522 STRUCTURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS 



in one specimen a radiale is present in the carpus, in another 

 a bone which appears to represent radiale and distal carpals ; 

 this specimen had a free third metacarpal. In two other 

 instances there is a carpo-nietacarpus, as in A. cms trails. 

 There are two or three phalanges and, as always, a claw to 

 the index. 



The development of the manus of Apteryx shows plainly 

 what is also apparent from its adult structure, that it is in a 

 condition of degeneration. Traces of three distal carpals, as 

 well as of radiale and ulnare, are visible ; all the metacarpals 

 are distinct, the third being as long as the second and having 

 a rudimentary phalanx. 



The -ZEpyornithidse, containing the type genus sEpyornis 

 and a recently established new genus, Mullerornis, 1 was for 

 some time only known by the subfossil egg and by the 

 bones of the hind limb. More recently Messrs. MILNE- 

 ED WARDS and GEANDIDIEE, and more recently again Mr. 

 C. W. ANDREWS, have described other parts of the skeleton, 

 so that now, though there are still many lacunae, we have a 

 fair knowledge of several important parts of the skeleton. 

 This family is limited to Madagascar, where its remains have 

 been found chiefly in marshes. 



The skull is only incompletely known the palate, for 

 instance, so important in determining its affinities, is quite 

 unknown being only represented by what is little more 

 than a calvaria, and by an imperfect mandible. The occipital 

 condyle is pedunculate, as in the moas. The frontal region 

 of the skull is covered by many pits, which are arranged in 

 a fairly regular fashion ; it is suggested that these may be 

 the marks of the inplantation of feathers, of which, therefore, 

 the Mpyornis may have possessed a frontal crest a feature 

 which has also been observed in certain moas. There are 

 also, as in the moas, a prominent basi-temporal platform, 



1 ' Observations sur les JEpyornis de Madagascar,' Comptcs Bend, cxviii. 

 1894, p. 122 ; ' Sur les Ossements d'Oiseaux,' &c., Bull. Mus. Nat. Hist. 1895, 

 p. 9 ; ' On the Skull, Sternum, and Shoulder Girdle of JEpyprnis,'' Ibis (7), ii. 

 p. 376 ; ' On some Remains of JEpyornis in the British Museum,' P. Z. S. 1894, 

 p. 108. 



