Page:Picturesque Dunedin.djvu/120

106 modified to form powerful swimming paddles, on which the small scale-like feathers lie remarkably close. At the head of the stairs are remains of the now extinct moa, the largest and most curious of the Ratitae, or flightless birds. Some of the throat bones are in an excellent state of preservation; other bones are charred, showing that, in all probability, the moa was killed and used by the Maoris as food, and that, at any rate, it was contemporaneous with man.

In the same cases may be noticed the casts of the enormous eggs, a footprint, and several series of the bony rings of the trachea. Some of the exhibits illustrate peculiarities in the skeleton, about which doubt formerly existed. Some feathers and a leg and throat, to which skin and flesh still adhere, form unique and valuable specimens, but the fact that the flesh has not decayed and disappeared does not necessarily prove that this particular moa was of more recent date than those of which skeletons alone have been found. The skeletons of these gigantic birds are commonly found, several together, in swampy ground, and the bones are so intermingled that it is rarely that an "individual" and perfect skeleton is obtainable. On the ground floor are shown skeletons of seven out of the fourteen species of moa, and all but two of these have been made up.

In connection with birds and the position they occupy in the animal kingdom, the cast of the extinct bird, Archœopteryx, may be noticed. It is well known that although the tail feathers of birds are often very long, the tail itself is quite a short structure. In fact, it is composed of a short, compressed bone turned up, from the end of the back-bone. But the tail of Archœopteryx, is, like the lizard's, very long and tapering. It is composed of many separate vertebrae, from each end of which a pair of tail feathers arise. Then, again, in the lower gallery is a cast of an extinct reptile, Compsognathus, which in appearance must have been remarkably like a bird. Besides its long tail, it had a very long neck and a small head; its hind legs were strong, and similar in structure to those of a bird, while its fore-limbs were short; and it is probable that the reptile hopped along, in a semi-erect attitude, upon its hind-legs. It would thus appear that Huxley had grounds for saying "birds are glorified reptiles."