INTRODUCTION. 
XIX 
he piesence of a strong hind toe, for which the name of Palapteryx was proposed. As this bird had 
something of the appearance of the Great Bustard, he called it Dinornis otidiformis. 
It may be here mentioned that in the Ostrich, Rhea, and Cassowary there is no vestige of a hind 
toe or hallux. 
r pi 
ie next was a three-toed Struthious bird differing from the other species of Dinornis in its 
relatively shorter and broader metatarsus, in which characters it appeared closely to resemble the 
extinct Dodo ( Didus ineptus) of the Isles of France and Rodriguez ; and as it could not have been 
neatly superior in size to that bird, he named it Dinornis didiformis. Judging by its skeleton, this 
biul stood a little under four feet in height, or of intermediate size between the Cassowary and the 
Dodo. In the metatarsal of this bird, as with the larger species of Dinornis to be presently 
mentioned, there was not the slightest trace of the articulation of a fourth posterior toe, the generic 
distinction from Didus and Apteryx being thus distinctly indicated. 
rpv 
le next s P e cies described, which appears to have attained the average height of the Ostrich 
(about seven feet), with a more robust and stronger build, he named Dinornis struthioides, and 
pointed out characters which placed the fact of its being a good and true species beyond all cavil 
or doubt. 
Another species, which at- 
tained the height of nine feet, he 
provisionally named Dinornis in- 
gens , but, as will appear further 
n, this bird was also subsequently 
lefened to the genus Palapteryx. 
Then came the discovery of a still 
larger form, standing ten feet in 
height if not more, which he 
distinguished as Dinornis gigan- 
teus. A fair idea of the size of this 
gigantic bird, in comparison with 
the stature of an ordinary-sized 
man, may be obtained from the 
accompanying woodcut, which is 
a reduction from the lithograph 
forming the frontispiece to my 
first edition*. The representation 
of the skeleton is from a photo- 
graph of the magnificent specimen 
ln the Canterbury Museum, and 
the figure of the Maori, clothed in 
a d °S skin mat and “wrapt in 
contemplation,” is taken from the 
portrait of the old Ngapuhi chief, 
, as given in Angas’s ‘ New Zealanders illustrated.’ 
and the Rev v n ' es ^ n ^ Nate have appeared in Kennedy’s ‘ Hew Zealand,’ Sir Julius Yogel’s ‘ Handbook of Hew Zealand,’ 
v. James Buller’s ‘ Forty Years in Hew Zealand.’ 
