Dr. Haast Discovered In A
Swamp At Glenmark In The Province Of Otago, Along With Remains Of The
Dinornis Or Moa, Some Bones (Femur, Ungual Phalanges, And Rib) Of A
Gigantic Bird Which He Pronounces To Be A Bird Of Prey, Apparently Allied
To The Harriers, And Calls Harpagornis.
He supposes it to have preyed
upon the Moa, and as that fowl is calculated to have been 10 feet and
upwards in height, we are not so very far from the elephant-devouring
Rukh.
(See Comptes Rendus, Ac. des Sciences 1872, p. 1782; and Ibis,
October 1872, p. 433.) This discovery may possibly throw a new light on
the traditions of the New Zealanders. For Professor Owen, in first
describing the Dinornis in 1839, mentioned that the natives had a
tradition that the bones belonged to a bird of the eagle kind. (See
Eng. Cyc. Nat. Hist. sub. v. Dinornis.) And Sir Geo. Grey appears to
have read a paper, 23rd October 1872,[4] which was the description by a
Maori of the Hokiol, an extinct gigantic bird of prey of which that
people have traditions come down from their ancestors, said to have been a
black hawk of great size, as large as the Moa.
I have to thank Mr. Arthur Grote for a few words more on that most
interesting subject, the discovery of a real fossil Ruc in New Zealand.
He informs me (under date 4th December 1874) that Professor Owen is now
working on the huge bones sent home by Dr. Haast, "and is convinced that
they belonged to a bird of prey, probably (as Dr. Haast suggested) a
Harrier, double the weight of the Moa, and quite capable therefore of
preying on the young of that species.
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