Hamilton. — On the Genus Aptornis. 177 



James Hector, on a collection of bones found by Captain 

 Fraser in a cave near Alexandra, in the Otago Lake District ;'■' 

 and the other by Professor Owen, being a restoration of the 

 Gnemiornis skeleton from additional material received by 

 him. 



The coracoid which Professor Owen there figures on plate 

 cii., Mr. H. 0. Forbes identified in 1889 before the Philo- 

 sophical Institute of Canterbury as belonging to A2)tornis ; 

 and this identification I can now confirm, and show that the 

 bone does not need the conjectural additions shown in pi. cii., 

 as the union with the sternum is a ragged one, sometimes 

 anchylosed, and not by a synovial joint. I must also claim 

 from this Gnemiornis paper not only all the vertebrae figured 

 on plate cii., but also those given on plate Ixvi., "Extinct 

 Birds of New Zealand," as vertebrae of Aptornis defossor. 



Sir James Hector only figures a few dorsal vertebrae of 

 Gnemiornis in his paper, but these are quite sufficient to show 

 the great difference in almost every character from Aptornis.\ 



With the exception of the phototype of the nearly complete 

 skeleton of an individual of the smaller species, now in the 

 Canterbury Museum, published in Dr. von Haast's " Geology 

 of Canterbury and "Westland" (1879), and the figures of the 

 type specimens accompanying the papers in the Proceedings of 

 the Zoological Society (reproduced in the "Extinct Birds of 

 New Zealand "), little else has been published on this genus. 



It has fallen to the lot of Mr. W. S. Mitchell, of Lake 

 Manapouri Station, Southland (1889), to find a number of 

 bones of Aptornis defossor in some limestone caves on the 

 Oreti Eiver, in Southland, and through his kindness I have the 

 opportunity of describing this important find, and I shall 

 endeavour to supply a little information on points which 

 could not well be made out from the original types. 



All the bones came from a series of limestone caves, and 

 are still partly covered with incrustation of fine limestone 

 dust, but in the majority of cases the bones are in perfect 

 condition. After careful and prolonged examination, I find 

 that six or seven individuals are represented, and that in 

 four cases the bones can be allotted to the skeleton without 

 much doubt as to their having formed part of an individual 

 bird. But the most important fact to be observed is that 

 here there is no mixture of " doubtful " bones, all the 

 other bones obtained from these caves and fissures at the 

 same time and in the same neighbourhood being easily- 

 distinguished species of Dinornis, kiwi, kakapo, (Stringops), 

 &c., and in no instance have any Gnemiornis bones been found 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. vi. 



t Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. vi., pi. xiv. 



12 



