president’s address. 
441 
represented by the Caracara -of Central and Soutli America, and 
more closely by the Cariuma ( Car lama crittata), which has its fossil 
representative in the gigantic form, named Phororhacos, from 
Patagonia. 
It is probable that a very large extent of ancient land around 
the present Antarctic continent has been lost to us by submergence, 
and that the rather numerous small islands in the surrounding 
ocean are but the buoys or land-marks indicating large areas of more 
or less, continuous land, which has since disappeared. This is 
supported by the many signs of volcanic activity in recent times 
which these islands display. Doubtless land connections stretched 
from South America, to the South Shetlands, the South Orkneys, 
South Georgia, and to Kerguelen Island. 
Peculiarities of Southern Land-Faunas. 
Let us look for a moment at the peculiarities of the Southern . 
Land-faunas : — 
In no other part of the world do we find such a remarkable 
assemblage of struthious birds, both of living and extinct forms, 
distributed over the continents and islands which encircle the 
Antarctic. In South America, we have the Rhea americana. 
In Africa, the Ostrich Struthio cavidus. In Mauritius we have 
numerous (8) species of xEpyumis (an extinct wingless bird as large 
as the Dinornis of New Zealand), remarkable also from the great 
size of its eggs. In Mauritius we find the extinct Woodhen 
Aphanapteryz. In Rodriguez nearly the same form, Erythromachus , 
was also once common. In Australia we have the Emeu and 
Cassowary living, and the extinct Dromomis and Genyornis. In 
New Zealand about twenty species of Dinornis , or “ Moa,” the 
largest attaining a height of at least twelve feet, were once most 
abundant, and peopled both islands (as the presence of their bones 
everywhere testifies) but have now been entirely exterminated by the 
Maoris as the similar large bird, the * Epyornis was destroyed by 
the natives in Madagascar. The surviving form is the “ Kiwi ” or 
Apteryx, which is also found fossil ( Diaphorapteryx ) in the Chatham 
Islands 500 miles to the east of Port Lyttelton, New Zealand. 
Cubalus, a flightless Crake, akin to the Woodhens, also survives in 
