HuTTON. — On the Moas of Neio Zealand. 105 



nineteenth or twentieth, when they coalesce. The dorsal ver- 

 tebrae are remarkable for the thick neural spine and the small 

 neural canal. The centrum is saddle-shaped in all of them. 



There are nine or ten pairs of vertebral ribs, of which the 

 last three or four pairs are attached to the pelvis. The first 

 two or three pairs are cervico-thoracic, are often very short, 

 and have no sternal ribs. The thoracic ribs have sternal ribs, 

 of which the first and second pairs, and in most genera the 

 third pair also, are connected with the sternum. The true 

 ribs, and some of the floating ribs, bear uncinates, which are 

 often anchylosed to the rib. These uncinates are of nearly 

 equal breadth throughout, and are not expanded at the proxi- 

 mal end : their length is from 1-5 to 2-5 times the breadth. 



The sternum is broad and flat, with its anterior border 

 slightly concave. The costal (anterior xiphoid) processes are 

 nearly horizontal. There is one long lateral (posterior xiphoid) 

 process on each side, and the posterior median process is often 

 notched at the end. Coracoid grooves are reduced to shallow 

 oval pits, and may be absent altogether, or developed on one 

 side only. It is a very variable bone, and often unsymmetrical. 

 There is no median centre of ossification. 



A scapulo-coracoid is present in three genera and absent in 

 the others. The coracoidal portion is subcylindrical, rounded 

 at the proximal end, and attached to the sternum by ligament 

 only. The scapular portion is nearly one and a half times the 

 length of the coracoid : it is slightly flattened and curved in 

 the plane of the coraco-scapular angle only. This angle varies 

 between 145° and 125°, and the bone is sometimes flattened 

 and broadened at the angle. There were no clavicles. 



Wings appear to have been present in Palajoteryx only. 



The i^elvis is broader than that of any other ratite bird. 

 The ilia commence to diverge a little in front of the acetabula, 

 and come together again, enclosing a broad oval sacrum. 

 The ischia and pubes are generally free for their whole length, 

 but sometimes they are attached together for a short distance 

 a little before the middle, leaving a small obturator fissure ; 

 and occasionally (? in very old birds) the posterior ends 

 are united, but the ischia always remain free from the ilia. 

 There is no pectineal process. 



The femur is nearly straight anteriorly, and is distinguished 

 by the tuberosities on the posterior part of the shaft, by the 

 trochanter rising above the articular head, by the great size 

 of the distal end and the great breadth of the rotular surface. 

 There is no pneumatic foi'amen, and the dense bony wall of 

 the shaft is very thick." The patella I is bony and trihedral ; 



* Ext. Birds of N.Z., pi. xxix., fig. 1. 



t Trans. Zool. Soc, vol. ii., pi. li. and Iviii. 



