NORFOLK AND PHILIP’S ISLANDS 
CHAPTER XXXIY. 
NATURAL HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND. 
The Zoology of a cluster of lone islands in the Southern 
Hemisphere, which although of considerable size and extent 
are singularly deficient in land animals, does not appear to 
present much to interest the inquirer in this department ; 
but if New Zealand has been so destitute in this respect, it 
has been inhabited up to a very recent period by several 
families of wingless birds, which were of such vast propor- 
tions as to be justly termed ornithological giants. 
Nor is it even yet certain that there may not be some of 
these huge birds still in existence, like the kiwi, which belongs 
to the same struthious family, they were most probably night 
birds, and resembled the solitaire, in being inhabitants of the 
most retired spots. The long range of the New Zealand alps 
