CAVE IN DREAM LEAD MINE, NEAR WIRKSWORTH, DERBYSHIRE.
The kangaroo, as is well-known, is peculiar to Australia, and caverns in that country have been described by Sir T. Mitchell, containing fossil bones of a large extinct kangaroo.
A singular wingless bird, the Apteryx australis, is found only in the wilds of the interior of New Zealand, where it takes refuge in the clefts of rocks, hollow trees, or in deep holes which it excavates in the ground. The caves of that country show us that it was preceded by other wingless birds of a gigantic structure—the Moas, by the side of which even the ostriches of the present day would shrink into comparative insignificance.
These wonderful creatures would probably have remained unknown to the present day, if, in 1839, the thigh-bone of a Moa had not fallen by chance into the hands of Professor Owen, who from this single fragment drew up a surprisingly correct notice of the bird. This memoir, sent out to New Zealand, gave a stimulus to further researches, and from the larger quantity of the Moa’s bones now sent to England, Professor Owen built up the beautiful skeleton which, along with those of the Mylodon robustus, of the Mammoth, and of the primeval stag, forms one of the most conspicuous[conspicuous] ornaments of the splendid Museum in Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
But the reconstructive genius of our great palæontologist, not satisfied with this triumph, has detected a whole group of ostrich-like birds among the remnants of the past, which the New Zealanders, who, as we may suppose, are no adepts in comparative anatomy, all confound under the common name of the Moa; and thus five species of Dinornis, the Palaeopteryx, the Aptornis, and the comparatively small Notornis, have been, as it were, resuscitated by a miracle of science. A specimen of the last-named species of these birds was caught alive in a remote, unfrequented part of the south island of New Zealand in 1850 by some sealers, who, ignorant of the value of their prize, killed and devoured it as if it had been a common turkey. Fortunately, however, the skin of this unique bird, the link between the living and the dead, the last perhaps of a race coeval with the gigantic Moas, was preserved from destruction.
The largest species of Moa (Dinornis robustus) must have stood, when alive, about thirteen or fourteen feet high, since Dr. Thomson saw a complete leg, which stood six feet from the ground. Like the ostrich, this feathered giant was incapable of flight, its rudimentary wings being unable to raise it from the ground. It had three toes on each foot, and tradition says that its feathers were beautiful and gaudy. Portions of the eggs of the bird have been found among their bones, of a sufficient size to estimate the probable size of a whole egg, and the conclusion is that the hat of a full-grown man would have been a proper-sized egg-cup for it. From the structure of the toes, which were well adapted for digging up roots, and from the traditional report that the Moas were in the habit of swallowing stones to promote digestion, it may be concluded that they were herbivorous.
This is about as much as we know of the aspect and habits of this colossal Struthionide, whose apparent confinement to the small New Zealandic group is one of the most curious enigmas of its history. As it is extremely improbable that so gigantic a race was originally formed for so narrow a sphere, we are led to believe that New Zealand is but the remnant of a vast continent now whelmed under the waves of the Pacific.
When the group was first peopled by the Maories, about five hundred years ago, the Moas had already become excessively rare, and the last of them seem to have perished during the seventeenth century, though the New Zealanders believe that some of them still live in the remote and unfrequented wilds of their native land.
The bones of the various species of Moa have been partly found in morasses, partly in the beds of mountain torrents, but chiefly in various caves, which, no doubt, served the living animals as dwellings or places of refuge.