1014 HISTORICAL GEOLOGY. 



Neolithic structures occur mainly about the eastern lakes, Constance and 

 Zurich, while those of the "Bronze Age" are found in the western lakes. 



Lake-dwellings or " stockaded islands," called Crannoges, have been 

 found in peat-bogs in the British Isles, and especially in Ireland. They 

 belong to the Bronze and Stone Ages, affording remains of various living 

 species of Mammals, with stone implements in some of them. 



Examples of recent relics are presented in Figs. 1569, 1570. Fig. 1569 

 represents a human skeleton, from a shell limestone of modern formation 

 n,ow in progress, on the island of Guadaloupe. The specimen is in the 

 Museum at Paris. The British Museum contains another from the same 

 region, but wanting the head, which is in the collection of the Medical 

 College at Charleston in South Carolina. They are the remains of Caribs, 

 who were killed in a fight with a neighboring tribe, about two and a half 

 centuries since. Fig. 1570 represents another fossil specimen, of the age 

 of Man, — a ferruginous conglomerate, containing silver coins of the reign 

 of Edward I. and some others, found at Tutbury, England. It was obtained 

 at a depth of ten feet below the bed of the river Dove. 



Among the species recently exterminated, there are the Moa {Dinornis) 

 and other birds of New Zealand, the Dodo (Didus ineptus) and some of its 

 associates on Mauritius and the adjoining islands in the Indian Ocean ; the 

 ^pyornis of Madagascar. The species are of the half-fledged kind, like 

 the Ostrich. Fig. 1571 (copied from Strickland's Dodo and its Kindred) is 

 from a painting at Vienna, made by Eoland Savery in 1628. 



The Dodo was a large, clumsy bird, some 50 pounds in weight, with loose, downy 

 plumage, and wings no more perfect than those of a young chicken. The Dutch navigators 

 found it on Mauritius in great numbers, in the seventeenth century. But, after the pos- 

 session of the island by the French, in 1712, nothing more is heard of the Dodo; there 

 are some pictures in the works of the Dutch voyagers, and a few imperfect remains. 



The Solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria) is another exterminated bird, of the same island, 

 and the Heron {Nycticorax megacephalus) a third (Fig. 1571). 



The Moa {Dinornis giganteus Owen), of New Zealand, exceeded the Ostrich in 

 size, being 10' to 12' in heiglit. The tibia (drumstick) of the bird was 30 to 32 inches in 

 length; and the eggs so large that "a hat would make a good eggcup for them." The 

 bones were found along with charred wood, showing that the birds had been killed 

 and eaten by the natives. The name Dtnornis is from deivos, terrible, and 6ppis, bird. 

 Eleven other species of Dinornis liave been found on New Zealand. 



Besides the Dinornis giganteus, have been found also extinct species of Palapteryx 

 and Notornis. Palapteryx is related to Apteryx ; and both Apteryx and Notornis have 

 living species. 



Besides these, there are other related extinct New Zealand Birds, pertaining to the 

 genera Anomalopteryx, Pnesopteryx, Syornis, Eury apteryx, and others (Hector, 1891). 



On Madagascar, other species of this family of gigantic birds formerly existed. 

 Three species have been made out of the genus ^pyornis. From the bones of the leg, 

 one is supposed to have been at least 12' in height. The egg was 13^ inches long. 



The Drepanis Pacijica, or Sickle-bill of the Sandwich Islands, the bird used in making 

 the royal robes, is now extinct. 



The Great Auk of the North Sea (Alca impennis Linn.) is reported to be an extinct 

 bird, by Professor Steenstrup. The last known to have been seen were two taken near 



