1839-40 DINORNIS ELEPHANTOPUS iji 
the Rev. William Williams, and received in 1843 
by the Rev. Dr. Buckland, at Oxford, and by 
Dr. (afterwards Sir John) Richardson, at Haslar 
Hospital. These specimens, generously confided 
to me for description, formed the subject of a 
paper communicated to the Zoological Society, 
November 28, 1843.’ 
The incredulity and doubt with which this 
opinion was received were too great for a time for 
Owen’s mere assertion to dispel ; but by-and-by 
the whole skeleton was brought over to this 
country, and then his opinion was converted into 
a fact. ‘ We well remember,’ remarks a writer in 
the ‘Quarterly Review’ (March 1852),® ‘ seeing 
this fragment of the shaft of a femur when it first 
arrived, and hearing the opinion of the Professor 
as to the bird to which it must have belonged. 
He took, in our presence, a piece of paper and 
drew the outline of what he conceived to be the 
complete bone. The fragment, from which alone 
he deduced his conclusions, was six inches in 
length and five inches and a half in its smallest 
o 
circumference ; both extremities had been broken 
off When a perfect bone arrived and was laid 
on the paper, it fitted exactly the outline which 
he had drawn.’ 
The following extracts from Mrs. Owen s diary 
show the way in which Owen employed his time 
and relieved his work with intervals of relaxation : 
^ W. J. Broderip. 
