer seems so very 

 extravagant and strange, and I may add, that a human being, if not well 

 armed or very powerful, not to speak of children, would have stood a very poor 

 chance against such a formidable foe, if it had chosen to attack him. 



In former publications I have, as I believe, conclusively shov/n that the 

 native race who hunted and exterminated the different species of Dinomis, was 

 a pre-historic people, and that the Maoris, the present aboriginals of Hew 

 Zealand, probably the direct descendants of the former, have not the least 

 tradition about them. 



The discovery of these bones offers additional confirmation to my conclusions, 

 as there is no doubt in my mind that, if reliable traditions about the Dinomis 

 had been handed down to us, the still more alarming existence of this gigantic 

 bird of prey, contemporaneous with the foi^mer, would most certainly have 

 also been recorded. 



A second ungual phalanx, applying the mode of measurement previously 

 used, is 2-75 inches long, and has a circumference of 2-92 inches. It belongs 

 probably to the second toe of the right foot. Plate XL, fig, 2, shows its 

 articular proximal surface. 



The Canterbury Museum possesses also the fragment of a right humerus, 

 v/ith both apophyses broken off", 7 inches long and 2-25 inches in circumference, 

 found together with a considerable quantity of moa bones in a small water- 

 course about two miles from Glenmark. 



This fragmentary bone is most probably also a portion of the wing of this 

 or of another bird of prey of very large dimensions. 



