RNAL OF THE BELLES LETTEES. /AS^g 59 
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individual member of these juries will act sans peur, 
and then we are satisfied that, notwithstanding 
many disappointments, they will feel that they 
stand before the world sans reproche. 
ARTS AND SCIENCES. 
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
In our report last week of Sir Roderick Murchison’s 
memoir on the Crystalline Schists of the Forez, 
a trifling misprint occurs, involving an important 
error. Instead of “the other discovered organic 
remains,” it should have been, “ the author dis¬ 
covered organic remains. ” No organic remains had 
been found hitherto in these schists, and the value 
of Sir Roderick’s discovery consisted in his being 
enabled by these fossils to refer to the carboniferous 
age, a deposit which was before assigned, from its 
physical aspect, to a much older period. 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
November 12 th. —William Yarrell, Esq., Vice-Pre¬ 
sident, in the chair.—The scientific session of this 
Society was opened with an unusually full attend¬ 
ance of members, considerable interest having been 
excited by the announcement that Professor Owen 
and Dr. Mantell would communicate some further 
discoveries in reference to the wingless birds of New 
Zealand. 
\ 1. “On the Skull of the Great Dinornis,” by 
Professor Owen, LL.D., V.P.R.S., &c.—Thi s com¬ 
munication is the fifth of the series of memoirs de¬ 
voted to the reconstruction and introduction into 
the annals of zoological science of the great wing¬ 
less birds which formerly inhabited the islands of 
New Zealand. The subjects of the memoir had been 
transmitted to the author by Sir George Grey, 
Governor-in-Chief of New Zealand, who had dis¬ 
covered them in a cave near the base of the great 
g/51canic mountain Tongariro. 
After a minute description of the fossil cranium, 
which was remarkable for the strength of the broad 
deflected beak, the author next drew attention to a 
more mutilated cranium of nearly equal size, which, 
from the sutures, he inferred to belong to a young 
individual of the largest species, Dinornis giganteus. 
The more perfect skull belonged, probably, to the 
species next in point of size, which had been called 
I), ingens. The crania of two smaller species of Pcdap- 
teryx were then described, and the size and shape 
of the brain were shown by sections of the cranial 
cavity. An entire cranium of the Notornis was ex¬ 
hibited, in which the author pointed out those parts 
that were defective in the fragmentary specimen, 
from which the nature and affinities of the Notornis 
as a large species of Coot, or Water-Rail, had been 
originally deduced. A fragment of a humerus of 
diminutive size was finally described, that being 
the first evidence of the rudimentary wings of the 
Dinornis that had yet reached Europe, notwith¬ 
standing the number of collections of the remains 
of the great extinct birds of New Zealand that have 
from time to time been transmitted from that 
colony, since the attention of the settlers was first 
called to thorn in 1839. 
2. “ Notice of the discovery, by Mr. Walter 
Mantell, in the Middle Island of New Zealand, of a 
living specimen of Notornis , a bird of the Rail 
family, allied to Brachypteryx , and hither unknown 
to naturalists, except in a fossil state ;” by Gideon 
Algernon Mantell, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S. The author 
describes the circumstances under which the fossil 
remains of the then supposed extinct Rail, named 
Notornis by Professor Owen, consisting of the 
skull and beak, humerus, sternum, &c., were dis¬ 
covered by his son in the deposit containing bones 
of several genera and species of the Dinornis, Palap- 
teryx, &c., at Waingongoro, on the west coast of 
the north island of New Zealand, in 1847. These 
relics are nowin the British Museum. The Maoris, 
or natives, informed Mr. Walter Mantell that there 
formerly existed a large bird, resembling the Swamp- 
Hen; which was a favourite article of food with their 
ancestors, but had gradually become scarce, and 
was finally exterminated by the wild cats and dogs, 
which are now the great pest of the colony. This 
bird was called Moho, or Takahe, and was of a 
black colour, destitute of wings, and had a long bill, 
which, as well as the legs, was of a bright red 
colour. No traces of the “ Moho ” had been dis¬ 
covered since the arrival of any of the English 
colonists. Towards the close of last year, on Mr. 
Walter Mantell’s second visit to the south of Otago, 
he obtained from some sealers the recent bird now 
exhibited. It appeared that the men frequenting 
the south-west extremity of the Middle Island 
observed foot-tracks of a large and unknown bird on 
the snow which then thickly covered the ground, 
and on pursuing the trail they caught sight of the 
bird, which fled with great rapidity, but was at 
length driven up a gully behind Resolution Island, 
and captured alive by their dogs. They kept it on 
board the schooner two or three days, and then 
killed it and roasted the body, which was esteemed 
a great delicacy; the skin, which is in excellent 
condition, was fortunately obtained by Mr. Walter 
Mantell, and thus the, perhaps, only remaining in¬ 
dividual of this remarkable genus was procured for 
the examination of the ornithologist. Its identity 
with the fossil Notornis Mantelli is evident: its 
powerful but short beak, and its abbreviated wings, 
are in accordance with the indications of the fossil 
cranium, sternum, and humerus. This bird is about 
two feet high ; the beaks are short and very strong, 
the wings short and rounded, and their plumage 
feeble; the legs are very strong. The colour of the 
plumage is a dark purple over the neck and body, 
and shaded with green and gold on the wings and 
back, the tail is very scanty, and is white beneath. 
The author dwelt on the interest attached to this 
discovery, from the remains of the Notornis having 
been found associated with those of the Dinornis, 
under circumstances which left no doubt of these 
genera having been contemporaneous; thus con- 
firmitig the inferences stated in his memoirs on the 
ossiferous deposit of New Zealand, read before 
the Geological Society, that the gigantic wingless 
birds were coeval with existing species, and that 
their final extinction took place at no very distant 
period; there are good reasons for concluding that 
the native traditions, astotheMoa having lived when 
their ancestors first took possession of those islands, 
are well founded. Mr. Walter Mantell, at the date 
of the last advices from New Zealand, was about to 
depart on another exploration of the bone deposits, 
in the hope of obtaining additional materials for 
the history of the extinct and living birds of those 
islands. 
The finest specimen of Apteryx Australis hitherto 
seen, and a Strigops, or Ground Parrot, also an. 
extremely rare bird, peculiar to New Zealand, sent 
over by Mr. Walter Mantell, were likewise exhi¬ 
bited : also Apteryx Owenii, which is now, for the 
first time, added to the British Museum a Pano¬ 
ramic sketches of the Middle Island of New Zea¬ 
land, drawn by Mr. W. Mantell, were suspended in 
the room. 
Mr. Gould, to whom Dr. Mantell had lent this 
unique specimen of Notornis for description and 
illustration in his ‘ Birds of Australia,’ then 
pointed out its ornithological characters, which he 
considered to be allied to those of Porphyrio and 
Tribonyx, though generic ally distinct from either. 
He dwelt on the high interest of this living example 
of a type of Rail idee, only known hitherto by a few 
osteological fragments in a semi-fossilized state, 
and remarked that, but for this discovery, the bird 
would soon probably have become, like the Dodo, 
all but traditional. ~ > 
.In the discussion which followed the reading of 
these memoirs, Professor Owen availed himself of 
the opportunity of replying to a question which was 
frequently put to him, as to whether the compara¬ 
tively small Apteryx, Notornis, arid similar existing 
birds, might not be the degenerate descendants of 
the gigantic extinct species; and when the general 
results of the restoration of extinct species, and their 
