98 Transactions. — Zoology. 



in others, but it was never much longer than the head. The 

 neck was remarkably long, having nearly as many vertebrae 

 as a swan, and was very strong and muscular. The body was 

 short and plump, without any wings ; while the legs were 

 very massive, and with particularly muscular thighs. The 

 length of the leg differed very much ; and some of the South 

 Island species must have been absurd- looking creatures — 

 nearly as broad as high, with short, heavy, stumpy legs, on 

 which they could hardly waddle. Probably all of them had a 

 hind-toe which was raised from the ground. The claws were 

 strong, and formed good implements for scratching. Those of 

 the front toes were curved, while that of the hind-toe was 

 nearly straight. Like other struthious birds, they voided their 

 urine separately, and dry faeces have been found in a cave 

 near Queenstown, which proved, what had previously been in- 

 ferred from the gizzard-stones, that the moas were vegetable 

 feeders.''' Evidently the birds were stupid and sluggish, and 

 probably diggers of the ground. 



Very little is known about the soft parts, but the integu- 

 ment, tendons, and some of the muscles of the leg and foot of 

 D. ■potens,\ S. crassus,l and M. diclinus^ have been described 

 by Sir E. Owen, by Dr. Coughtrey, and by myself. The in- 

 tegument and muscles of the neck of S. crossns\\ have been 

 described by Sir James Hector and by Dr. Coughtrey ; and the 

 head of M. didinus'n by Sir E. Owen. Two fragments of 

 egg-shell found in Monck's Cave, near Sumner, have the shell- 

 membrane still remaining.'''" It is very thick, fibrous, and 

 stained browai : the egg-shell is white. 



Classification of the Moas. ft 



Sir Julius von Haast, in 1874, divided the moas into two 

 families — the Dinornithidae and the Palapterygida?, character- 

 ized by the absence or presence of a hind-toe, and by a sup- 

 posed difference in the osseous tissue of the bones ; those of 

 the Palapterygidag being, he thought, rougher on the exterior, 

 harder, thicker, more dense, and consequently heavier, than 



* Taylor White, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. viii., p. 99. 

 t Ext. Birds of N.Z., p. 2i8, pi. Ixxi. ; Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. vii., 

 pp. 267 and 271. 



I Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. vii., p. 143. 

 § Trans. Zool. Soc, vol. xi., p. 257. 



II Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. iv., p. 114 ; and vol. vii., p. 141. 

 M Trans. Zool. Soc, vol. ii., p. 257. 



** The "internal epidermis" of Mr. Forbes. Trans. N.Z. Inst., 

 vol. xxiii., p. 374. 



it I regret that I have not been able to see Mr. Lydekker's " Cata- 

 logue of the Fossil Birds in the British Museum," 1891. No copy has as 

 yet been received in tJhristchurch. 



