180 
birds which once inhabited New Zealand, and whose bones occur in the alluvial sand 
and silt of the rivers,”—‘‘ had discovered imbedded with the bones, fragments of their 
eggs ;”—that the bones collected and on their way to England amounted to 700 or 
800 in number ; and included ‘ portions of several skulls and mandibles.” 
On the arrival of the collection, I was requested by Dr. Mantell to inspect and 
describe it. 
The bones were in a different state from that of any which I had before Been: instead 
of the deep brown tint, tenacity and heaviness of those from Wairoa, Walpu, and the 
beds of the streams that run east of the volcanic chain of Tongariro, which had been 
transmitted by the Ven. Archdeacon Williams, the Rev. W. Colenso and the Rev. Mr. 
Cotton, in 1843, they were yellowish-grey or fawn-coloured, light and fragile, with their 
articular surfaces entire and smooth and all their ridges and processes singularly sharp 
and perfect; most of the fractures being recent and some evidently the result of 
accident in the transport: all were, however, more or less absorbent from the loss of 
their animal matter. They have a different aspect also from those remains obtained by 
Dr, Mackellar and Mr, Percy Earl from the submerged deposits of the shore at Wake- 
waite in the Middle Island; these are of whitish-grey colour, and though light and 
friable retain more elasticity, and more of the animal matter; they do not stick to the 
tongue. 
Some portions of a human skeleton, including a clavicle, part of a radius, and a few 
phalangeal bones, together with half the lower jaw of a Dog, transmitted with the 
birds’ remains, had been reduced by heat to their constituent white earthy matter. 
Not imy-olfthe bones of the Dinornis were in this state, though some had been blanched 
or partially blanched by exposure. All the remains of the extinct birds were dug out 
of a bed of volcanic ashes at the mouth of the river ‘ Wanganui,’ North Island, New 
Zealand. They were moist and friable when first exhumed, but soon hardened on 
exposure to the air. 
In proceeding to determine and classify the specimens, I had the same gratification, 
as at the first inspection of the series of bones brought home in 1846 by Mr, Percy 
Karl*, in recognizing the specific characters, which had been deduced in the first 
instance from a few specimens or fragments of bone, perfectly repeated in numerous 
examples of entire femora, tibiz and metatarsi. Thus after setting apart, of— 
Femora. Tibie. Fibule.  Metatarsi. 
i , , Right. Left. Right. Left. Right, Left. Right. Left. 
Dinornis casuarinus ] 



su ose eee ee RP a oe 
——dufergia = SF .  °S fe oe Rom FF Tt 8 
GUT bem Fee DD Oo G8) BBP a 
Palapteryx dromioides . . ie 7 
: — geranoides . : of Se “Pe eA oF “G 
there remained of the Palaplery z ingens 
var. robustus aM" s i Nn te ye OZ 4 
* See p. 132, 


