The impression of a bird’s feather, probably of a Wader, has lately been described from Western Victoria (see antea Fig. 16 and Fig. 135). This occurs in ironstone, on the surface of which are also impressions of Gum (Eucalyptus) and Native Honeysuckle (Banksia) leaves, of species closely related to those now growing in the same locality. This ironstone is probably of Janjukian age, and may therefore be coincident with the New Zealand occurrence of the Palaeeudyptes in the Oamaru Series.
Pliocene Moa, New Zealand.—
In the Wanganui System (Pliocene) the Putiki Beds have yielded bones of a small Moa (Dinornis), probably the oldest example of the group of great flightless birds which later predominated in New Zealand.
Fig. 135—Impression of Bird’s Feather in Ironstone.
Wannon River, Victoria. (Enlarged).
Pleistocene Struthious Birds, Australia.—
Bones of a struthious or Ostrich-like bird, described by Owen under the name of Dromornis australis, a bird as large as the Moa, have been recorded from the Pleistocene of Peak Downs and the Paroo River, Queensland. Indeterminate species of the same genera occur in Phillip Co., New South Wales, and the Mount Gambier Caves, South Australia; whilst Dromaeus patricius is known from King’s Creek, Darling Downs, Queensland.
Genyornis newtoni is an extinct bird allied to the Emeus; it has been found in Pleistocene deposits at Lake Callabonna, South Australia, and other fragmentary remains have been identified by Dr. Stirling and Mr. Zietz from Mount Gambier and Queensland. Regarding the build and habits of Genyornis, those authors remark that “Its legs combine a huge femur nearly as massive, in all but length, as that of Dinornis maximus, and a tibia equalling that of Pachyornis elephantopus with the relatively slender metatarse of Dinornis novae-zealandiae (ingens) and toes which are insignificant beside those of any of the larger moas.”... “In height it may be confidently stated to have been from 6 feet to 6 feet 6 inches, that is if the neck should have been of proportions similar to those of Pachyornis elephantopus.” Those authors also attribute a slow, sluggish habit to the bird, and suggest that herbage rather than roots formed its food. It is very probable that the footprints of birds found in the older dune rock of Warrnambool, Victoria, associated with the doubtful “human footprints” may have been made by Genyornis or a related form.