578 ERA OF MIND. 



surface, which was first explored in 1845 by Pictet. It occurs in gravel whose 

 stones are scratched as by glacier action, and overlies a clay containing scratched 

 pebbles, whence, according to A. Favre, it belongs to the epoch of the great 

 Swiss glacier, or that immediately succeeding it, and not to the " ancient 

 diluvium" of Switzerland. It contains remains of various Mammals of exist- 

 ing species, as the Shrew, Mole, Fox, Rat, Mouse, Hog, Ox, Chamois, Stag, etc. 

 The loess also contains abundant remains of existing Mammals, together with, 

 in some eases, the ancient Elephant, and a few other extinct species. 



In North America some of the Mammals appear to date from the Terrace 

 epoch. Among these, according to Holmes and Leidy, there are probably the 

 modern Horse, or one similar to the common species, the gray Rabbit, and 

 Tapir ; and to these Dr. Holmes adds the Bison, Peccary, Beaver, Musk-Rat, 

 Elk, Deer, Raccoon, Opossum, Hog, Sheep, Dog, and Ox. The species, how- 

 ever, have not in all cases been identified with certainty ; and it is not set- 

 tled that the commingling of bones is not of more modern origin. In western 

 Canada, Chapman has found remains of the modern Beaver, Musk-Rat, Elk 

 {Elaphus Canadensis), and Moose, in stratified gravel which contained also 

 bones of the Mammoth and Mastodon. 



The caverns of the country have afforded some Mammalian remains, but only 

 of recent species, though otherwise supposed until recently. In one, near Carlisle 

 in Pennsylvania, Baird found bones of all the species of Mammals of the State, 

 besides one or two other species not now Pennsylvanian, but known in regions 

 not far remote.- As a general rule, the bones appeared to indicate that the size 

 exceeded that of the species at the present time. 



A few species of animals have become extinct in recent times, 

 and partly through the agency of Man. Among these there are 

 the Moa [Dinornis), and other birds of New Zealand, and the Dodo 

 and some of its associates of Mauritius and the adjoining islands 

 in the Indian Ocean. The species are of the half-fledged 0strich 

 tribe. Fig. 844 (copied from Strickland's " Dodo and its Kindred") 

 is from a painting at Vienna made by Eoland Savery in 1G28. 



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

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

 Dutch navigators found it in great numbers in the seventeenth century. But 

 after the possession of the island by the French, in 1712, nothing more is heard 

 of the Dodo; a head, two feet, and a cranium are all that is left, except some 

 pictures in the works of the Dutch voyagers. 



The Solitaire is another exterminated bird of the same island. 



The Moa (Dinornis giganteus) of New Zealand exceeded the Ostrich in size, 

 being 10 to 12 feet in height. The tibia (drumstick) of the bird was thirty to 

 thirty-two inches in length, and the eggs so large that it is said "a hat would 

 make a good egg-cup for them." The bones were found along with charred 

 wood, showing that they had been killed and eaten by the natives. The name 

 Dinornis is from dewos, terrible, and opuis, bird. 



Besides the Dinornis giganteus, remains of other extinct species of the genus 



