as the floor of
the sea rose in that part of the world, became a continent stretching
northward and joining New Guinea. In that very ancient time the land
was covered with ferns and large trees. Birds (as we now know them)
had only lately come into existence in the northern hemisphere, and
when New Zealand for a time joined that area the birds, as well as a
few lizards and one kind of frog, migrated south and colonised the new
land. It is probable that the very peculiar lizard-like reptile of New
Zealand--the "tuatara" or Sphenodon--entered its area at a still
earlier stage of surface change. That creature (only 20 in. long) is
the only living representative of very remarkable extinct reptiles
which lived in the area which now is England, and, in fact, in all
parts of the world, during the Triassic period, further behind the
chalk in date than the chalk is behind our own day. For ages, this
"type" with its peculiar beak-like jaws, has survived only in New
Zealand. Living specimens have been brought to this country, and are
to be seen at the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park. Having
received, as it were, a small cargo of birds and reptiles, but no
hairy, warm-blooded quadruped, no mammal, New Zealand became at the
end of the chalk-period detached from the northern continent, and
isolated, and has remained so ever since. Migratory birds from the
north visited it, and at a late date two kinds of bat reached it and
established themselves.

Thus we are prepared for the very curious state of things in this
large tract of land. Looking at New Zealand as it was a thousand years
ago, we find there were no mammals living on it excepting a couple of
bats and the seals (so-called sea lions, sea elephants, and others)
which frequent its coasts. There were 180 species of birds, and many
of these quite peculiar to the island. Many of the birds showed in the
absence of any predatory enemies--there being no carnivorous
quadrupeds to hunt them or their young--a tendency to lose the power
of flight, and some had done so altogether. The gigantic, wingless
Moas--allied to the ostrich and the cassawary--had grown up there, and
were the masters of the situation. There were many species of
these--one of great height--one fourth taller than the biggest known
ostrich; others with short legs of monstrous thickness and strength.
Allied to these are the four species of Kiwi or apteryx, still
existing there. They are very strange wingless birds,