168 A Memoir on U/e living Asiatic Species of Rhinoceros. [No. 2, 



P. S. No. 1. In a letter dated May 10th, from Bangkok, just re- 

 ceived from Sir R. H. Sehomburgk, he writes — " Will you believe 

 me, I have never met with an example of that formidable animal, the 

 Rhinoceros ! They are more towards the east, in Cambodia and 

 Anam, although they are likewise to be met with in the north ; for, 

 amongst the remarkable events of 1860, Dr. Bradley notes, in his ' Sia- 

 mese Calendar' under April 5th, that — ' A Rhinoceros was brought to 

 the city from the north. Though a great curiosity, it was little 

 thought after, because of a prevalent notion that his way had been he- 

 ralded by the cholera, and that the effluvia from his body was almost 

 sure to give that disease.' They are strange people, these Siamese : 



Mr. Layard further writes, that — " The fabulous Otter of the natives \_qu. a 

 species of Oenithoeiiynchus ?] lias also been seen and shot at bj Europeans ; 

 and a new large green Ground Parrot ; also a huge land shell (not Helix Bus- 

 BVii), on the tops of fir-trees on the same island." 



Since transcribing the above, I find that a further notice of the existing great 

 Moa appears in the ' Proceedings of the Koyal Geographical Society of London,' 

 Vol. VI (1862), p. 25. It is a repetition of the account in the 'Nelson Examin- 

 er.' Mr. T. H. Hood, Member of the Legislative Council of Queensland, writes 

 to Lord Ashburton, — " There is said to be a possibility that the British 

 Museum may still be adorned by a Dinoenis : the footsteps of a gigantic bird, 

 it is stated, were seen by a surveyor's party; they were 14 inches long, and 11 

 in. wide on the spread, and they had been impressed during the night over the 

 tracks of the men made on the previous day. All the wingless birds existing in 

 New Zealand are nocturnal in their habits; and the general impression from 

 Maori tradition is, that the Moa was a gigantic Apteeyx. The district is 

 exceedingly rocky, and full of caves, in some of which it is just possible that a 

 surviving individual may find its hiding-place. Exertions are being made (the 

 last steamer's mail brings us intelligence) to ascertain the truth of the report, 

 and, if correct, thoroughly to search the wild and unsettled districts where it is 

 said to be. Certainly this would be a most interesting event to naturalists, should 

 the search prove successful. I must say that I feel somewhat sanguine on the 

 subject ; as once, when in that part of the Middle Island, I heard of a very cir- 

 cumstantial account given by a man, who stated that he had seen a great bird 

 go down into a rocky glen one morning at daybreak ; but the story was not cre- 

 dited. The surveyor who now makes the statement is understood to be a man 

 of character." 



For a Beport on the four ascertained living species of Apteetx, by Mr. P. L. 

 Sclater and Dr. F. von Hochstetter, vide ' Natural History Review,' October, 

 1861, p. 504. 



" Let me again refer," remarks Prof. Owen, " to the ratio at which the zoolo- 

 gist's knowledge of the class [Mammalia~] has proceeded of late years ; viz. from, 

 say, 1,350 species in 1830, to 2,000 in 1855, and 2,500 in 1860. In one order, e. g. 

 Marsiipialia, the increase has been, from 50 species, recorded in 1830, to 350 

 species, in 1860. We should greatly over-estimate our present knowledge were 

 we to rest upon it a conclusion that there remained but very few more forms of 

 mammalia to provide room for in our museums. Look, for example, at the 

 recent unexpected augmentation of the species of the quadrumanous order, by 

 the researches made by Dr. Savage and M. du Chaillu, in a limited, but previ- 

 ously unexplored, tract of tropical Africa, — species including the largest as well 

 as the most higbly-organized forms of the order that comes nearest to Man." 

 {Athena-um, July, 1861, p. 120.) 



