GIANT BIRDS. 
229 
a large reward to any one who would catch me either the bird 
or its protector. . . 
These offers procured the collection of a considerable number 
of fossil bones, on which Mr. Williams, in his letter, makes the 
following observations : — 
“ None of these bones have been found on the dry land, but 
are all of them from the banks and beds of fresh-water rivers, 
buried only a little distance in the mud. . . . All the streams are 
in immediate connection with hills of some altitude. 
“ 2. This bird was in existence here at no very distant time, 
though not in the memory of any of the inhabitants ; for the bones 
are found in the beds of the present streams, and do not appear 
to have been brought into their present situation by the action 
of any violent rush of waters. 
“ 3. They existed in considerable numbers ” — an observation 
which has since been abundantly confirmed. 
“ 4. It may be inferred that this bird was long-lived, and that 
it was many years before it attained its full size.” This is 
doubtful. 
“ 5. The greatest height of the bird was probably not less than 
fourteen or sixteen feet.” Fourteen is probably the extreme 
limit. 
Within the last few days I have obtained a piece of informa- 
tion worthy of notice. Happening to speak to an American 
about these bones, he told me that the bird is still in existence 
in the neighbourhood of Cloudy Bay, in Cook’s Straits. He said 
that the natives there had mentioned to an Englishman belonging 
to a whaling party that there was a bird of extraordinary size to 
be seen only at night, on the side of a hill near the place, and 
that he, with a native and a second Englishman, went to the spot ; 
that, after waiting some time, they saw the creature at a little 
distance, which they describe as being about fourteen or sixteen 
feet high. One of the men proposed to go nearer and shoot, but 
his companion was so exceedingly terrified, or perhaps both of 
