434 Geology of 



Anybody examining the skeletons of the different species ranged 

 under the proposed genera, will at once admit that they hare many 

 natural and distinct characteristics in common, separating them at 

 once from the other proposed genera. Professor Owen, in his last 

 Memoir (XXI), has drawn attention to the generic sub-divisions of the 

 Dinornithidce as proposed by Peichenbach in an excellent work " Das 

 natiirliche System der Yogel," 4to, 1S19 and 1850. I wish however, 

 to point out, that when Reichenbach published his work, comparatively 

 little was known of the osteology of the Dinornithidce, the third memoir 

 of Professor Owen having scarcely been printed. Consequently the 

 eminent German ornithologist had not material enough upon which to 

 place a sound basis for his proposed sub -divisions, and I am convinced 

 that otherwise, they would have been somewhat different, and more in 

 accordance with the genera into which the Dinornithidce have naturally 

 to be classed Thus instead of separating D. gigantens, struthioides and 

 ingens, into three genera, he would certainly have united them, they 

 having all three some of the principal characters in common. The 

 same can be said of D. didiformis and casuarinus. However, as more- 

 facts are gathered, more light will be thrown on this question, which 

 after all is of minor importance, and only a matter of opinion till a 

 still larger number of complete skeletons have been secured. 



Professor Owen having described at some length in several of his 

 memoirs on Dinornis, the affinity our struthious birds bear with those 

 of other countries, and having pointed out at the same time, the pecu- 

 liarities in which they vary from them, it would have been unnecessary 

 for me to add anything to the subject, had not the, attempt been lately 

 made by Professor Alphonse Milne-Edwards, in Paris, to show from a 

 comparison of the remains of the extinct ornithic fauna exhumed in 

 Madagascar, Mauritius, and Rodriguez, that in some distant ages 

 Kew Zealand formed portion of a large continent or of a group of 

 more or less extensive islands in the Southern Hemisphere, which at 

 one time were in some way connected with each other. 



He thinks that additional confirmation can be obtained from the 

 ascertained occurrence of different Oeydromidce, such as the Aphanap- 

 teryx and the Jliserythrus Leguati, which latter, he informs me (letter 

 to me, dated Jardin des Plantesj Paris, Aug. 3, 1S73), bears close 

 resemblance to our common woodhen (Ocydromus Australis). How- 

 ever enticing the tracing of close affinities must be to the naturalist- 

 philosopher, I believe, that it would be rather rash to conclude the 

 connection of two such distant insular groups from a few forms of 



