144 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. v. 



scopical Society. 1 His friend, Dr. Arthur Farre, 

 was the first secretary. 



While occupied in giving his Hunterian 

 Lectures for the year, Owen described a ' fragment 

 of the femur of an unknown bird from New 

 Zealand.' This fragment of a large bone, like a 

 marrow-bone in appearance, was one day brought 

 to him by a sea-faring man, and from this slight 

 evidence he built up a creature which he asserted 

 was a gigantic wingless bird, in spite of the strong 

 resemblance which the bone had to that of an ox. 

 The story is best given in his own words, taken 

 from the preface to his ' Extinct Birds of New 

 Zealand.' Here he says : — 



1 The advantage of attention to any object of 

 natural history, however unattractive, if it be not 

 a recognisable or previously known specimen, is 

 exemplified in this fragment of bone, 2 



' The individual who originally brought it to 

 me stated that he had obtained it in New Zealand 

 from a native, who told him that it was the bone 

 of a great eagle. 



' I assured him that he had been misinformed ; 



1 Journ. R. Microsc. Soc, 10s.) was deemed too high for 

 1893, p. 106. the fragment by the then Mu- 



2 The specimen in question seums Committee of the College, 

 was submitted for sale in the and it was afterwards purchased 

 first place to the British Museum, by Richard Bright, of Bristol. It 

 and the vendor was recom- has since been presented, with 

 mended by Dr. Gray to offer it the rest of the Bright Collection, 

 to the Royal College of Sur- to the Trustees of the British 

 geons. The price asked (10/. Museum by his grandson. 



