44, ON DROMORNIS AUSTRALIS. 
in the “ Paleontological Appendix ” to Mitchell’s Mie - 
1838 ol. 32, figs. 12-13) :—“ The length of that bone was thirt 
are the breadth of the middle of the shaft was not = shee 
inc 
Whether any further communication from the distinguished 
Cagceigs sa or confirm his present er cine remains to 
be of this most Briers fact we may be assured 
that, in Peliditn to the gigantic marsupials of which the publie 
are generally aware, there ies existed in past days over a wide 
region of Australia a gigantic bird, or birds, of which we shall 
soon kitow more ; and then we shall see fresh proof of the extra- 
ordinary fact which | noticed in connection with the Queensland 
femur (Address to Royal Society, N. S. W., 1870), that in all the 
tracts of land in the southern hemisphere, insulated or conti- 
nental, flightless birds have roamed over extensive regions, and 
that, as in New Zealand, so in Australia, there were ornithic giants. 
Whether, reeset the inquiry be respecting Dinornis or 
Dromornis, Australia comes into the no with the Moa of New 
Zealand, the Byiornis of Madagascar, the Dodo of Mauritius, and 
the Solitaire of Rodriguez, all of which are now extinct. 
In oe ae this brief account of the Sangha 2 inquiry as to 
cl 
no tooth, or portion of jaw, or fragment of skull of the contem- 
porary great land lizard (Megalemia) comes to hand. Vertebre I 
receive from time to time, wath their evidences of extinct mam- 
mals. But there must be an end in finite working, and I am 
therefore sending the ‘Sananchils on the Fossil Mammals of 
Australia’ to as binder.” 
I may here conclude with an cerned request that gold-diggers, 
and others nt woik in deep soils and river banks, or in caverns, ° 
| preserve and consign for scientific examination all fragments 
tho es : 
this 
known in which evdluiBlo welioe of of the kind fav been mutilated 
and thrown away by the discoverers, as having’no comm 
value to themselves. It is highly probable that the gold ben in 
the neighbourhood of Gulgong, Home Rule, anc 
fragmen 
sidered bird bones sci ‘sek to me at the Canadian ; and since, 
a portion of the jaw of a marsupial has been found in Mr. Lowe's 3 | 
ock, and this has kindly been forwarded to me by him. 
* 
Behar i ete nae Shanta. 
