Nine years since, a fragment of a thigh-bone of a bird larger than that of the Ostrich was brought to England by Mr. Rule, and submitted to the examination of Professor Owen, who pronounced it to belong to a gigantic bird of the _Struthious_ (Ostrich) order. A few years afterwards several collections of vertebræ, bones of the extremities, &c. were transmitted to England by Messrs. Williams, Wakefield, Earle, &c., which corroborated that opinion, and proved that there formerly existed in the islands of New Zealand, colossal birds of a type distinct from any known in other parts of the world. In 1846 and 1847, my eldest son, Mr. Walter Mantell, who has resided in New Zealand several years, made an extensive and highly interesting collection of these fossil remains, which arrived in England in 1848. This series contains _skulls_, with the _mandibles or beaks_, bones of other parts of the skeleton, and _portions of the egg-shells_, of several extinct species and genera of birds; presenting remarkable deviations from the previously known types to which they are most nearly allied. This valuable accession to our knowledge of the osteology of this extinct race of Ostrich-like birds--some individuals of which must have attained a height of from ten to twelve feet--has yielded important results as to the form, structure, and economy, of these colossal bipeds, and the prevailing characters of the terrestrial fauna of New Zealand in very remote periods. The collection, consisting of above 700 specimens, is now in the British Museum: it was obtained chiefly from a bed of _menaccanite_ or titaniferous iron-sand, that had evidently been washed down by torrents from the volcanic region of Mount Egmont; that snow-capped ridge which forms so striking a feature in the physical geography of the North Island, and is the source of the fresh-water streams that discharge themselves into the ocean along the western shore. The tract of sand from which my son dug up these relics, is on the coast near the embouchure of a small river called Waingongoro, between Wanganui and Waimate. That stream evidently once flowed into the sea far from its present course, for lines of cliffs extend inland from the now dry sand-spit, and bear marks of the erosive action of currents.[91] A few months since, I received from my son another most interesting collection of fossil bones (comprising above 500 specimens), chiefly obtained from the eastern shores of the Middle Island of New Zealand, when engaged as Government Commissioner for the settlement of native claims. These were dug up from a morass of small extent, lying in a little creek or bay at Waikouaiti, some twenty miles north of Otago. This swamp, which is only visible at low water, is composed of vegetable fibres (apparently of the _Phormium tenax_), sand, and animal matter. The bones are of a deep brown colour, and almost as fresh as if recently taken from a tar-pit.