S08 MANUAL OF ZOOLOGY. 



(Owen). The feet were furnished with three anterior toes, 

 and are of interest as presenting us with an undoubted bird 

 big enough to produce the largest of the footprints of the 

 Triassic Sandstones of Connecticut. There is reason to be- 

 Heve from the traditions of the Maories that the Dinornis was 

 living at no very remote period, and that it has been exter- 

 minated by man. 



In Madagascar, bones have been discovered of a bird as 

 large as, or larger than, the Dinornis giganieus, which has been 

 described under the name of the yEpiornis maximus. With 

 the bones have been found eggs, measuring from thirteen to 

 fourteen inches in diameter, and computed to be as big as 

 three ostrich-eggs, or one hundred and forty-eight hens' eggs. 

 Unlike New Zealand, where there is the Apteryx, Madagascar 

 itself has no living wingless birds ; but in the neighbouring 

 island of Mauritius, the Dodo has been exterminated less than 

 three hundred years ago.; and the little island of Rodriguez, in 

 the same geographical province, has in a similar period lost 

 the wingless Solitaire (Pezopfiaps), 



