34 
NOETH GALLERY, 
[upper 
examples both of the true Crocodiles and of the long and slender- 
snouted Gavials. 
The Reptilian series is here interrupted by a collection of Bird re- 
mains, which occupy the Wall Case No. 11 at the end of the room. 
With the exception of the eggs, and portions of leg-bones of an 
extinct wingless bird from Madagascar (the JEpyornis maximm), 
the contents of this Case are all from New Zealand, and were found 
in a deposit which there are good grounds for regarding as of very 
recent origin. Part of the series was collected by Mr. Percy Earl, in 
the Middle Island, and the remainder by Mr. Walter Mantell and others ^ 
in the North Island. These Bird remains are referred by Professor 
Owen to several species, and, indeed, to distinct genera of birds, 
some of which are still living in New Zealand, whilst others are, 
most probably, extinct. Amongst the living species may be noticed 
the Notornis Mantelli, a very large species of the Rail family. The 
first indication of this bird was given by some fragments of the 
skull found with remains of other birds, in superficial deposits of 
New Zealand, by Mr. W. Mantell. The living bird was subse- 
quently discovered by Mr. Mantell in the middle island of New 
Zealand, and the specimen which he obtained is deposited in the- 
Museum.* The greater portion of the bones, as determined by Pro- 
fessor Owen, belongs to a genus of birds to which the Professor has 
applied the name Dinornis : the birds of this genus were wingless, of 
large size, and some of gigantic proportions. The Dinornis giganteus 
(of which there are numerous parts of the skeleton in the collection) 
must have been from ten to eleven feet in height. In the D. ele- 
pkantopus the bones of the legs are as thick as those of the D. gigan- 
teus ; but they are much shorter. In this Case are also placed two legs of 
an equally large kind [Dinornis rohustus) allied to the last-mentioned 
bird ; bones of a leg of a still larger species (Dinornis maximus) ; and, in 
a square glass-case near, is an entire skeleton of the D. elephantopus. 
Wall Case No. 11 also contains the remarkable long-tailed Bird 
from Solenhofen (the Archceopteryx macrura of Prof. Owen). The 
bones of the wings, the blade-bone and furculum, or " merry-thought," 
the bones of the legs and feet, are those of the bird-class ; but the 
tail is long and many-jointed, with a pair of feathers to each joint; 
these and the quill feathers and " under-coverts" of the Avings are 
beautifully exemplified by impressions left in the peculiarly fine-grained 
"lithographic" limestone in which this unique specimen of a bird of 
the Oolitic, or Mesozoic period, has been fossilized. 
To return to the Reptilian remains. The series is continued in, and 
over. Wall Case 1 , where, in a large slab of Purbeck stone, from 
Swanagc, is imbedded a considerable portion of the skeleton of the 
" Swanage Crocodile," Goniopliolis crassidens. 
Here also are deposited the Pterodactyles, or Fl}'4ng Lizards from 
the Lias and Oolites of England and Bavaria. Other specimens of 
this group, from the Cretaceous Deposits, are arranged in Table-case 
No. JO, Room IV. 
• It will he found in the Bird Gallery.— Sea Case No. 133; 
