108 



far as a judgement can be formed of a single fragment, it seems pro- 

 bable that the colossal bird of New Zealand, if it prove to be ex- 

 tinct, presented proportions more nearly resembling those of the 

 Dodo, than of any of the existing Strut hionidce.' In 1843 the cor- 

 rectness of these views was confirmed in every essential particular 

 by a large collection of bones obtained by the Rev. W. Williams 

 and transmitted to the Dean of Westminster ; and still further cor- 

 roborated by another interesting series brought to England in 1846 

 by Percy Earl, Esq." 



It would be too long a trespass on your time to cite even the titles 

 of the numerous Papers, Reports and Works in which the results 

 of Professor Owen's researches in the field of Palaeontology are 

 recorded ; and I am forced to pass with only an allusion, the nume- 

 rous cases in which a fragment of a tooth has enabled him to decide 

 the affinities of the animal to which it belonged, and to render the 

 fragmentary remains of bones the means of determining the forms 

 and relations of their former possessors. I may just enumerate as 

 examples in illustration of the successful extent to which this prin- 

 ciple of investigation was carried, its application to the Toxodon, 

 the Mylodon, the Schidotherion, the Glyptodon, and many others. 



This application of Comparative Anatomy to the right interpreta- 

 tion of the fragmentary remains of lost forms of animal life, is the 

 last and perhaps the highest power which the cultivator of that 

 science gains as such. It began now to be applied in a systematic 

 manner by Professor Owen to the elucidation of the ancient zoology 

 of this island. His first Report ' On British Fossil Reptiles,' was 

 communicated to the British Association in 1839, the second and 

 concluding Report on the same subject in 1842. 



Subsequent researches on the extinct animals of the same class 

 have been communicated in the IMemoirs printed in the Transac- 

 tions of the Geological Society, amongst which we may notice that 

 on the Dicynodont Reptiles of South Africa; a Memoir on the 

 Rhynchosaurus in the Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical 

 Society ; and in Monographs contributed to the publications of the 

 Palaeontological Society. The matter of these Monographs and of 

 the Reports has been methodized into a systematic ' History of 

 British Fossil Reptiles,' now in course of publication, of which five 

 Parts, each illustrated by twenty quarto or folio plates, have ap- 

 peared. 



In 1842 Professor Owen communicated his first Report 'On 

 British Fossil Mammalia' to the British Association ; and, in 1843, 

 his second and concluding Report on the same class of extinct 

 animals. 



Both these and the preceding Reports on the Fossil Reptilia were 

 drawn up at the instance of the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, and the researches they necessitated were carried 

 on chiefly by aid of grants from that body. 



In the illustrated ' History of British Fossil Mammalia and Birds,' 

 published in 1846, Professor Owen developeshis generalization as to 

 conformity of Geographical Distribution in the extinct and existing 



