INTRODUCTION. 
xxvii 
1 outh Island as Dinornis didinus and I), parvus ; and he has suggested that another, which may 
a e J tuin out to be new, might be appropriately named Dinornis huttoni , in compliment to the 
discoverer. 
I k As already mentioned Sir Julius Haast added Dinornis oweni to the list of species; and he 
~e\ise discovered an extinct form of Apteryx, far exceeding in size those existing at the present 
y, to which he gave the name of Megalapteryx hectori. 
Doubtless other forms, perhaps as interesting and remarkable as any yet brought to light, remain 
itombed to leward the zeal and enterprise of the future explorer. 
Beaiing on the question of the geographical relations of the New-Zealand Avifauna, one very 
poitant fact piesents itself to us. In the same way that, as at the present day, certain well-marked 
J? . S * n ^ ie ^ s °Uh Island are represented in the South Island by closely allied but yet specifically 
ct forms, so it was also with the extinct Avifauna. The strong-limbed Moas with bulky frames 
' Dmot ms gravis, D. crassus, D. elephantopus, D. robustus, and D. maximus, and these appear to 
en stiictly confined to the South Island. Six species having proportionately thin leg-bones and 
b frame, namely, Dinornis didiformis, D. dromioides, D. gracilis, D. struthioides, D. ingens, and 
wh'^b a PP eai have been restricted in their range to the North Island. Dinornis rheides, 
li T d ^ eaiS t0 ^ lave inhabited both Islands, is intermediate in the strength and thickness of its 
s, and two species remarkable for their small size — Dinornis geranoides and D. curtus — have 
eito been found only in isolated localities. 
s lemaiked by Sir Richard Owen, in one of his latest Memoirs, Dinornis maximus is specially 
ar 'a e for its great size and strength even in a race of giants. One specimen exhibits such 
e measuiements that Owen has suggested the existence of a yet taller species, for which he 
ects the piovisional name of Dinornis alius. 
ia\in b had opportunities of examining very large series of bones, exhibiting an almost conti- 
bivd ^ la ^ a ^ 0n S * ze ^ rom fr*e largest to the smallest, my own belief is that some at least of the 
but ^h f eientiatecl a ^ ove are mere varieties or conditional states of one and the same species ; 
en disci iminati on is not the less interesting and important from a scientific point of view, 
-fcwen Professor tt,.*.*. , r 
, .. button, whose paper “ On the Dimensions of Dinornis Bones ” (Trans. N.-Z. Inst, 
vol. Vll. pp. 274— 9781 r _ . 
any strict 1' S oes lar to esta bfrsh this view, especially as to the impossibility of defining 
“ Still me c * emarca fr° n between Dinornis elephantopus and D. crassus, is constrained to add : — 
’ 'tb standing all that I have said, I am convinced that it will be necessary to retain the names 
^ ' anc ^ e ^ e phantopus to mark both ends of the series as characterized by the proportions 
middl £^ aiSUS ’ t ^ le ^ en §^h which in D. crassus is more than four times the breadth of the 
o the shaft, while the length is less than four times the breadth in D. elephantopus and 
x>. grams'' 
. C ^ 6ai ^ la ^ Owen has not founded his species of different stature on a mixture of old and 
not o*l ^ aS ^ 6en a ^ e & e d by some naturalists, because in the Canterbury Museum are exhibited 
bone ^ ^ lUlb ^ ,011eS eac ^ s P ec ms, from the chick to the full-grown bird where (to take only one 
s pecie i ^ 1G ^ arsa ^ e piphysis of the metatarsus is not yet quite anchylosed *, but also of such 
a senes of specimens, generally showing two distinct sizes, from which it may be reasonably 
* u 
bones -we have v> ^ am0n ^ °tbers, the leg-hone of a specimen of Dinornis maximus which is in size only second to the largest 
j t in which this immature character in the metatarsus is not yet quite effaced.” — Von Haast. 
