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tirpation of the Dodo by the Dutch navigators in the Isles of Maurice 

 and Rodriguez, teach the inevitable lot of bulky birds unable to fly or 

 swim, when exposed, by the dispersion of the human race, to the attacks 

 of man. We may, therefore, reasonably anticipate that other evidences 

 await the researches of the naturalist, which will demonstrate a further 

 extent of the Struthious order of Birds anterior to the commencement of 

 the present active cause of their extinction. 



And since the texture of the bones of the former gigantic tridactyle 

 Strut hionidcs of New Zealand proves that they resembled the Apteryx in 

 the comparatively low and reptile like condition of the respiratory appa- 

 ratus, we are thereby further justified in admitting the evidence of the co- 

 existence of similar apterous and low organized birds with the cold- 

 blooded and slower-breathing Ovipara, which swarmed in such plenitude 

 of development and diversity of forms during that period of the earth's 

 history which has been not unaptly termed the ' Age of Reptiles.' 



