92 



GUIDE TO THE FOSSIL MAMMALS AND BIRDS. 



Case HH. 



"Wall-cases 



23, 24. 



Table-case 



12. 



Case GG. 



Wall-case 

 24. 



Wall-case 



25. 



Case II. 



Anomalopteryx didiformis and Emeus gravities, are exhibited 

 in Case HH. There are also various more fragmentary 

 specimens of Dinornithidse in Wall-cases 23 and 24 and in 

 Table-case 12. In the latter may be noticed, besides eggs 

 and feathers, the mummified remains of the head, neck and 

 legs of a small species from a very dry fissure-cavern in 

 Otago. This specimen shows, in addition to the skin, the 

 bony (sclerotic) plates round the eye, the tracheal rings of 

 the windpipe, and the sheath of the claws. Many of the more 

 fragmentary bones were obtained from the old cooking-places 

 of the Maories, who seem to have hunted and fed upon the 

 moas. 



As shown by the fine skeleton of Dinornis maximus 

 (Plate V), the wing is more reduced in the Dinornithidse 

 than in any other known birds. There is nothing beyond a 

 small scapulo-coracoid bone, which does not even bear a 

 socket for the limb. The feathers agree much more closely 

 with those of the Australian emus and cassowaries than 

 with those of the New Zealand kiwis. 



In the Australian region there were emus in the Pleisto- 

 cene period. There was also another large Eatite bird, 

 Genyornis newtoni, of which remains have been discovered 

 near Lake Callabonna, South Australia. As shown by a 

 hind limb in Wall-case 24, it had three remarkably slender 

 toes. It lived with the small-toed Diprotodon already 

 mentioned (p. 78). 



Eatite birds were also abundant in Madagascar at a quite 

 recent geological period, although none now survive in that 

 island. They seem to have been most closely similar to the 

 Apteryx and moas of New Zealand, and one species, Aepyornis 

 titan, of which there are limb bones in Wall-case 25, probably 

 exceeded in size the largest of the New Zealand birds. A 

 specimen of moderate dimensions, Aepyornis Mldebrandti, is 

 represented in Case II by a reconstructed skeleton, which 

 exhibits a short and broad breastbone, like that of Apteryx, 

 with remains of a very small wing. Eggs of Aepyornis are 

 not uncommon in the sand bordering the lakes of Madagascar, 

 and they are sometimes washed out during stormy weather. 

 Under these circumstances they float on the water and are 

 picked up by the natives. Fine examples are shown in Case 

 II. The largest measures three feet in its largest circum- 

 ference by two feet six inches in girth, and its liquid contents 

 would equal a little more than two gallons. Such eggs would 

 probably be laid by the largest species, Aepyornis titan and 



