120 Transactions.— Zoology. 



individual leg in the Wellington Museum, the exact locality 

 of which is not known. No. 2 is from Opito, Mercury Bay, 

 described by Professor Owen as belonging to D. gracilis, Ext. 

 Birds of N.Z., p. 220. 



The South Island birds were, on the average, rather 

 more slender than those of the North Island, but the difference 

 is very slight. The cranium figured in Ext. Birds of N.Z., 

 pi. xvi., figs. 1-4, is from Poverty Bay. 



Genus PALAPTEEYX. 



Palapteryx (part) of Owen ; Palapteryx of Reichenbach, 

 not of Haast. 



Skull moderately depressed, the lambdoidal ridge curved, 

 but the parietals hardly rising above it. The breadth at the 

 squamosals rather more than one and three quarter times the 

 height from the basi-temporal. Length from the supra- 

 occipital to the nasals more than the breadth at the squa- 

 mosals. Occipital coiidyle exposed from above, hidden 

 laterally by the paroccipital processes. Beak about as long 

 as the head, more compressed than in Dinornis ; the lower 

 mandible but slightly curved. Plate XV., fig. 3. 



Sternum with well-marked coracoid pits. The length of 

 the body about three quarters of the breadth. Lateral pro- 

 cesses diverging at a small angle from the middle line, short, 

 the breadth across their ends about 1-1 times the breadth of 

 the body. 



Scaijulo-coracoid with a glenoid cavity. Probably, there- 

 fore, rudimentary wings were present. 



Pelvis narrow, and the acetabula set very far back. 

 Greatest breadth at the anti-trochanters about three quarters of 

 the length of the pre-acetabular portion of the ilium. Length 

 of the ilium about 1-8 times the length of the pre-acetabuiar 

 portion. Metatarsus longer than the femur ; its length between 

 2-5 and 3-25 times the girth at the middle of the shaft. Tibia 

 about t\\ ice the length of the metatarsus ; its length between 

 4"6 and 5*4 times the girth. Femur more slender than in any 

 other genus; its length from 2-4 to 2-9 times the girth of the 

 shaft. 



No complete skeleton of this genus has been found, and the 

 different bones are grouped together by inference only. Pro- 

 fessor Owen has inferred the existence of a hind-toe, but it has 

 not yet been actually found. The genus is intermediate be- 

 tween Dinornis and Anomalopteryx, but the possession of a 

 wing, the backward position of the acetabula, and the slender 

 femora are peculiarities. 



