supposing its upper parts to accord in size with the lower ones, must have measured in altitude when alive, at the lowest rate of calculation, from 14 to 16 feet!! An enormous feathered monster, well worthy, from its gigantic size, of being classed with the Megalosaurus of Buckland and the Mastodon of Cuvier. "It so happened that about this time a mechanic, who had been living at Cloudy Bay in the Middle Island, came to reside at Poverty Bay. He stated that this bird now existed in the high hills near Cloudy Bay: and that two Americans, residents at that place, hearing from a native that such a bird lived on the mountainous and snowy heights, provided themselves with arms, and thus equipped, went in high expectation of shooting one, taking the native with them as their guide. They ascended the mountain to the place where these birds resort, and, at the native's request, hid themselves behind some bushes. Presently they saw the monster majestically stalking down in search of food; they were, however, so petrified with horror at the sight as to be utterly unable to fire on him. They observed him for near an hour, ere he retired, and were glad enough at last to make their escape. They described this animal as being about 14 or 16 feet in height." could possibly at this time be existing in this place. | feet of the lower extremities of a bird; which, The spot, however, was well-chosen for the fiction of such a creature's residence: a huge, table-topped and lofty mountain, covered with primeval forests of gloomy pines; its brow singularly adorned with a horizontal stratum of whitish sandstone, which ran continuously and precipitously for more than two miles. At the base of the mountain ran the river Wangaroa, down which we paddled in canoes for some distance. This river is a branch of the Wairoa river, which disembogues into Hawkes' Bay. These natives further informed me that a Moa resided at a certain high mountain in Te 'Waïti district, nearly five days' journey into the interior, in a N.W. direction from the place where we now were, and that there I should find people who had actually seen the animal. If I was little inclined to believe in the story of its existence before, I was much less inclined to do so now; however, as my route lay that way, I determined to make every possible inquiry after it. "Fifteen days after this I arrived at Te 'Waïti, the principal village of that district, and not far from the residence of the second Moa. Here, however, as before, the people had never seen a Moa, although they had always heard of, and invariably believed in, the existence of such a creature at that place. They, too, had not any bones in their possession; though such, they said, were very commonly seen after heavy floods. The following day I passed close by the mountain where this Moa had resided for so many years, but noticed nothing more than usual (although I availed myself to the utmost of the use of my pocket telescope), save that this part of the country had a much more barren and desolate appearance than any I had hitherto witnessed. I returned in the autumn to the Bay of Islands, without gleaning any further information relative to the Moa. 46 Mr. Colenso, after stating his reasons for believing that the Moa no longer exists, proceeds to inquire at what period of time it is probable the gigantic creature indicated by such bones existed. Unless," he says, we suppose this immense bird to have existed at a period prior to the peopling of these islands by their present aboriginal inhabitants, how are we to account for its becoming extinct, and, like the dodo, blotted out of the list of the feathered race? From the bones of about thirty birds found at Turanga, in a very short time and with very little labour, we can but infer that it once lived in some considerable numbers; and, from the size of those bones, we conclude the animal to have been powerful as well as numerous. What enemies then had it to contend with in these islands, where, from its colossal size, it must have been paramount lord of the creation, that it should have ceased to be? Man, the only antagonist at all able to cope with it, we have already shown as being entirely ignorant of its habits, use, and manner of capture, as well as utterly unable to assign any reason why it should have thus perished. The period of time, then, in which I venture to conceive it most probable the Moa existed, was certainly either antecedent or coetaneous to the peopling of these islands by the present race of New Zealanders. It should however appear (from information which I have recently received from the Rev. W. Williams), that very shortly after my leaving Poverty Bay, a Moa bone was brought him by a native which he immediately purchased. The natives in the neighbourhood hearing of a price being given for such an article as a bone, which they had ever considered as of little worth, were stimulated to exertion, and a great number, perhaps more than a hundred persons, were soon engaged in the field, actively searching after Moa bones; the result was, that Mr. Williams soon had the pleasure of receiving a large quantity of fossil bones, some of which were of an enormous size, and in a good state of preservation. The bones, though numerous, were not in any great variety, chiefly comprising such as I have already mentioned, i. e. those of the femur and tibia, together with those of the tarsus, the lower part of the dorsal vertebræ, and a portion of the pelvis. Altogether, the bones of nearly thirty birds, apparently of one species only, must have been brought to Mr. Williams. From the great difference in the sizes of some of them when compared with each other, Mr. Williams came to the conclusion, that the animal to which they once belonged must have been very long-lived. Whilst, however, I do not perceive how far this inference is to be correctly deduced from the mere difference in the size of the bones, we know that longevity is common to very many of the feathered race, particularly to those of the larger kinds. One of the bones, a tibia, measured 2 feet 10 inches in length, and was proportionably thick. Two others measured, each, 2 feet 6 inches in length. Another, a section of a femur, measured 8 inches in circum-negation, of not a single specimen or fragment of a ference in the smallest part! On putting together the bones of the leg and thigh (although none of them exactly fitted), and making the necessary allowance for the portions deficient of the processes of the joints, the intermediate cartilages, and lower tendons and integuments of the foot, we obtain at least six "But we will proceed, and endeavour to ascertain (as we proposed in the second place to do) to what order or family is it likely that the Moa belongs? In making this inquiry, we have little to assist us but the bones before us; from an attentive consideration of which we are necessarily led to conclude that the animal must have been of large size and great strength; and, from the shortness of the tarsus (when compared with the length of the tibia), we also perceive it to have been short-legged. From its size, we shall naturally be led to seek for its affinities among either the raptorial or rasorial orders; but from its tarsi possessing only articulations for three toes, we are at once precluded from supposing that it belonged to the former order; to which we may also add, first, the (so to speak) evidence of wing-bone having yet been found; and secondly, the judicious observation of Cuvier (in reference to the family of struthionida), that it would be morally impossible to fit such heavy bodies with wings sufficient to enable them to fly. In the latter, however (the gallinaceous or rasorial order), we have the largest and stoutest birds known; these too are terrestrial in their habits, some exclusively so, and very often possess only three toes. It is true, that in general the different known members of the family containing the largest birds have their tarsi long, (whereas those of the Moa, as we have already seen, are short,) yet to this we have exceptions in the Dodo (alas! no more) and the Apteryx. And I think it is highly worthy of notice, that the latter, the only known existing genus of the family possess ing short tarsi, is entirely confined to these islands. From a conviction, then, that it is in this order only that the affinities of the Moa are to be sought with any prospect of success, and that it is in the family Struthionidae where they will, doubtless, eventually be found, we are induced, for the present at least, to place the Moa in that gigantic group. In the absence, however, of a specimen of an Apteryx with which to compare, the few bones we at present pos sess of the Moa, I should, I confess, be hazarding an opinion in saying that it was most nearly allied to that peculiar genus; yet when we consider, that out of the five existing genera of this family, three at least, apparently possessing the nearest affinities to the remains of the bird before us, belong exclusively to the southernmost parts of the southern hemisphere, and that a connecting link is, as it were, wanting between the Rhea of the Straits of Magellan, the Dromiceus of New Holland, the Casuarius of the Indian Archipelago, and the Apteryx of New Zealand, and that this connecting link may, in all probability, be supplied in the Moa; I think we shall be constrained to assign our Moa a place between the genera Casuarius and Apteryx, possessing as it does (only in a much greater degree) the immense size and strength of the former, combined with the short tarsi, and probably wingless structure of the latter." BOOK III. OF RAPACIOUS BIRDS. CHAP. I. OF RAPACIOUS BIRDS IN GENERAL. THERE seems to obtain a general resemblance in all the classes of nature. As among quadrupeds, a part were seen to live upon the vegetable productions of the earth, and another part upon the flesh of each other; so among birds, some live upon vegetable food, and others by rapine, destroying all such as want force or swiftness to procure their safety. By thus peopling the woods with animals of different dispositions, nature has wisely provided for the multiplication of life; since, could we suppose that there were as many animals produced as there were vegetables supplied to sustain them, yet there might still be another class of animals formed, which could find a sufficient sustenance by feeding upon such of the vegetable feeders as happened to fall by the course of nature. By this contrivance, a greater number will be sustained upon the whole; for the numbers would be but very thin were every creature a candidate for the same food. Thus, by supplying a variety of appetites, Nature has also multiplied life in her productions. In thus varying their appetites, Nature has also varied the form of the animal; and while she has given some an instinctive passion for animal food, she has also furnished them with powers to obtain it. All land birds of the rapacious kinds are furnished with a large head, and a strong crooked beak, notched at the end, for the purpose of tearing their prey. They have strong short legs, and sharp crooked talons, for the purpose of seizing it. Their bodies are formed for war, being fibrous and muscular; and their wings for swiftness of flight, being well-feathered and expansive. The sight of such as prey by day is astonishingly quick; and such as ravage by night have their sight so fitted as to see objects in darkness with extreme precision. Their internal parts are equally formed for the food they seek for. Their stomach is simple and membranous, and wrapt in fat to increase the powers of digestion; and their intestines are short and glandular. As their food is succulent and juicy, they want no length of intestinal tube to form it into a proper nourishment. Their food is flesh; which does not require a slow digestion to be converted into a similitude of substance to their own. Thus formed for war, they lead a life of solitude and rapacity. They inhabit by choice the most lonely places, and the most desert mountains. They make their nests in the clifts of rocks, and on the highest and most inaccessible trees of the forest. Whenever they appear in the cultivated plain or the warbling grove, it is only for the purposes of depredation; and are gloomy intruders on the general joy of the landscape. They spread terror wherever they approach: all that variety of music which but a moment before enlivened the grove, at their appearing is instantly at an end: every order of lesser birds seeks for safety, either by concealment or flight; and some are even driven to take protection with man, to avoid their less merciful pursuers. It would indeed be fatal to all the smaller race of birds, if, as they are weaker than all, they were also pursued by all; but it is contrived wisely for their safety, that every order of carnivorous birds seek only for such as are of the size most approaching their own. The eagle flies at the bustard or the pheasant; the sparrow-hawk pursues the thrush and linnet. Nature has provided that each species should make war only on such as are furnished with adequate means of escape. The smallest birds avoid their pursuers by the extreme agility rather than the swiftness of their flight; for every order would soon be at an end, if the eagle, to its own swiftness of wing, added the versatility of the sparrow. Another circumstance which tends to render the tyranny of these animals more supportable, is, that they are less fruitful than other birds; breeding but few at a time. Those of the larger kind seldom produce above four eggs, often but two; those of the smaller kinds, never above six or seven. The pigeon, it is true, which is their prey, never breeds above two at a time; but then she breeds every month in the year. The carnivorous kinds only breed annually, and of consequence their fecundity is small in comparison. As they are fierce by nature, and are difficult to be tamed, so this fierceness extends even to their young, which they force from the nest sooner than birds of the gentler kind. Other birds seldom forsake their young till able completely to provide for themselves: the rapacious kinds expel them from their nest at a time when they still should protect and support them. This severity to their young proceeds from the necessity of providing for themselves. All animals that, by the conformation of their stomach and intestines, are obliged to live upon flesh, and support themselves by prey, though they may be mild when young, soon become fierce and mischievous, by the very habit of using those arms with which they are supplied by nature. As it is only by the destruction of other animals that they can subsist, they become more furious every day; and even the parental feelings are overpowered in their general habits of cruelty. If the power of obtaining a supply be difficult, the old ones soon drive their brood from the nest to shift for themselves, and often destroy them in a fit of fury caused by hunger. : Another effect of this natural and acquired severity is, that almost all birds of prey are unsociable. It has long been observed by Aristotle, that all birds with crooked beaks and talons are solitary like quadrupeds of the cat kind, they lead a lonely wandering life, and are united only in pairs, by that instinct which overpowers their rapacious habits of enmity with all other animals. As the male and female are often necessary to each other in their pursuits, so they sometimes live together; but except at certain seasons, they most usually prowl alone; and, like robbers, enjoy in solitude the fruits of their plunder. larity, for which it is not easy to account. All the males of these birds are about a third less, and weaker than the females, contrary to what obtains among quadrupeds, among which the males are always the largest and the boldest: from thence the male is called by falconers a tarcel; that is, a tierce or third less than the other. The reason of this difference cannot proceed from the necessity of a larger body in the female for the purpose of breeding, and that her volume is thus increased by the quantity of her eggs; for in other birds, that breed much faster, and that lay in much greater proportion, such as the hen, the duck, or the pheasant, the male is by much the largest of the two. Whatever be the cause, certain it is that the females, as Willoughby expresses it, are of greater size, more beautiful and lovely for shape and colours, stronger, more fierce and generous, than the males; whether it may be that it is necessary for the female to be thus superior, as it is incumbent upon her to provide, not only for herself, but her young ones also. These birds, like quadrupeds of the carnivorous kind, are all lean and meagre. Their flesh is stringy and ill-tasted, soon corrupting, and tinctured with the flavour of that animal food upon which they subsist. Nevertheless, Belonius asserts, that many people admire the flesh of the vulture and falcon, and dress them for eating, when they meet with any accident that unfits them for the chase. He asserts that the osprey, a species of the eagle, when young is excellent food; but he contents himself with advising us to breed these birds up for our pleasure rather in the field than for the table. Of land birds of a rapacious nature,1 there are five kinds. The eagle kind, the hawk kind, the vulture kind, the horned and the screech owl kind. The distinctive marks of this class are taken from their claws and beak: their toes are separated: their legs are feathered to the heel: their toes are four in number; three before, one behind: their beak is short, thick, and crooked. The eagle kind is distinguished from the rest by his beak, which is straight till towards the end, when it begins to hook downwards. The vulture kind is distinguished by the head and neck; which are without feathers. The hawk kind by the beak; being hooked from the very root. The horned owl by the feathers at the base of the bill standing forwards; and by some feathers on the head that stand out, resembling horns. The screech-owl by the feathers at the base of 1 The animals of this order are all carnivorous. They associate in pairs, build their nests in the most lofty situations, and produce generally four young ones at a brood. The female is generally larger than the male. They consist of vultures, eagles, hawks, and owls; and are divided into two sections,—the one containing the diurnal, the other the nocturnal species. The diurnal species are subdivided into All birds of prey are remarkable for one singu- two families, the vulturine and falconine.-ED. the bill standing forward, and being without | plunder of another bird; and will take up with horns. A description of one in each kind will no other prey but that which he has acquired by serve for all the rest. CHAP. II. THE EAGLE AND ITS AFFINITIES. THE Golden eagle is the largest and the noblest of all those birds that have received the name of eagle. It weighs above twelve pounds. Its length is three feet; the extent of its wings, seven feet four inches; the bill is three inches long, and of a deep blue colour; and the eye of a hazel colour. The sight and sense of smelling are very acute. The head and neck are clothed with narrow sharp-pointed feathers, and of a deep brown colour, bordered with tawny; but those on the crown of the head, in very old birds turn gray. The whole body, above as well as beneath, is of a dark brown; and the feathers of the back are finely clouded with a deeper shade of the same. The wings, when clothed, reach to the end of the tail. The quill-feathers are of a chocolate colour, the shafts white. The tail is of a deep brown, irregularly barred and blotched with an obscure ash-colour, and usually white at the roots of the feathers. The legs are yellow, short, and very strong, being three inches in circumference, and feathered to the very feet. The toes are covered with large scales, and armed with the most formidable claws, the middle of which are two inches long. In the rear of this terrible bird follow the ringtailed eagle, the common eagle, the bald eagle, the white eagle, the kough-footed eagle, the erne, the black eagle, the osprey, the sea eagle, and the crowned eagle. These, and others that might be added, form different shades in this fierce family; but have all the same rapacity, the same general form, the same habits, and the same manner of bringing up their young. his own pursuits. How hungry soever he may be, he never stoops to carrion; and when satiated, he never returns to the same carcass, but leaves it for other animals, more rapacious and less delicate than he. Solitary, like the lion, he keeps the desert to himself alone; it is as extraordinary to see two pair of eagles in the same mountain, as two lions in the same forest. They keep separate, to find a more ample supply; and consider the quantity of their game as the best proof of their dominion. Nor does the similitude of these animals stop here: they have both sparkling eyes, and nearly of the same colour; their claws are of the same form, their breath equally strong, and their cry equally loud and terrifying. Bred both for war, they are enemies of all society: alike fierce, proud, and incapable of being easily tamed. It requires great patience and much art to tame an eagle; and even though taken young, and brought under by long assiduity, yet still it is a dangerous domestic, and often turns its force against its master. When brought into the field for the purposes of fowling, the falconer is never sure of its attachment: that innate pride and love of liberty still prompt it to regain its native solitudes; and the moment the falconer sees it, when let loose, first stoop towards the ground, and then rise perpendicularly into the clouds, he gives up all his former labour for lost; quite sure of never beholding his late prisoner more. Sometimes, however, they are brought to have an attachment for their feeder; they are then highly serviceable, and liberally provide for his pleasures and support. When the falconer lets them go from his hand, they play about and hover round him till their game presents, which they see at an immense distance, and pursue with certain destruction. Of all animals the eagle flies highest; and from thence the ancients have given him the epithet of the bird of heaven. Of all others also, he has the quickest eye; but his sense of smell In general, these birds are found in mountainous and ill-peopled countries, and breeding is far inferior to that of the vulture. He among the loftiest cliffs. They choose those places which are remotest from man, upon whose possessions they but seldom make their depredations, being contented rather to follow the wild game in the forest, than to risk their safety, to satisfy their hunger. This fierce animal may be considered among birds as the lion among quadrupeds; and in many respects they have a strong similitude to each other. They are both possessed of force, and an empire over their fellows of the forest. Equally magnanimous, they disdain smaller plunder; and only pursue animals worthy the conquest. It is not till after having been long provoked, by the cries of the rook or the magpie, that this generous bird thinks fit to punish them with death the eagle also disdains to share the never pursues, therefore, but in sight; and when he has seized his prey he stoops from his height, as if to examine its weight, always laying it on the ground before he carries it off. As his wing is very powerful, yet, as he has but little suppleness in the joints of the leg, he finds it difficult to rise when down; however, if not instantly pursued, he finds no difficulty in carrying off geese and cranes. He also carries away hares, lambs, and kids; and often destroys fawns and calves, to drink their blood, and carries a part of their flesh to his retreat. Infants themselves, when left unattended, have been destroyed by these rapacious creatures; which probably gave rise to the fable of Ganymede's being snatched up by an eagle to heaven. An instance is recorded in Scotland of two children being carried off by eagles; but for- | shielded from the weather by some jutting crag tunately they received no hurt by the way; and the eagles being pursued, the children were restored unhurt out of the nests to the affrighted parents.1 that hangs over it. Sometimes, however, it is wholly exposed to the winds, as well sideways as above; for the nest is flat though built with great labour. It is said that the same nest serves the eagle during life; and indeed the pains bestowed in forming it seems to argue as much. One of these was found in the Peak of Derbyshire; which Willoughby thus describes. "It was made of great sticks, resting one end on the edge of a rock, the other on two birch trees. Upon these was a layer of rushes, and over them a layer of heath, and upon the heath rushes again: upon which lay one young one, and an addle egg; and by them a lamb, a hare, and three heath-poults. The nest was about two yards square, and had no hollow in it. The young eagle was of the shape of a goshawk, of almost the weight of a goose, rough-footed, or feathered down to the foot, having a white ring about the The eagle is thus at all times a formidable neighbour; but peculiarly when bringing up its young. It is then that the female, as well as the male, exert all their force and industry to supply their young. Smith, in his history of Kerry, relates, that a poor man in that country got a comfortable subsistence for his family during a summer of famine, out of an eagle's nest, by robbing the eaglets of food, which was plentifully supplied by the old ones. He protracted their assiduity beyond the usual time, by clipping their wings, and retarding the flight of the young; and very probably also, as I have known myself, by so tying them as to increase their cries, which is always found to increase the parent's despatch to procure them provision. It was lucky, how-tail." Such is the place where the female eagle ever, that the old eagles did not surprise the countryman as he was thus employed, as their resentment might have been dangerous. It happened some time ago, in the same country, that a peasant resolved to rob the nest of an eagle, that had built in a small island in the beautiful lake of Killarney. He accordingly stripped, and swam in upon the island while the old ones were away; and, robbing the nest of its young, he was preparing to swim back, with the eaglets tied in a string; but while he was yet up to his chin in the water, the old eagles returned, and, missing their young, quickly fell upon the plunderer, and, in spite of all his resistance, despatched him with their beaks and talons.? In order to extirpate these pernicious birds, there is a law in the Orkney Islands, which entitles any person that kills an eagle to a hen out of every house in the parish in which the plunderer is killed. The nest of the eagle is usually built in the most inaccessible cliff of the rock, and often 1 Ray relates that, in one of the Orkneys, a child of a year old was seized by an eagle, and carried about four miles to its nest. The mother pursued it, found her child in the nest, and took it away unhurt.-ED. 2 A gentleman who lived in the south of Scotland had, not many years ago, a tame eagle, which the keeper one day injudiciously thought proper, for some petty fault, to lash with a horse-whip. About a week afterwards, the man chanced to stoop within reach of his chain, when the enraged animal recollecting the late insult, flew in his face with so much fury and violence, that he was terribly wounded, but was luckily driven so far back by the blow as to be out of all further danger. The screams of the eagle alarmed the family, who found the man lying at some distance in a very bloody condition, equally stunned with the fright and fall. The animal was still pacing and screaming in a manner not less formidable than majestic. It was even dreaded whether, in so violent a rage, he might not break loose; which, indeed, fortunately perhaps for them, he did, just as they withdrew, and thus escaped for ever.-ED. deposits her eggs; which seldom exceed two at a time in the larger species, and not above three in the smallest. It is said that she hatches them for thirty days: but frequently, even of this small number of eggs, a part is addled; and it is extremely rare to find three eaglets in the same nest. It is asserted, that as soon as the young ones are somewhat grown, the mother kills the most feeble or the most voracious. If this happens, it must proceed only from the necessities of the parent, who is incapable of providing for their support; and is content to sacrifice a part to the welfare of all. The plumage of the eaglets is not so strongly marked as when they come to be adult. They are at first white; then inclining to yellow; and at last of a light brown. Age, hunger, long captivity, and diseases, make them whiter. It is said they live above a hundred years; and that they at last die, not of old age, but from the beaks turning inward upon the under mandible, and thus preventing their taking any food. They are equally remarkable, says Mr. Pennant, for their longevity, and for their power of sustaining a long abstinence from food. One of this species, which has now been nine years in the possession of Mr. Owen Holland, of Conway, lived thirty-two years with the gentleman who made him a present of it; but what its age was when the latter received it from Ireland is unknown. The same bird also furnishes a proof of the truth of the other remark; having once, through the neglect of servants, endured hunger for twenty-one days, without any sustenance whatever. Those eagles which are kept tame, are fed with every kind of flesh, whether fresh or corrupting; and when there is a deficiency of that, bread, or other provision will suffice. It is very dangerous approaching them if not quite tame; and they sometimes send forth a loud piercing lamentable cry, which renders them still more |