210 Fossil Crustacean from New Holland . 
become possessed of the island of Mauritius, and in a corner of this 
picture was a figure of the Dodo, extremely small, but so elaborately 
finished, as to enable a zoologist to characterize its species. Mr. Owen 
then offered some speculations as to the extensive distribution of the stru- 
thious birds over the surface of the earth in remote ages. He referred 
to the recently-discovered foot-prints of a bird, similar to this gigantic 
wingless bird of New Zealand (to which lie has given the name Dinor- 
nis), in the sandstone of Connecticut. With respect to the country 
from which these hones have been received, it appears to abound with 
ferns, whose roots are rich in farinaceous substance, well calcu¬ 
lated for the support of the kind of bird to which they are ascribed. When 
it is remembered that the only animal fouud in New Zealand, at the 
time of its discovery by the Europeans, was a small species of rat, it 
seems extremely probable that this vast bird, having inhabited these 
islands as it inhabited other remote countries, before they were occu¬ 
pied by man, was destroyed by the first settlers, who then, as may be 
conjectured, having acquired a taste for animal food, and finding no 
other, took to eating one another. Mr. Owen illustrated his discourse 
by a conjectural diagram of the figure of the Dinornis. Its height 
(which he supposes fourteen or fifteen feet from head to foot) was 
contrasted with that of the birds most nearly resembling it—the casso¬ 
wary and the ostrich.— Athen&um, No. 850, p. 138. 
FOSSIL CRUSTACEAN FROM NEW HOLLAND. 
At a meeting of the Geological Society on 21st February, 1814, a paper 
was read “ On a Fossil Crustacean from New Holland,” by Professor 
Thomas Bell, This, the only fossil crustacean as yet found in Aus- f 
tralia, was procured by Lieutenant Emery, and forwarded by Mr. W. , \ 
S. Macleay, who considered it as probably a Thalassina. Professor 
Bell regards it as a new Thalassina, nearly allied to the only known 
living species of that genus, and names it, T. antiqua. — Athenceum , 
No. 853, p. 201. 
COUNT STRELESKI. 
We are happy to announce, that the Count Streleski had arrived safely in 
London, and that his work on the Physical Geography of Tasmania, and 
part of Australia, would soon be in ihe printer’s hands. 
Printed at the Examiner Office, Launceston, V. D, Land. 
