ORNITHOLOGY IN 1850. 
Professor Owen with the supposed fossil bones formerly described 
by that anatomist; and Mr. Gould has made a lithograph figure 
of the size of life, which will be published almost immediately in 
anew number of the ‘* Jcones Avium.” Dr. Mantell would not 
trust the specimen out of London, and we therefore at the time 
mnissed the opportunity of examining the skin; but Mr. Gould has 
permitted us to make an outline from his plate, which will con- 
vey some idea of the form; this is mechanically reduced to one- 
fourth the size of the original. Twenty pounds were offered for the 
skin by the British Museum, and afterwards twenty-five by a private 
Individual, but both were refused, and the specimen is now stuffed, 
and placed in a glass shade in Dr. Mantell’s drawing-room, where 
he kindly allows it to be seen by visitors. We had the satisfac- 
tion of seeing the specimen a few days since, and can speak to the 
accuracy of the figures we have reduced, with one exception. The 
form and texture of the wing is the remarkable character of the 
seius. ‘This, as represented, is short and much rounded, and it was 
Stated to be of a soft texture. So far as we could observe, without 
handling the specimen, the quill-feathers are soft, loose and flexile, 
they would be scarcely capable of raising or sustaining a bird 
of so heavy a form, and could only aid the running powers, which 
Were mentioned to be very swift, and are a remarkable carry- 
tg out of the wing-structure of the New Zealand birds. In the 
figure, this flexile texture is not sufficiently expressed, and neither 
Mr. Gould’s plate, nor our reduction from it, convey the idea of 
that structure. We have great hopes that some of those other 
Sigantic birds, hitherto considered as only fossil, will still be dis- 
Covered. All our information tends to show, that at a compara- 
tively very late period, these birds have existed ; and we do not know | 
ow lately whalers and sealers may have been feasting on the last 
of these remarkable creatures, without any one near to rescue 
ven a mutilated bone or feather. The following extract from the 
ardeners’ Chronicle of last year bears upon this subject. “ We 
find the following in a recent number of the Sidney Herald. If 
t. Taylor can be relied on, this bird may probably be still dis- 
“overed alive, as Europeans advance into the southern island of New 
Zealand. In the second number of the New Zealand Magazine, 
and in a paper by the Rev. R. Taylor, on the Geology of New 
Zealand, is the following statement :—‘ Mr. Meurant, employed by 
