ORNITHOLOGY CURSORES. HI 



CURSORES. 



The most important discovery which has been made in 

 this year is the indication of a gigantic bird of the short- 

 winged order, named by Owen Dinornis, and found in New 

 Zealand. 



From the fragment of a femur found in New Zealand, Owen had, three 

 years since, concluded that a struthious Bird, of the size of the Ostrich, had 

 existed, or perhaps even still existed in that country. More accurate indi- 

 cations are now afforded, Mr. Williams, a missionary stationed in that 

 island, having collected many of these bones, and consigned them to Prof. 

 Bucklaud, who submitted them to Owen for determination. The bones, which 

 are not at all fossilized, were dug out of the mud of streams flowing from 

 the lofty mountains, and are in excellent preservation. A perfect femur 

 presents almost the same relative thickness and length as that of the Ostrich, 

 it is, however, less compressed ; it differs, consequently, from that of the 

 Apteryx, in being shorter in proportion to its thickness. It differs from the 

 femur of the Ostrich and Emu in the important circumstance, that it 

 wants the air-hole behind the neck ; consequently medulla is substituted for 

 air in the interior of the bone. It is 11 inches long, and has in the middle 

 a circumference of 5 J inches ; whilst the latter, in another specimen, amounts 

 to 7i inches. A tibia is 2 feet 4J inches long, and apparently corresponds 

 with the larger femur. It differs from the same bone of the Apteryx, and 

 all the large StrutliionicUe, in having a complete osseous canal for the passage 

 of an extensor tendon in the anterior concavity, above the distal coudyles. 

 The most instructive bone is a tarso-metatarsal bone, which shows that the 

 gigantic Bird was tridactyle, in which respect it differs from both Apteryx 

 and the Dodo. From these researches, it appears that the great New Zealand 

 Bird constitutes a distinct genus in the struthious order, which is named by 

 Owen Dinornis, with the specific denomination, D. Novae Zealandiee. In 

 size it surpasses the Ostrich, and is consequently the most gigantic Bird with 

 which we are acquainted. It has not yet been seen living. (Ann. Nat. 

 Hist, xii, pp. 438, 444.) 



Owen has completed his important Monograph on the 

 genus Apteryx. (Ann. XL, p. 213.) 



The concluding part contains the detailed description of the muscular 

 system of this remarkable bird. 



Of the residence and habits of the Apteryx, Dieffeubach has given further 

 information (Travels in New Zealand, i, p. 230), which has been commu- 



