362 The American Naturalist. [May, 



Zealand without being accompanied by any Mammalia! 

 Certainly they did not precede the Mammalia, and it is very 

 unlikely that they should twice have swum across straits 

 which wore impassable to mammals— once from the Oriental 

 into the Australian region, and again from the Australian 

 region into New Zealand— and there are other reasons for 

 doubting the northern origin of the Australasian Ratitse. The 

 New Zealand Ratitaa are smaller than any of the others, and 

 make a nearer approach to the original flying ancestors; and 

 we should expect to find the smallest and least altered forms 

 near the place of origin. Now there are in Central and South 

 America a group of birds called Tinamous, which, although 

 flying birds, have been shown by the late Professor W. K. 

 Parker to resemble the Australasian Rati tie in many particu- 



Zealand is well known, it seems more probable that the Moa.s 

 originated in New Zealand in the eocene period, from flying 

 birds related to the Tinamous, and that they spread from here 

 into Australia and New Guinea, than that' they should have 



In whatever way the Moas originated in New Zealand, it is 

 evident that the land was a favorable one, for they multiplied 

 enormously and spread from one end to the other. Not only 

 was the number of individuals very large, but they belonged 

 to no less than seven genera, containing twenty-five different 

 species, a remarkable fact wh ich is u npara 1 leled i n any other part 

 of the world. Africa and Arabia are inhabited by but two or 

 three species of ostrich; South America from Peru to Patagonia, 

 has only three species of Rhea: Australia has two species of Emu 

 and one Cassowary; while < .J lt nth, l sp t ,-ies of Cassowary in- 

 habit islands from New liritain to Coram OuCide New Zealand 



perhaps be found 

 the Cassowaries, 

 different islands, 



