THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 



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south us the New England coast. Nuttall, in 

 1834, records the birds as then breeding in 

 great numbers. " As a diver lie is unrivaled," 

 he says, " having almost the velocity of birds 

 of the air. They breed in the Faroe Islands 

 and in Iceland. Greenland and Newfoundland, 

 nesting among the cliffs, laying but one egg 

 each. They are so unprolific that if the egg be 

 destroyed no other is laid during the season. 

 It is som* times known to lay at St. Kilda and 

 in Papa Wastra." The last seen alive were at 

 the Funks, a small island in the coast of New- 

 foundland. In 1844, the last known to be 

 alive on the eastern continent were seen at 

 Iceland. In 1870 a dead, frozen specimen 

 was found at Labrador, which though in poor 

 condition, was sold in London for $200. The 

 only specimens in this country are at Central 

 Park, Vassar College, Philadelphia Academy 

 of Sciences, Cambridge University, and the 

 National Museum. The single egg that the 

 great auk yearly deposited was evidently not 

 enough to insure its preservation, and year 

 after year it become less abundant, perhaps 

 killed by the Indians along our coast. Finally, 

 the last one was destroyed, and in 200 years 

 more its existence will be a legend and the 

 steel engravings of the present specimens the 

 only reminders of the giant of the auks. 



Of the Labrador duck (Camptolcemus) still 

 less is known. In former years it was common 

 on the north-eastern coast of North America 

 and as far south as New Jersey, but for many 

 years not a specimen has been seen or found, 

 and the presumption is that they have met the 

 fate of the great auk. 



Among the Maoris, natives of New Zealand, 

 there are traditions that many years ago there 

 lived in their country a raee of gigantic birds 

 — the moa — that served as food for their 

 remote ancestors. They are also positive that 

 some of the largest birds have lived whitin the 

 modern ti lies, while in the interior the natives 

 say that the gigantic bird may yet exist. 

 They called the bird moa from its gigantic 

 size, and the legends tell of its wonderful 

 plumes and tail feathers, that were only worn 

 by the great chiefs of the ancient Moaris. Its 

 enormous bones were made into fish-hooks 

 and various implements. These facts of ru- 

 mours fell into the hands of the Rev. Dr. 

 Colenso, a missionary in New Zealand some 

 years ago, and his efforts to investigate them 

 resulted in the discovery of a number of huge 

 bones that at least confirmed the existence of i 

 the birds. A few years later, Mr- Walter Mantell , 



the naturalist, went into the interior and - 

 himself among the Moaris, as Mr. Cashing, of 



the Smithsonian, has among the Pueblo In- 

 dians, to learn all be could oftheir tradition-. A - 

 a result of his work he collected -even or eight 

 hundred bones of a number of different spe- 

 cies, which are now in the British Museum, 

 and settled to his own satisfaction at least that 

 the birds had flourished within comparatively 

 modern times, and had been exterminated by 

 the early inhabitants of the country. Some of 

 the remains found by Mr. Mantell, standing 

 upright, point to the conclusion that some of 

 the larger ones became mired in the swamp, 

 becoming victims of their own weight. Mr. 

 Mantell secured a number of fine specimens 

 and of great eggs, one of which would have 

 been a meal for ten men. The bones of these 

 birds are much larger than those of an ox, 

 and some of the birds themselves were 14 feet 

 in height. The finest collection of them in this 

 country is owned by the Museum of Natural 

 History at Central Park. 



In 1847 an English scientist discovered the 

 remains of a new bird in the menacconite 

 sand at Waingougore, New Zealand. The 

 bones consisted of the cranium, mandibles, 

 sternum, humerus, femur, tibia, and tarso- 

 metatarsals, of a gigantic rail. Prof. Owen 

 examined them, and stated from their osteo- 

 logical characteristics they belong to a large 

 modified fowl of the same family o( the Gralla- 

 as the Poiphyrio and Brackypteryx, and, like 

 the latter birds, without the power of flight. 

 From his deductions a new genus was estab- 

 lished for its reception — the Nbtornis. Op to 

 1850 these fossil remains were thought to be 

 only remnants of the bird ; but in that year. 

 much to the astonishment of scientists, a 

 living representative of the species and genus 

 was found in an unfrequented part of the 

 island of New Zealand ; since then a living 

 one has never been seen, and it was undoubt- 

 edly the last of the race. The Moaris have a 

 tradition that the bird was once very common, 

 and a favorite article of food with their an- 

 cestors. It was called by them the Dodo, and 

 by the natives in the south Tokohe. Mr. 

 Mantell was the fortunate tinder of the bird, 

 obtaining the skin from some sealers who 

 were fishing among the unfrequented islets of 

 Dusky Bay. It appeared, according to Mr. 

 Mantell, that when frequenting the coast in 

 search of seals and other gaim\ the men ob- 

 served on the snow with which the ground 

 was covered the foot-tracks of a large an 1 



