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Show 18/0.] PROF. OWEN ON THE EXTINCTION OF DINORNIS. 55 but no human bones; so that it seems certain that the inhabitants of these islands who hunted the Moa were not cannibals. There were, with the exception of sharp flakes of flint and obsidian, no stone implements which could have been used as weapons for warfare or chase; and I suppose, therefore, that these people manufactured wooden ones for such purposes, and that they caught the birds in pits or snares. I found also some pieces of translucent quartz, rock-crystal, chalcedony, agate, and cornelians, but not the least sign of greenstone or nephrite. It is therefore evident, although the Moa-hunter obtained flint from different and distant parts of this island, and obsidian from the northern island, that the use of the nephrite was not known, and that they had never visited the west coast. "Another proof of the primitive character of this people may be adduced from the total absence of ornaments of any kind made of a substance of permanent character. There were, however, two ulnae of the Albatros, broken in the centre, which had both been neatly bored near the proximal end, and consequently might have been used as amulets or for ornament; but I hope that further researches will give us a still greater insight into the life of this remarkable prehistoric people. I shall not fail to send more specimens from these kitchen-middens to England, so that you may be able to examine them ; and I trust that this preliminary communication will not be without interest to you. Should you consider these notes of sufficient importance to lay before the Geological or any other Society, I shall be very glad if you would do so. " I am expecting very anxiously the result of your examination of the bones sent to Mr. Flower, of which doubtless the British Museum has kept those which were wanted for the completion of the collection. " Your twelfth Memoir, containing the description of bones of D. maximus, was particularly useful to me, because I observed that my No. 18 is not only your D. maximus, but that the three leg-bones of Major Michael belong to the identical specimen of which we have the pelvis, right femur, tibia and fibula, and the two first dorsal vertebrae in our Museum. It is thus evident why we could not succeed in finding the other bones, since they had been taken out of the drain, as I expected all along. I should like very much to obtain a cast of the tibia and metatarsus of your D. maximus to complete our leg; and if you like, I will send you a cast of the fibula. The fragment of metatarsus found in the drain belonged, as I suspected, to the same specimen. I thought and hoped that the bones you had described as of D. maximus belonged to a specimen of which we possess some phalanges and a few vertebrae, and of which the leg-bones disappeared mysteriously from Glenmark. The men in excavating the drain got three leg-bones out, which they considered to have been 7 feet to 7 feet 6 inches together in length. Mr. Moore inspected them, and confirmed this statement. The men placed the bones carefully in the grass ; but when they returned after dinner to work, the bones were gone. I hope they will turn up some time. Should you like a drawing, with dimensions, of the pelvis, |