DINORNIS (S¢tvóç, terrible, and opvι<s, bird), a genus of gigantic Struthious birds, believed to be extinct, which in post-Pliocene times must have formed a principal feature in the fauna of New Zealand. Their remains are found in greatest abundance in the provinces of Otago and Canterbury, often strewn in great profusion over the surface of the ground, but more usually met with buried in alluvial deposits, and in swamps; and they indicate that many of the species attained a huge size—thus the tibia of Dinornis giganteus measures about a yard in length, and the bird itself must have stood 10 or 11 feet high. Another species, Dinornis elephantopus, although less in height, possessed, according to Professor Owen, the most massive skeleton in the entire order of birds, its toe bones almost rivalling those of the elephant. Wing bones are believed to have been entirely wanting in those species which now constitute the genus Dinornis, as also the fourth toe, which is present along with rudimentary wing bones in the species which have been placed in the new genus Palapteryx. Among living birds Dinornis agrees most closely with the Apteryx, the diminutive living representative in New Zealand of this gigantic race of bipeds, while somewhat resembling the emeu and cassowary in the formation of the feathers. Judging from their general structure, and from the habits of their nearest living allies, these great wingless birds may be supposed to have inhabited the plains and hillsides rather than the forests of New Zealand, and to have been omnivorous, feeding indiscriminately on seeds and roots, lizards and insects. Crop-stones are often found in little heaps beside their skeletons, and as these are generally such stones as occur in the neighbourhood, it has been inferred that ...