144 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. V. 
scopical Society.^ His friend, Dr. Arthur Farre, 
was the first secretary. 
While occupied in giving his Hunterian 
Lectures for the year, Owen described a ‘ fragment 
of the femur of an unknown bird from New 
Zealand.’ This fragment of a large bone, like a 
marrow-bone in appearance, was one day brought 
to him by a sea-faring man, and from this slight 
evidence he built up a creature which he asserted 
was a gigantic wingless bird, in spite of the strong 
resemblance which the bone had to that of an ox. 
The story is best given in his own words, taken 
from the preface to his ‘ Extinct Birds of New 
Zealand.’ Here he says : — 
‘ The advantage of attention to any object of 
natural history, however unattractive, if it be not 
a recognisable or previously known specimen, is 
exemplified in this fragment of bone,^ 
‘ The individual who originally brought it to 
me stated that he had obtained it in New Zealand 
from a native, who told him that it was the bone 
of a great eagle. 
‘ I assured him that he had been misinformed ; 
> Journ. R. Microsc. Soc., 
1893, p. 106. 
* The specimen in question 
was submitted for sale in the 
first place to the British Museum, 
and the vendor was recom- 
mended by Dr. Gray to offer it 
to the Royal College of Sur- 
geons. The price asked (10/. 
10s.) was deemed too high for 
the fragment by the then Mu- 
seums Committee of the College, 
and it was afterwards purchased 
by Richard Bright, of Bristol. It 
has since been presented, with 
the rest of the Bright Collection, 
to the Trustees of the British 
Museum by his grandson. 
