( 399 ) 



Latissimus doni. — As has been pointed out, this muscle consists of only one 

 piece, which may or may not be the equivalent of the two latissimi of other birds. 

 It is a much larger muscle, relatively as well as actually, in .4. haasti than in 

 A. oweni. In the former species it conceals more of the Rhomhoideus, and leaveH 

 less of the scapula bare than it does in A. oweni. 



Deltoids. — In A. haasti I foand, in addition to the deltoid present in all 

 ApterijT, a broadish strap-shaped slip of muscle arising from the scapula super- 

 ficially to the deltoid, passing over it, and inserted on to the humerus below it 

 by a fleshy insertion. The existence of this muscle seems to me to show that 

 the single deltoid of the majority of species of Aptert/x is not, as it has been 

 called, a delloides major, perhaps including a representative of the minor, but 

 definitely a deltoides minor inserted, as it should be, above the insertion of the 

 major.* 



Rhomhoideus. — There is no special remark to be made about this muscle, 

 except to confirm the already known fact that it is a single muscle. I found 

 it relatively largest in .1. austi'ciiis. 



Teres. — There is but one teres, which is very much larger in the smaller 

 A. oweni than in A. haasti, an undoubtedly bigger species. It was also relatively 

 small in A. australis. 



Serratns profundus. — This muscle is stated by Furbringer to consist of four 

 slips in Apteryx. In A. hua.iti I found but three slips, two longer than the third, 

 which was inserted in common with the second. In A. australis all four were 

 present. In A. oweni the fourth (most posterior) slip, which arose from the rib 

 as the third, was represented by an excessively slender piece. 



The serratus superficialis consisted of four distinct bundles in A. australis, of 

 apparently only three in ^4.. haasti, and of only two in A. oweni. 



Abdominal Viscera. 



The arrangement of the septa which subdivide the body cavity offers nothing 

 specially noteworthy. The intestines are contained in a spacious cavity, which is as 

 usual shut off from that which lodges the lobes of the liver by a horizontal septum. 

 This latter is attached to the ventral body wall just behind the liver lobes. The 

 latter are divided from each other by the usual falciform ligament. 



The intestinal tract, as it lies undisturbed, shows the usual duodenal loop, 

 inclined apically to the left side of the body ; to the right of this are the irregular 

 coils of the greater part of the small intestine. Thence emerges the ileum, which 

 runs across the body cavity below the gizzard, and accompanied by the caeca ; this 

 bends back and passes into the short straight rectum. 



The arrangement of the intestines, when compared with Mr. P. Chalmers 

 Mitchell's important series of figures of the avian intestine, is seen to conform 

 closely to the type characteristic of Casuarius and Dromaeus. But the duodenal 

 looji is narrow across, and not wide like that of Casuarius : the gut, too, is not very 

 much folded. There is no other bird to which Apteryx shows a closer likeness in 

 these matters : a further argument for the close association of all the Struthiones. 

 The large intestine is short. The vitelline caecum is very plain, and in a specimen 

 of A. australis was attached to the abdominal wall. 



As is usual in birds, the median mesenteric vein runs straight through the 



• This muscle can hardly be a propat.igiali^ which has shifted its insertion I 



28 



