Canterlury and Westland. 449 



been living simultaneously, first appearing in the Great Glacier period 

 and reaching to quaternary times, when they became extinct by the 

 hand of man, and through other physical causes previously alluded to . 

 Consequently the conclusions of Professors Cocchi and Owen, quoted 

 above, cannot be sustained, when we take the occurrence of Moa-bones 

 in the series of beds now examined over both Islands into account. 



It has repeatedly been advanced as a proof of the recent extinction 

 of the different Dinornis species, that the bones of the Notomis have 

 been found in a few localities, together with those of the former, while 

 afterwards that gigantic rail was discovered to be still living in some 

 lonely parts near the west coast of this Island. A similar argument 

 might be adduced to prove the recent extinction of the Mammoth, and 

 the "Woolly Rhinoceros in Europe, because the fox, the wolf, the hare, 

 and a number of other animals, still living in the same part of the 

 world were contemporaneous with those extinct gigantic mammals. I 

 wish, however,, to point to the striking fact, that in none of the 

 localities examined by me, yielding such a rich harvest of Moa-bones ■ 

 any remains of Notomis have ever been discovered. We must there- 

 fore conclude, that this bird was either extremely rare in the regions 

 referred to, or that it then existed only in the more mountainous 

 regions of these Islands. However, nothing was known of the exact 

 habitat of the Takahe, {Notomis) till Sir G-eorge Grey — to whom I 

 owe this valuable communication —obtained the information from some 

 aged Maoris in the extreme South of this Island, that this rail is still 

 now living on the mountains of the neighbourhood above the forest 

 region, where numerous lagoons are dotted over the glacialized surface 

 of the ranges. I now believe that the remarkable tracks I observed in 

 similar mountain regions near the head- waters of the Eakaia were also 

 those of this bird. At the same time it is possible, that the large bird 

 of prey met with in the heart of the Alps, and to which I alluded on 

 pages 37 and 135 may be the Movie or Hokioe of the Maoris, or even 

 the Harpagornis of which the bones were first obtained in the turbary 

 deposits of Glenmark. 



