370 Proceedings. 



The papers relative to tlie first discovery of Moa remains, by the Hon. Mr. 

 Mantell and the Rev. Mr. Taylor, support the view of the recent extinction 

 of these giant birds which I expressed in my former address : and the 

 researches in the Moa cave, at Earnscleugh, by the Hon, Captain Fraser, have 

 resulted in the discovery of a sufficient number of bones of that curious genus 

 Gnemiornis to enable me to determine its affinity to the Natatores, or duck 

 kind, and to restore a skeleton which is now before you.* This discovery adds 

 another instance in New Zealand of a non-volant bird with a keelless sternum, 

 belonging to an order other members of which are possessed of full power of 

 flight. Thus, in addition to the Kiwi and the extinct Moas, which rejjresent 

 the Struthionidae proper, we have, in the Kakapo (Stringops), a parrot with a 

 keelless sternum ; rails without power of flight, in the Notornis a coot, and in 

 the Weka [Ocydromus), and also a curious little rail from the Chatham 

 Islands ; while, going beyond our own country, we have the Dodo of the 

 Mauritius, which was a flightless pigeon; and now we have the Gnemiornis, 

 which was a large goose-like bird that apparently had neither power of flight 

 nor of swimming. The loss of the power of flight from disuse, and the 

 corresponding change in the structui^e of the bird, do not therefore appear to 

 confer a character of such high anatomical importance in systems of classifi- 

 cation as has hitherto been conceded to it ; and, indeed, the observations of 

 Professor Cunningham show that in the case of the Steamer Duck (Jficropterits), 

 which inhabits the seas in the neighbourhood of Tierra del Fuego, the jiower of 

 flight is lost from disuse even during the lifetime of individuals, for, in this 

 species, while the adolescent forms have the power of flight, the mature ducks 

 are non-volant, the use of their wings being confined solely to propelling the 

 bird through the water. 



The additions which have been made to the zoological literature of the colony 

 during the past year, include some important works, besides the valuable 

 papers which appear in the volume of our ti'ansactiuns ; chief among them is 

 Dr. Buller's great work on the Birds of New Zealand. 



It is satisfactory to learn that Dr. Buller's work is to be rendered more 

 complete by the publication of additional plates, so as to give figures of 

 all these birds ; and, as the first edition is now exhausted, we may hope that 

 the author will receive encouragement to republish it, and have an opportunity 

 of bringing up the information to a still later date. 



* An old native at Hikurangi lately described to me what must have been this bird, 

 under the name of Tarepo. He stated that it was not a Moa, but a short bird that made 

 a cry like a Putangitangi (Casarca variegata), with very tliick legs, and so strong that it 

 could "upset a man," and that, in his youth, he had seen one alive. The Moa, he said, 

 had been longer extinct ; but, in boyhood, he had seen an old man, who, in his 

 youth, had killed one. The name Tarepo was erroneously taken for a synonym of Moa 

 by the late Rev. il. Taylor, in 1839 (Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. V., p. 97). 



