On the Extinct Birds of New Zealand. 209 
XXV .—Remarks on the Extinct Birds of New Zealand. 
By Julius Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S.* 
1 have hitherto refrained from publishing any of my notes 
on the researches made during a number of years upon the 
accumulated treasures obtained in the turbary deposits of 
Glenmark, except a list of measurements of leg-bones of dif¬ 
ferent species in the first volume of our f Transactions/ and 
the description of the bones of the remarkable genus Harp a- 
gornis, in vol. iv., always expecting that Professor Owen, 
whose truly classical labours have laid the foundations of the 
edifice to which present and future researches will only form 
additions, would himself review the whole subject at length. 
Finding, however, that, instead of doing so, that illustrious 
comparative anatomist is inclined to unite, as it were, all the 
principal species with a struthious character into one genus 
under the general term of Dinornis, dropping altogether the 
name Palapteryx, I feel that I should not do my duty if I 
were to hold back the following notes any longer. 
If it were our good fortune that Professor Owen could have 
access to the rich material which is exhibited in the Canter¬ 
bury Museum, I am sure he would never have united under 
one genus a number of species which show such a remarkable 
diversity of character; but as his description of single bones 
of some species, or at most of portions only of others, were 
given during a considerable space of time, ranging over more 
than thirty years, I can easily understand that Professor 
Owen will find every day, as the material increases, greater 
difficulty in making himself acquainted with all the details, 
without having access to as complete a series as we possess in 
the Canterbury Museum for reference. Such a series would 
have afforded him at a glance a confirmation that the new 
arrangement which I venture to propose in the following 
notes, is not based altogether upon unsound principles. 
I am well aware that there are still many naturalists who 
think that the division of the bones of our extinct avifauna 
* Reprinted from Dr. Haast’s Presidential Address to the Philosophical 
Institute of Canterbury, New Zealand, delivered March 5th, 1874. 
