The suburban citizen., 1900-01-13
ANIMALS RRDIscOYERED.
NOtOrnis Of New Zealand and the South
American Ground SlOth.


Every one who is solicitous for the
preservation and protection of vanish
ing bird fauna viii hear with interest
of the rediscovery near Invercargill of
Mantelrs notornis, the large, hightless
gallinuis Of New Zealand. Little more
than fifty years have elapsed since the
first bones of this creature were sent
to England, and determined by Prot.
Owen to belong to a bird of the rail
family of which we have in Britain
seven examples; four Of them, the land
rail, the water rail, the coOt and the
moor hen. being generally familiar,
while the other three are more or less
frequent visitors to our Islands. AS
the imperfect skull on which Owen
based his opinion was clearly fossil, It
was believed that the bird was eX-
tinct, but within two years couple Oh
skins were sent 10 England by Walter
Mantel. son of the eminent palaeon-
tologist, and in 1850 the father had the
satisfaction of bringing before the ZOO
logical Society the results of his sons
finds. which are now to be seen IN
the bird gallery of the London Natural
History Museum.
From these specimens visitors may
see what the notornis was like: whlle'
in addition to illustration in Sir Walter
Bullen's Birds Of New Zealand,
which appeals to ornthologists there
have been published figures of the
birds in books intended for the gen
eral public Unfortunately, the bones
of these two examples were not pre-
served. so that our national collection
is without a skeleton, though there Is
one. the skull of which is Imperfect,
in Dresden, and another in Dunedin
Museum. The redscovery Of the bird
may perhaps give rise to hopes, scarce
ly likely TO be realized of the reten-
ton of this form for some time longer
in the New Zealand avifauna. From
the nature of the case it seems hardly
possible to adopt measures of protec-
ton for the few stragglers that may
yet survive, though the legislators anu
scientific men at the antipodes should
be able to take such measures as VIII
insure the utilization to the full of all
material that may come to hand.
From South America comes still
stranger news-the confirmation OF the
long lumored discovery of a living rep
resentative Of the gigantic ground
sloth. Some years ago collector
named Ramon Lista reported to Dr.
Ameghno of Buenos Ayres that he had
seen and shot at n mysterious amman
in the interior of Santa Cruz, in the
southern portion of the Argentine ter
ritory. According TO his description,
the animal in size and shape resembled
a pankolin-the scaly ant eater OF the
old world-but was without scales ana
covered with reddish hair. He was
confident that he had hit the creature
which was proof against his bullet, ana
disappeared in the thick brushwood,
where long and careful search proved
Intellectual. The collector was known
to be competent naturalist a good
observer and a trustworthy man.
Nevertheless. the tale seemed so eX-
traordinary that DR.. Ameghino felt
sure that Lista had been in some way
mistaken. Yet the correctness OF his
observations has now been completely
vindicated for some remains of an
animal shot by Indians in Patagonia
have recently been sent to DR.. Anne
Chino, and these, in his opinion, put
the existence of this creature, hereto
fore unknown to science, beyond doubt.
The skin has no scales but imbedded
in it are bony plates comparable to
those of the mylodOn, one of the gigan-
tic ground sloths which, too bulky to
be aboreal. procured their food by
supporting themselves on the hind
limbs and tail and tearing down the
branches of trees. The larger forms,
which rivaled the elephant in size, be-
came extinct in the Plestocene period,
but in Tertiary times a smaller form
seems to have existed.
Justice has at last been done to the
memory Of Lista, who died in explor
ing the Pilcomayo, for in naming this
important find Neomylodon Listai Dr.
Ameghino has at once expressed his
opinion as TO its relationship and com
memorated the only naturalist who has
seen the animal in the flesh.