The second type of bird, _Ichthyornis_, were small birds, scarcely larger than pigeons and a little like terns in appearance. They were splendid fliers, and were armed with teeth set in sockets. Their legs and feet were small and slender, but their wings very strongly developed. They frequented the same seas and places as the _Hesperornis_, and yet the two were farther apart in structure than any two types of birds now living. Compared with the _Archæopteryx_, both these types of birds show progress in the shortening of the long, curiously feathered tail and the loss of the fingers and claws; but both retained the teeth of primitive birds. We may perhaps be allowed to depart from the strict adherence to geologic chronology by tracing here, instead of in the next chapter, the subsequent history of the early birds. In the strata of the next era remains of various birds were found. One of great interest, on account of its enormous size, was the _Pharorachus_ of America. It was rather like, in type, a living bird known as the Cariama or Screamer. But if the extinct bird (of which the skull only has been found) had the general proportions and habits of the Cariama it must have been a terrible monster, standing some twelve feet high, and far exceeding the most powerful eagles and vultures in strength and the size of its beak and claws. Great extinct wingless birds are found in the quite recent "alluvial" deposits in New Zealand and Madagascar. Something more than half a century ago a piece of bone was sent to Sir Richard Owen by a visitor to New Zealand who had just arrived there, and who had found it in his garden. Professor Owen, on examination, was able to say, from the general make and structure of the bone, that it was the bone of a bird. It was about seven or eight inches long. On examining the ridges and various marks on the bones, Owen was able to say that it was identical with the middle of the thigh-bone of an ostrich. He ventured then to publish that this bone was a proof that there existed formerly in New Zealand a huge land bird like the ostrich, only bigger. After a few years more bones were sent to Owen from New Zealand, which entirely confirmed what he said; and in the course of a few years he was able to put together from the bones sent a skeleton with enormous legs and neck--the skeleton of the ostrich-like bird the _Moa_ of New Zealand. Since that time a great number of these birds have been found buried in the morasses and swamps of that country. The _Moa_ is allied to the ostriches of Africa, the emus and cassowaries of Australia, and the rheas of South America.