BONES OF THE DINORNIS. (FROM "LAND AND WATER.")

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIV, Issue 3405, 15 June 1868, Page 5

BONES OF THE DINORNIS. (FROM "LAND AND WATER.")

As I notice th>»t there are displayed in the Land and Water office window a email museum of u a turd history objects, you may perhaps fcbiuk it worth while temporarily to place there some bones of the gigantic New Zealand bird (Dim-ruis) which have lately come into my possession, and which ai© in au UDUsually go id state of preservation. One of the bones, the femur, is slightly larger (plaster cants excepted) than any dinornis thigh-bone in the British Museum. 1 have no history with these ornithic remains, but I am able to give you some information bearing upon the first discovery of the moa, which I am sure, as a matter of natural history, will be very interesting to the readers of Land and Water. The Key. Richard Taylor, of New Zealand, now on a visit to this country, writes to me as follows : — " London, October 5, 1867. "Dear Sh, — I examined with much pleasure your collection of moa bones : they are fine specimens, and in excellent preservation. The largest one belongs to the dinornis elephantopus, the most mausiTe of all the birds found in New Zealand, and the other two I fancy are the dinornis crassus. Mr. Rule was the first person who obtained a bone of the moa from New Zealand ; but I believe I was the first who met with it in its own country, and this was in March, 1839, at Poverty Bay (Turanga), where the remains of these wonderful birds abound. Some years afterwards, Bishop Williams forwarded several to Dr. Buckland , but it is on the western coast that the largest deposits have been met with, which I discovered in 1843, at Waingongora, which Mr, Mantell afterwards visited, and thence brought away a considerable number. Last year 1 again visited the same locality with Sir G-aorge Grey, the -Governor, and even then they were still so abundant that the Governor filled a large barrel with the produce of our search. " We were deeply interested with, our examination of the Maori middens and ancient ovens there existing, around which the larger bones were found •cattered as they had been thrown away when they had been well picked; and around the ovens we found innumerable fragments of the charred eggshells, with stone knives aud celts. We there discovered only fragments of the skull of the moi, but in the neighbourhood of Whanganui I was so fortunate as to meet with the entire skull ; the lower bill measured fully eight inches in length ; but unfortunately, after I had carefully deposited the treasure in my pockethandkerchief, and then in the crown of my hat for safety, my horse threw me, and, although 1 saved my own skull, that of the poor moa was smashed to pieces. This belonged to a skeleton which I obtained and bent a* a gift to the 1 College of Surgeon*, but for which I looked in vain the other day, when at the Collage Museum, although 1 know that,ic was received, so perfect that I scut even the rings of the wiudpipp, aud the bag of atones which evidently came from the gizzard. " I may ouly remark, in conclusion, that I believe this wonderful race of birds is not yet quite extinct in y ew Zealand. Dr. Hector, the Government geologist, discovered their tracks in the scrub on the mountain rangeß of the Middle Island, and gold-diggers, on two occasions and in widely-separate districts, affiim that they h&ve seen it, in both cases in the dunk of evening; ; and Mr. Mating, a Government surveyor, met with the tracks of one on some moist ground, which he carefully measured, and found the imprints were fifteen inches long, with a stride of nearly six feet ; but as this race are doubtless ni^ht birds, like the apteryx, and solitary in their habits, it is uot at all wonderful that they have hitherto escaped being captured, their hauuts being in wooded sides of mountains, whero man seldom, if ever, penetrates ; but 1 should not be surprised to hear that one has been taken, as the solitary specimen of the Notomis was, which Mr. Manteli procured and sent to the British Museum, where it nuy now be seen. " Richakd Taylor. "To Edward Charlesworth, Esq." The circumstances under which the Mr. Bule spoken of in the above letter came into possession of the first moa bone (a shaft of a femur) which arrived in this country are detailed in a letter addressed by him to me mauy years ago, and of which the following is an extract : — "London, August 28, 1848. "Sir, — Finding that much misappiehsnsio > has resulted from come misstatements that have been made respecting the manner in which aknowltdgewas obtained of the former existence of a bird of huge dimensions in New Zealand, I venture to trouble you with a statement of facts, as I atn the person who brought the first of its bones to this country. The facts are simply these ; — When I arrived in New South Wales with the medical charge of emigrants, I purposed to proceed to New Zealand to dee my nephew and arrange some important family affairs with him previoui to my return to this country, which I had engaged to do. 1 therefore wr»te to him, advising him of my intention, and named my desire to have some curiosities, natural and artificial, of New Zealand. He, deeming it safest at that time, aud having business to transact in Sydney, came to v«, and brought with him some articles, among which was the bone, or rather the shaft of a femur of a movi*, with a message from the chief of his district that it was the largest piece that had then been found ; that more could be got out of the river-mud in his neighbourhood, and that it was the greatest curiosity to be got in New Zealand. "After a sojourn in Chile, I returned to this country, and, to ascertain if any such bone had been found in any part of the world, I took it with me to several of the metropolitan museums, and, after searching in vain, I went from the museum of the Zoological Society, then in Leicester-square, to the College of Surgeons, iv Liucoln's-inn-fields, where I met with Mr. Owen, the Hunterian Professor and Curator of the Museum. 1 am known to the individuals in the College, and Mr. Owen knew me to be one of its members. I 'told him my purpose was to compare this fragment of bone with other bones and to ascertain its relative size and originality. 1 also pointed out to him its ornithic structure, and we compared it with the bones of the ostrich and other bones. ... "J. Rule, M.D. " Edward Charleaworth, Esq." Mr. Rule then goes on to say that he offered the bone for the sum of £5 to the Council of the College of Surgeons, an offer which was declined and the bone returned t6 him. He then sold it to Mr. Ben jamin Hey wood Bright,' of Ham Green, Bristol. Considering that the bone in question was merely a fragment, that it had come into Mr. hule's possessiou fcecond-hand, and that nobody could then say that the true history of this fragment would be known by the discovery of other and more perfect bones, it is no', I think.tobe wonderedatthat£s«hould be thought too high a price, even by so rich a body as the Royal College of Surgeons. Now, however, when io great an amount of both popular and scientific interest has been created by the discoveries of which Mr, Rule's moa fragment was the forerunner, that fragment of but trifling worth, regarded osteologically, has historically a high value ; and it would be well to ascertain and record who has the present custody of the precious relic, more than twenty years having elapsed since it was transferred from the keeping of my correspondent to that of Mr. Bright. In the peat deposits and the shall marl of Ireland, when the remains of one of the great extinot deer, the megaceros, are brought to light, it is no unusual thing to fiud every bone, so that the skeleton can be put up as perfect as if made from a carcase by the ordinary process of maceration. But as respects the New Zealand moa, such a skeleton is yet a desideratum. The nearest approach to completeness is to be seen in the beautiful museum at York. The dinornis skeleton there ii nearly entire, and all the bones are those of one individual. It was found on the nest, the bird having psiished by being overwhelmed by a sand-drift in the act of incubation, for the remains of the efi[gs, and contained young, were present. Even some of the integument with the feathers in this specimen is preserved. Now, considering that a considerable portion of one of the New Zealand islands is at present a terra incognita, we.may reasonably expect that, sooner or later, we shall know a great deal more about the gigantic moa, even if it should not be met with alive —a contingency yet possible, it would seem, from the qonteuts of Mr. Taylors letter. , Edward Chableswokth. Whitfcington Club, W.C., October 7, 1867. ' p,.-,, — When I sent the above for publication in Land and Water, Professor Owen was in Paris ; but I have *een him since hit turn, and am happy to find that he is the present possessor of the original rooabone sold by Mr. Rule to Mr. Blight, of Bristol. — ■B.C.

Prisbrtino Poultobs — A correspondent of the Scientific Ameriom »ay<j tnat l»e hu tried the following method of kteping potatoes for years with compJete iiiccens, tb->ugh in some instances the lubers were diseased wben taken out of the g^QOnd : — Dust over the floor of the bin with lime, ajid put n about six or seven inches deep of potatoes, and lust with lime as before. Put in mix or seven iuchea >f potatoes, and lime again ; repeat the operation until all ara stored away. One bushel of lime' will \q for forty buahels of potatoes, though more will lot hurt them, tht lime r*th«r improving the flarout &*n otherwise, -" • '>