128 



Transactions. — Zoology. 



pi. Ixviii., figs. 5, 6 (as geranoides) ; pelvis, pi. xx.a (as 



didiformis) . 



Breadth of skull at temporal fossee, l-65m. ; at post-frontal 

 processes, 2-65in. The skull is as large as that of C. geranoides, 

 but differs from that species in the backward slope of the 

 supra-occipital, the great prominence of the lambdoidal ridge, 

 as well as the greater flattening of the parietals. The sternum 

 has the lateral processes diverging at a small angle, as in 

 Syornis. 



Distribution. — The type is from Poverty Bay. It was 

 common in the Te Ante Swamp, and the most abundant of all 

 the species at Whangarei ; taking the place in the north of 

 C. geranoides in the south. No. 1 are the measurements of 

 the type specimen of D. oiueni, from Whangarei, now in the 

 Auckland Museum. 



I regret that I cannot maintain D. oiueni as a separate 

 species. It is only a small individual of C. curtus, with the 

 same proportions and the same geographical distribution. 

 Sir J. von Haast says that the femur is stouter and the 

 metatarsus more slender in curtns than in oiveni; but my 

 measurements do not bear this out, and the supposed ana- 

 tomical differences between them are only individual varia- 

 tions, which may be found in almost every species of moa. If 

 oiueni is to be separated from curtus, then, for the sake of 

 uniformity, most of the species should be split into two, for 

 they show quite as wide a range of variation. 



