1848.] MANTELL ON FOSSIL REMAINS FROM NEW ZEALAND. 225 
PALZOCHORDA MINOR (M‘Coy), n.s. 
Spec. Char.—Diameter of subcompressed fronds 1 line; length un- 
known (no perceptible change of diameter in 13 inches), generally 
coiled in numerous, complex folds. 
It is in a fragment apparently of this species that I think I have 
observed dichotomy, but neither the fact nor the identity of the 
species can in this instance be clearly ascertained. This is a much 
more abundant species than the following, from which it is constantly 
distinguished by its much smaller diameter, the greater complexity of 
its folds, indicating a less rigid frond; there is also a slight sub- 
nodulous irregularity of the frond, which we do not see in the other 
species. 
PaLZOcHORDA MAJOR (M‘Coy), n.s. 
Spec. Char.—Diameter of subcompressed fronds 2 lines ; length un- 
known (no perceptible change of diameter in a length of 9 inches), 
generally coiled in a few large simple folds. 
2. On the Fossil Remains of Birds coliected in various parts of 
New Zeatann dy Mr. Water MANTELL, 0f WELLINGTON. 
By Gipron ALGERNON MAnTELL, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S., Vice- 
President of the Geological Society. 
Ir is not a little remarkable that one of the most interesting palzeon- 
tological discoveries of our times, namely the former existence of a 
race of colossal Ostrich-like birds in the islands of New Zealand, 
though made ma British colony, and announced to the scientific 
world by an eminent British physiologist, has not hitherto been 
brought under the immediate notice of the Geological Society of 
London. I therefore consider myself particularly fortunate in having 
the opportunity, through the researches of my eldest son, Mr. Walter 
Mantell, of submitting for the examination of the Fellows of this 
Society, perhaps the most extraordinary collection of the fossil remains 
of struthious birds that has ever been transmitted to Europe, and 
which contains the crania and mandibles, egg-shells, and bones, of 
several genera and species, most, if not all of which have probably 
long been extinct. 
The first relic of this kind was made known to European natural- 
ists by Professor Owen, in 1839. It consisted of the shaft of a femur 
or thigh-bone, but a few inches long, and with both its extremities 
wanting ; and this fragment so much resembled in its general appear- 
ance the marrow-bone of an ox, as actually to have been regarded 
as such by more than one eminent naturalist of this metropolis. 
And if I were required to select from the numerous and important 
inductions of palzeontology, the one which of all others presents the 
most striking and triumphant instance of the sagacious application 
of the principles of the correlation of organic structure enunciated 
by the illustrious Cuvier,—the one that may be regarded as the 
VOL. IV.—PART I. s 
