104 Transactions. — Zoology. 



the paroccipital process. In the interior of the brain-case the 

 tentorial ridge is low, as also is the bony plate bet%Yeen the 

 cerebral and optic fossse. The optic foramina are widely 

 separated. The olfactory cavities are very large, extending 

 backward between the orbits nearly to the optic foramina, 

 each with a separate olfactory foramen. The lateral ethmoids 

 are large, but do not appear on the upper surface of the skull ; 

 they are rolled up into a small spiral process in the posterior 

 portion of each olfactory chamber, forming the posterior 

 turbinals. The internasal septum is perforated posteriorly. 

 The pterygoids articulate with basi-pterygoid processes, which 

 arise from the basi-sphenoid. The rostrum is very long; 

 the ventral border of the presphenoid is produced on each 

 side into a horizontal triangular plate. The vomers are 

 broad and separate ; they articulate posteriorly with the 

 pterygoids, and are connected with the palatines. The pala- 

 tines join the vomers posteriorly, and also articulate with the 

 pterygoids ; the maxillary processes are produced forward, and 

 end anteriorly in horizontal expansions, which are interposed 

 between the maxillaries and the vomers ; there are no distinct 

 maxillo-palatine processes. The upper squamosal head of the 

 quadrate is broad and single. The nasals anchylose with each 

 other posteriorly. The beak is rather short, never much 

 longer than the head, more or less curved downwards. The 

 eye had a ring of bony sclerotic plates. 



The vertebral column consists of from 54 to 56 vertebrae, as 

 follows : Cervical, 20 or 21 ;-■= cervico-thoracic, 3 or 2 ; 

 thoracic, 7, of which the last three or four are united to the 

 pelvis ; lumbar and sacral, 10 or 11 ; caudal, 14 or 15, of 

 which the first three or four are united to the pelvis, and the 

 last two or three are anchylosed into a single bone which 

 gradually tapers to an obtuse point and is of less vertical 

 height than the preceding free caudals. The syn-sacrum (of 

 Professor T. J. Parker) consists of seventeen or eighteen 

 vertebra3. In the cervical vertebrae the median inferior pro- 

 cess, which commences on the axis, becomes obsolete on the 

 sixth, and is never present on the seventh. Hypapophyses 

 commence on the seventh, the two laminae are furthest apart 

 on the fifteenth or sixteenth, then approach again and fuse on 

 the eighteenth or nineteenth without forming a hasmal canal. 

 The neural spine, which is single on the axis, divides into two 

 laminae on the third, which usually remain separate until the 



* Hutton, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 5, vol. i., p. 407, and vol. ii., 

 p. 494 (1878). Owen, Trans. Zool. See, vol. xi., p. 235 (1882). Haast, 

 Trans. Zool. Soc, vol. xii., p. 174 (1836). lu Owen's Ext. Birds of 

 N.Z., pp. 392, &c., the 3rd cervical is really the 4th, the 4th is the 6th, 

 the 6th is the 8th, the 12th is the 15th, the 14th is the 18th, and the 

 15th is the 21st. 



