HuTTON.— 0;t the Moas of Neio Zealand. 99 



those of the Dinornithidc-E/'- In tliis he has been followed by 

 Dr. H, Woodward,! and doubtfully by Professor A. Newton, 

 who included the two families in a separate order, which he 

 called " Immanes.":|: But long ago I pointed out that these 

 characters . would have been too slight to distinguish the 

 families even if they had been correct ; § and it is now known 

 that most, probably all, of the moas had hind-toes, and that 

 no distinction in osseous tissue can be made out. I therefore 

 include them all in one family. 



Genera. 



Sir R. Owen founded the genus Dinornis in 1843, on the 

 leg-bones of D. siruthioidcs\\ and several other species. In 

 1846 he formed a new genus — Palapteryx — to receive those 

 species in which he had inferred the existence of a hind-toe — 

 namely, P. ingens, and P. dromioides. In 1848 he described a 

 cranium as that of P. geranoides (really P. dromioides), and 

 another as P. dromioides (probably G. geranoides). Still later 

 he unfortunately described the skull oi Aijtornis as that of 

 Dinornis casuarinus, and he thus made a wide difference be- 

 tween Dinornis and Palaxiteryx. The mistake was pointed 

 out by Professor W. K. Parker; and Owen abandoned his 

 genus Palapteryx, not considering that the absence or presence 

 of a hind-toe was, by itself, sufficient to distinguish the two 

 genera. ^i 



In 1850 Eeichenbach, in his " Das Natiirhche System der 

 Vogei," made six new genera out of the eight species which 

 Professor Owen had described up to that time, so that each 

 genus contained one species only. I have not seen this book, 

 and know it only by Owen's quotation, -'^^'^ but it would seem 

 that_ Eeichenbach shot at a venture, because he could not 

 possibly have given good characters to his genera. In 1874 

 Sir J. von Haast grouped the moas of the South Island into 

 four genera — two in his Dinornithidae and two in his Pal- 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. vi., p. 42-i. In Nicholson's " Manual of 

 Paleontology," vol. ii., p. 122G, Mr. Lydekker says, " According to the 

 late Sir J. von Haast, the Palapterygidae were provided with rudimentary 

 wings. "_ This is a mistake, for Dr. Haast distinctly says that his Pal- 

 apterygidse had not even a scapulo-coracoid. 



t Proc. Geol. Association, 1885, p. 363. Dr. Woodward's reference in 

 this paper to Erythromachus as belonging to the Apterygidte is a mis- 

 take. It is a carinate ralline bird, thought by A. Milne-Edwards to be 

 allied to Ocydromus. 



X Encyclopajdia Britannica, 9th ed., art. " Birds," p. 73, and art. 

 "Ornithology," p. 44. 



§ Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. ix., p. 363. 



II Proc. Zool. Soc, 1843, p. 8; and Trans. Zool. Soc, vol. iii., p. 285. 



1[ Ext. Birds of N.Z., p. 258. 



** Ext. Birds of N.Z., p. 417. 



