| OCR Text |
Show 694 PROF. OWEN ON THE STERNUM OF NOTORNIS. [Nov. 28, with Lamarck's theory of the 'Origin of Species,' would become enfeebled, and ultimately atrophied to the degree exemplified in Apteryx and Dinornis. The legs, then monopolizing the functions of locomotion, would attain, through the concomitant force and frequency of exercise, proportional increase of power and size. Under these conditions may be comprehended, by vera causa, the origin of the great flightless Anserine which is entered as a " species" in Ornithological Catalogues under the name of Cnemiornis calcitrans. It has become such through no choice or selection, but by a combination of circumstances enforced, with operative conditions of organic vitality, first taught us by the immortal author of the 'Philosophic Zoologique.' The same course of cogitation, so guided, leads to the same conclusion as to the origin of Notornis, of Aptornis, of Dinornis. The tendency to variation in size and proportions, after the reduction and loss of wings, leads to the minor modifications of such flightless genera. The genus Notornis is now known to be represented by species, living in the present generation of New-Zealand colonists, in localities nearly one hundred miles apart, and which have belonged to a once gregarious family. The first captured specimen of the species, N. mantelli, was taken by seal-fishers (1847) near the coast of "Duck Cove," Resolution Island, Dusky Sound; the second specimen was caught (1869) at "Deas Cove," Secretary Island, Thompson's Sound; the third specimen, which afforded the subject of Prof. Jeffery Parker's memoir1, was caught (1881) by a rabbit-hunter in Captain Han-kinson's " Run," on "Bare-patch Plains," east of " Te anau" Lake,- all in the South Island of N ew Zealand. In 'Phillip's Voyage to Botany Bay' a large ralline bird was noticed on what is now " Norfolk Island," under the name of Fulica alba (1789, p. 160). A good coloured plate of the same species is given in Surgeon White's 'Voyage to N e w South Wales,' 4to, 1790, with a brief notice at p. 238, under the name of " Gallinula alba" (the "plates" are not numbered in this work). In size and shape of head and beak, in the reduced proportions of the wings, in the strength of the legs and feet, in the carpal spur, and the colour of the beak, this bird seems but a variety of Notornis mantelli; it is at least a species of the same genus, as von Pelzeln has pointed out in 'The Ibis' of 1873, p. 44 2. But no "Redbill" or "Takahe" has since rewarded a naturalist's quest in "Lord Howe's" or "Norfolk Island." A species of the New-Zealand genus Ocydromus (0. sylvestris, Sclater) still exists there, and is said to be easily captured. The Wood-hens flourish in both South and North Islands of New Zealand, as in the smaller tract nearer the Antarctic latitudes; but they are severally represented by modifications noted as Ocydromus earli, O. australis, and O. sylvestris. 1 Loc. cit. p. 245. 2 A copy of White's figure is given in 'The Ibis,' 1873, pl. x. |
