STRTJTHIONES 



jects beyond the anterior margin of the maxillo-nasal ; this 

 he has termed the alinasal. 



The number of cervical vertebrae is large, at any rate in 

 Anomaloptcryx parva, the only species in which they are 

 all without doubt preserved. There are in this bird twenty- 

 one. The sternum is longish and rather narrow 7 in Atiomalo- 

 pteryx casuariiia ; it is short and broad in Dinornis maximus. 

 In all it has a pair of lateral notches strongly marked ; the 

 lateral processes are strongly divergent. There is also a 

 median posterior notch. 



The pectoral girdle is but little known, and appears 

 sometimes to have been completely absent. 



In the pelvis the bones are separate and the pectineal 

 process but little marked. 



That the feathers have large aftershafts, like the emu, 

 &c., was first discovered by the late Mr. DALLAS.' Sir B. 

 OWEN has figured the ossified rings of the trachea ; but they 

 present no special features of interest. 



As to their relationships with other ratites, T. J. PARKER 

 is of opinion that they form, together with the Apteryx and 

 cassowaries, a definite branch of the struthious tree, as in 

 the annexed diagram, which is from his paper. FURBRINGER 

 comes to conclusions which are not greatly different. The 

 relations of the Dinornithida3 to Strutliio and Eliea are 

 ' ganz entfernt,' to Dromceus and Casuarius ' fern,' but 

 to Apteryx ' nahe.' 



There is no doubt that Struthio is removed far from the 

 Dinornithidae, as well as from other ratites, by the structure 

 of its palate, which diverges much. But it not clear that 

 Rhea is so remote ; the existence of an apparent homologue 

 of the maxillo-nasal bone, to which I have referred in the 

 description of the skull of Rhea, is a point of somewhat 

 striking likeness to Emeus, while the conformation of the 

 skull generally in Rhea does not seem to divide it very 

 deeply from Caxinirins, kc. Though no doubt T. J. PARKER 

 is right in directing attention to the special resemblances in 

 the skulls of Apteryx and the Dinornithidee, it must not be 



1 ' On the Feathers of Dinornis robnstus,' OWEN, P. Z. S. 1865, p. 205. 



