107 



for separating from the Grallae of the Cuvierian system, the species 

 that therein form the family * Brevipennes* and in raising them to the 

 rank of an order. This and other modifications of the Cuvierian 

 classification of birds, and an inquiry into the grounds for a binary 

 division of the class according to the condition of the newly-hatched 

 young, e. g. into Aves altrices and Jives prcecoces, will be found in 

 Professor Owen's article Aves in the Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and 

 Physiology. Perhai3s none of Professor Owen's researches on Fossil 

 Remains have excited more general interest than those to which we 

 are indebted for a knowledge of the gigantic Struthious Birds of New 

 Zealand, the first paper on which is to be found in the third volume 

 of the Transactions of the Zoological Society. I cannot avoid quoting 

 on this subject the words of a distinguished geologist, a Fellow of 

 the Society, in the 4th volume of the Quarterly Journal of the Geo- 

 logical Society. 



" The first relic of this kind was made known to European natural- 

 ists by Professor Owen, in 1839. It consisted of the shaft of a femur 

 or thigh-bone, but a few inches long, and with both its extremities 

 wanting ; and this fragment so much resembled in its general ap- 

 pearance the marrow-bone of an ox, as actually to have been regarded 

 as such by more than one eminent naturalist of this metropolis. 

 And if I were required to select from the numerous and important 

 inductions of palaeontology, the one which of all others presents the 

 most striking and triumphant instance of the sagacious application 

 of the principles of the correlation of organic structure enunciated 

 by the illustrious Cuvier, — the one that may be regarded as the ex- 

 perimentum cruets of the Cuvierian philosophy, — I would unhesi- 

 tatingly adduce the interpretation of this fragment of bone. I know 

 not among all the marvels which palaeontology has revealed to us, 

 a more brilliant example of successful philosophical induction — the 

 felicitous prediction of genius enlightened by profound scientific 

 knowledge. 



" The specimen was put into Professor Owen's hands for exami- 

 nation, and from this mere fragment, the Hunterian Professor arrived 

 at the conclusion, * that there existed, and perhaps still exists in 

 those distant islands, a race of struthious birds of larger and more 

 colossal stature than the Ostrich or any other known species.' This 

 inference was based on the peculiar character of the cancellated 

 structure of the bone, which differs from that of mammalia, and most 

 closely resembles that of the Ostrich. And so confident was Pro- 

 fessor Owen of the soundness of his inductions, that he boldly added, 

 * so far as my skill in interpreting an osseous fragment may be 

 credited, I am willing to risk the reputation for it on this statement ; * 

 and he further remarks, * The discovery of a relic of a large stru- 

 thious bird in New Zealand is one of peculiar interest, on account 

 of the remarkable character of the existing fauna of those islands, 

 which still includes one of the most extraordinary and anomalous 

 genera of the struthious order, the Apteryx', and because of the 

 close analogy which the event indicated by the present relic oflfers 

 to the extinction of the Dodo of the island of the Mauritius. So 



