01 apteryx australis - University of Texas Libraries

PREFACE.
The advantage of attention to any object ofNatural History, however unattractive, ifit
be not a recognizable or previously known specimen, is exemplified in the fragment of
bone (Plate, p. 73) which is the foundation of the present work.
It was brought for sale to the College of Surgeons in 1839 by an individual who
stated that he had obtained itinNew Zealand from a native, who told him that it was
the bone of a great Eagle ; and for this specimen he asked the sum of ten guineas.
Iassured him that he had been misinformed ; that the specimen had not the structure
of a bone of such a bird of flight; that it was a marrow-bone, like those brought to
table wrapped ina napkin.
To further questions as to its locality the vendor replied by showing, amongst other
evidences, a jadestone weapon peculiar to the New-Zealanders, which he had also
brought from the island, and still seemed to attach so much value to the unpromising
fragment, thatIconsented, being at the time specially engaged, to try to make out the
bone ifhe would leave it with me and call for it the next day.
As soon asIwas at leisureItook the bone to the skeleton of the ox, expecting to
verify my first surmise ; but, with some resemblance to the shaft of the thigh-bone,
there were precluding differences. From the ox's humerus, which also affords the tavern
delicacy, the discrepancy of shape was more marked. Still, led by the thickness of the
wall of the marrow-cavity,Iproceeded to compare the bone with similar-sized portions
of the skeletons of the various quadrupeds which might have been introduced and
have left their remains inNew Zealand ;but itwas clearly unconformable with any such
portions.
In the course of these comparisons Inoted certain obscure superficial markings on
the bone, which recalled to mind similar ones whichIhad observed on the surface
of the long bones in some large birds. Thereupon Iproceeded with it to the skeleton
of the Ostrich. " The bone " tallied in point of size with the shaft of the thigh-bone
in that bird, but was markedly different in shape. There were, however, the same
superficial reticulate impressions on the Ostrich's femur which had caught my attention
in the exhaustive comparison previously made with the mammalian bones.
In short, stimulated to more minute and extended examinations, Iarrived at the conviction
that the specimen had come from a bird, that it was the shaft of a thigh-bone,
and that it must have formed part of the skeleton of a bird as large as, if not larger
than, the full-sized male Ostrich, with this more striking difference, that whereas
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