ANCIENT BIRDS 
225 
The total number of species of Moa once inhabiting New 
Zealand was probably at least fifteen, and, judging from the 
enormous accumulations of their bones found in some districts, 
they must have been extremely common, and probably went about 
in fiocks. “ Birds of a feather yZocZ; together.” 
Not only was the number of individuals very large, but they 
belonged (according to Mr. F. W. Hutton) to no less than seven 
genera, containing twenty-five different species, a remarkable fact 
which is unparalleled in any other part of the world. The species 
described by Professor Owen in his great work,^ vary in size from 
3 feet to 12 or even 14 feet in height, and differ greatly in their 
forms, some being tall and slender, and probably swift-footed like 
the ostrich, whilst others were short and had stout limbs, such as 
Dinornis elephantopus (Fig. 85), which was undoubtedly a bird of 
great strength, but very heavy-footed. Dinornis crassus also had 
stout limbs. 
The Natural History Museum at South Kensington contains 
a valuable collection of remains of Moa. These skeletons may 
be seen in Gallery No. 2. In D. giganteus the leg-bone (see 
Fig. 85) attains the enormous length of three feet, and in an allied 
species it is even thirty-nine inches ! The next bone below 
(cannon bone) is sometimes more than half the length of the leg- 
bone (tibia). (See Plate XXXVII.) 
A skeleton in one of the glass cases has a height of about 
10 J feet, and it is concluded that the largest birds did not stand 
less than 12 feet, and possibly were 14 feet high ! 
Dinornis parvus (the dwarf Moa) was only three feet high. 
^ Memoir on The Extinct Wingless Bird,s of New Zealand. London, 1878. 
The beautiful drawing by Mr. Smit (Plate XXXVII.) is from a photograph 
in this valuable work representing the late Sir Richard Owen standing in 
academic robes by the side of a specimen of the skeleton of the great Dinornis 
maximus. 
Q 
