THE DINORNIS. 
181 
collection of bones, which proved to have belonged to a bird 
of gigantic dimensions. The length of the large bone of 
the leg is two feet ten inches. The bones were found a little 
below the surface in the mud of several other rivers, and 
in that situation only. The bird to which they belonged 
is stated to have existed at no very distant period and in 
considerable numbers, as bones of more than thirty in¬ 
dividuals had been collected by the natives. Mr. Williams 
had also heard of a bird having been recently seen near 
Cloudy Bay in Cook’s Strait by an Englishman, accom¬ 
panied by a native, which was described to be not less 
than fourteen or sixteen feet in height, and this creature 
he supposed to be about the size of that to which the 
bones belonged. Of these bones, one case had already 
arrived and a second was daily expected. 
A letter from Professor Owen, dated January 21st, 1843, 
detailed the contents of the box which had arrived ; and 
from these fragments it was clear that they had belonged 
to the species of birds which the Professor had already 
described in the Zoological Transactions 1 from a fragment 
of the femur which he had received some time previous. 
The bird forms a new genus, on which Professor Owen 
bestowed the name “ Dinornis Novae Zelandiae. 1 ’ His 
diagnosis of the species, size, and character of the bird was 
a remarkable testimony to his extraordinary sagacity. By 
the process of severe philosophical induction, and not by 
mere guesswork, he was enabled to describe the bird with 
the utmost accuracy from the inspection of the solitary 
1 Vol. iii., p. 32, pi. iii. 
