As regards the _Vertebrate_ animals of the period, no extinct
forms of Fishes, Amphibians, or Reptiles are known to occur,
but we meet with both extinct Birds and extinct Mammals. The
remains of the former are of great interest, as indicating the
existence during Post-Pliocene times, at widely remote points
of the southern hemisphere, of various wingless, and for the
most part gigantic, Birds. All the great wingless Birds of the
order _Cursores_ which are known as existing at the present day
upon the globe, are restricted to regions which are either wholly
or in great part south of the equator. Thus the true Ostriches are
African; the Rheas are South American; the Emeus are Australian;
the Cassowaries are confined to Northern Australia, Papua, and the
Indian Archipelago; the species of _Apteryx_ are natives of New
Zealand; and the Dodo and Solitaire (wingless, though probably
not true _Cursores_), both of which have been exterminated within
historical times, were inhabitants of the islands of Mauritius
and Rodriguez, in the Indian Ocean. In view of these facts, it
is noteworthy that, so far as known, all the Cursorial Birds
of the Post-Pliocene period should have been confined to the
same hemisphere as that inhabited by the living representatives
of the order. It is still further interesting to notice that
the extinct forms in question are only found in geographical
provinces which are now, or have been within historical times,
inhabited by similar types.
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