76 A Sketch of New Zealand. [ February, 
shore of the island rob the prevailing westerly winds of their 
moisture, so that when they sweep on over the land to the east- 
ward, they have but little of this life-giving element to part with. 
The fauna of New Zealand, like its flora and scenery, is espe- 
cially peculiar to itself. The first feature that attracts our atten- 
tion is the almost total lack of land mammals and reptiles. The 
former are represented by two species of bats and the latter by a 
few small lizards. The position filled by the mammalia in other 
countries is there occupied by the feathered tribes. The birds 
having been, for a long time, almost the sole dwellers on the 
island, their development was carried on unchecked and unmodi- 
fied by many of the circumstances that influence their existence 
in other countries. This freedom of development resulted in the 
production of many strange and anomalous forms that were 
unknown and unlooked for until the studies of the naturalist 
had confirmed the tales told by sailors and adventurers who had 
visited those distant shores. 
One of the strangest birds in existence is the Apteryx, which, 
as the name signifies, is without wings. This bird is found only 
in New Zealand, and thus far only four species are known, mostly 
from the west coast of the South Island. These wingless birds are 
of great interest, not only from the strangeness of their structure 
and habits, but also for the information they afford in reference to 
the giant birds that at no distant day inhabited the same island, 
but which are now extinct. We refer to the huge Moa, whose bones 
are scattered over the country, often lying, exposed beneath the 
thick groves of fern, and also occuring plentifully in caves and in | 
= recent river deposits. That these extinct birds far surpassed in 
size and strength any members of the feathered tribes now living, 
is shown by their ponderous bones which exceed even the bones _ 
of horses and oxen in size. Some of the tibias of these birds 
measured three feet in length, the femur that once articulated 
with it being between seven and eight inches in least circumfer- 
ence. The largest of these birds, when alive, must have stood at 
least ten feet high, as is unquestionably shown by some of the 
complete skeletons which have been mounted. There were surely 
giants in the days when these monsters strode along in the shad- 
ows of the tree-ferns, or tore up the roots of the Pteris with 
their powerful claws. That the Moa lived in New Zealand after 
the settlement of those islands by the aboriginal inhabitants is 
= shown by the remains of these birds, which have been found _ 
