4 o8 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



head of the rudimentary humerus. Further descriptions 

 and figures of this valuable specimen will no doubt be of 

 great service in settling the question of the affinities of the 

 family. The authors incline strongly to the view that 

 sEpyornis is closely related to Dinornis, and, as in their 

 former paper on this subject, suggest the former existence 

 of a land connection between Madagascar and New Zealand 

 to account for this relationship. In conclusion they state 

 that there is clear evidence that Aipyornis was contemporary 

 with man, and also mention that remains of a species of 

 Aphanapteryx and a large extinct anserine bird occur in the 

 same deposits. 



In a later paper (20) the same authors describe in some 

 detail the skull of one of the smaller forms included in the 

 genus Mullerornis. This is said to differ widely from that 

 of JEpyornis, the cranial region being much less depressed 

 and the frontals raised so as to form a prominent boss. The 

 basi-pterygoid processes are only slightly developed, and the 

 anterior region of the premaxillae is more compressed and 

 forms a rounded keel above. Of all recent Struthious birds 

 the Cassowary is said to most resemble Mullerornis, both in 

 its cranial characters and in many points in the remainder 

 of the skeleton. 



An interesting account of the mode of occurrence of the 

 bones and eggs of the JEpyornithida is given by Mr. J. T. 

 Last (21), who resided in the island for some time and made 

 collections in several localities. It appears that the bones 

 are usually found in the dried beds of ancient lakes or in 

 swamps, where they sometimes occur in large numbers ; 

 the eggs, on the other hand, are rarely found in such 

 places, but occur in great quantities (in fragments) in the 

 shifting sand-dunes round the coast. 



In 1893 Professor Jeffrey Parker (22) published a new 

 classification of the Moas, founded on the characters of the 

 skulls. This paper is merely an abstract from his important 

 memoir on the cranial osteology of the group, which will be 

 noticed below. Here we need only mention that the 

 Dinornit hidce were subdivided into three sub-families, the 

 Dinormthince, Anomalopterygince, and the Emeince, and 



