220 
Subjoined is the ‘‘ Note on the locality” affording the femur of the Dinorms gracilis, 
kindly contributed by W. E. Cormack, Esq. ; with a sketch of the section of the strata, 
of which a woodcut is here given. | 
“The bone” (Pl. LIV. fig. 1) ‘ of the Dinornis now presented to Professor Owen was 
found in the north part of the North Island of New Zealand, in the month of January 
1849. Its locality was in a small bay called ‘ Opito,’ at the east extremity of the pro- 
jecting land between Mercury Bay and Wangapoua, on the east coast, in about the lati- 
tude of 36° 40’ S., and fifty miles east from Auckland. The bay is about a mile in length, 
northerly and southerly, by about half a mile in depth, with high bluff heads or rocky 
cliffs projecting at each extremity; the semicircular sandy beach inside forming the 
bay. An irregular strip of low land lies inside of the beach, in some parts fertile, in 
other parts consisting of downs, and is overlooked in the rear by round hills of from 
100 to 300 feet in height. The hills are composed of yellow-white and red burnt earth; 
very barren, producing stunted fern, and a solitary bush or serubby tree here and there, 
Towards the north end of the bay a small brook discharges itself, from a swamp at the 
foot of the hills in the rear: and at the mouth of the brook a short range of downs 
runs along the beach to the southward, presenting a line of earthy cliffs, wasting away 
and forming the shore as they fall down by the washing of the sea at the foot. These 
cliffs are about from twenty-five to thirty feet in height, and nearly perpendicular, 
The upper stratum of the cliffs is formed of sand, and is about three feet in thickness, 








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producing the usual arenaceous shrubs, grasses, &c. Underneath, the line of demar- 
cation being very distinct, is a thick stratum or bed of sandy earth, sand predominating: 
out of this substratum, about fifty or sixty yards south of the mouth of the brook, the 
Moa’s bones were exposed, projecting, in consequence of a late falling away of that 
part of the cliff in which they were imbedded : they lay a foot or more beneath the 
upper surface of the substratum. At the same spot there was a ‘ kapura maori,’ or 
native cooking fireplace, dug into the surface of the substratum, and full of stones that 


