super-order iv EUOENITHES 271 



long, its medullary cavity with very thick walls. Tibio-tarsus and tarso- 

 metatarsus also long and slender : hallux rudimentary or absent. D. maximus, 

 Owen, attained a height of over 3'5 m. when standing. 



Palapteryx, Owen {Eurapteryx, Haast), (Fig. 372). Smaller but much 

 stouter than the preceding. Beak short and rounded; sternum Hut, broader 

 than long, without coracoidal facettes ; pelvis low and broad. Hind limbs 

 extremely massive, crus relatively short ; hallux present. Total height less 

 than 2 m. 



Anomalopteryx, Reich. Small birds of comparatively slender build. Skull 

 narrow and elevated, with sharply-pointed beak. Sternum much longer than 

 broad, moderately flattened, with faint or no coracoidal facettes, three costal 

 facettes on each side, and a pair of long and slender lateral processes. Tai 

 metatarsus shorter than the femur, and scarcely half as lon<r as the tibio- 

 tarsus ; hallux present. 



Megalapteryx, Mesopteryx, Haast. These genera accompany the preceding, 

 but are less satisfactorily known. 



Order 2. APTERYGES. 1 



This order contains the small, flightless birds of the genus Apteryx, found 

 only in Xew Zealand. They are readily distinguished by their long, rather 

 slender beaks, and by the nostrils opening at the end of the beak, a point 

 wherein thev differ from all other birds. The sternum is broad, the wings 

 minute, the foot four-toed, the first digit being small, and above the level of 

 the others. Remains of several species of Apteryx, mainly ascribable to living 

 species, occur in superficial deposits of Xew Zealand. 



Order 3. CRYPTURI. 



The tinamous, constituting the order Crypturi, are Dromaeognaihae, having a 

 long, narrow keeled sternum, with a long, slender lateral process on either 

 side. In the shortening of the vomer, and moving forward of the palatine 

 region, they show an approach towards the Euomithes. The tinamous resemble 

 little ostriches in their appearance, but have a limited power of flight ; and 

 because of this, their small size, and keeled sternum, they have been kept near 

 the gallinaceous birds. It may well be that they retain the primitive characters 

 of the group from which some of the Gallinae have been derived, but it is of 

 interest to note that while in some details of their musculature they resemble 

 the fowls, in other and more striking points they resemble the ostriches. The 

 group is eminently characteristic of South America, although it extends north- 

 wards into Mexico. So far verv few fossil remains of the tinamous have been 

 found, and these from comparatively recent deposits. 



Super-Order 4. EUORNITHES. 



The super-order Eiwrntthes comprises the vast majority of existing birds, 

 and is the equivalent of the Carinatae, less Ichthyornis, and the tinamous. Its 

 members are characterised by having the Euornithic type of skull (see p. 260), 



1 Parker, T. J.. Anatomy an«l Development of Apteryx (Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc), London, 1^91. 



