92 Transactions. — Zoology. 



important of the species at present recognised among the 

 remains. 



Harpagornis. 



Pride of place will certainly be yielded to the great extinct 

 eagle, first made known by the excavations of Sir Julius von 

 Haast at Glenmark, and described by him twenty-one years 

 ago (1871). Very few bones have since been found, except at 

 Hamilton Swamp and Enfield. I was therefore much pleased 

 when I found very near the surface the ulna of Harpagornis, 

 and shortly after one of the huge claws, or ungual phalanges. 

 Piece by piece we found most of the important bones of the 

 body, and on the last day of our digging we found the long- 

 looked-for skull, nearly perfect. Up to the present time only 

 two very much broken crania have been found — one at Motu- 

 nau, and the other, rather more perfect, at Enfield. Strangely 

 enough, none of the bones found were duplicates, till just at 

 the last a second right coracoid, much larger than usual, was 

 found, thereby implying the presence of two skeletons, and 

 giving hope that further research will be rewarded. 



Harpagornis moorei, Von Haast. 

 Skull. — Fragments known : — 



1. Basal portion, much broken, from Motunau, North Can- 



terbury ; in Colonial Museum, Wellington." 



2. Fairly perfect calvaria, from the deposit of bones 



exhumed by Mr. H. O. Forbes at Enfield, near 

 Oamaru, Otago, 1891. 



3. Skull and upper mandible, nearly perfect, with right 



'quadrate, from Castle Eocks, Southland. 



There is a lower mandible of Harpagornis in the Christ- 

 church Museum, from the Hamilton Swamp. From its 

 measurements I should assign it to H. assimilis. Extreme 

 length, 113mm. ; extreme width at articulation, 74mm. 

 Vertebra. — From Castle Kocks : — 

 Cervicals, 4. 

 Dorsals, 6. 

 Caudals, 3. 

 Pelvis.- — From Castle Eocks: Length, 7-27in. (180mm.); 

 greatest breadth, 3-25in. (75mm.). 



The pelvis in the Colonial Museum is from Otago, and 

 was found by Mr. Low. I It measures 7"22in. in length, 

 and 3 - 38in. in width. The specimen has been figured by 

 Haast and by Owen. 



* Rep. Geol. Surv. N.Z., 1883, p. xx., and p. 76. 



t Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. iv., p. 114 (footnote) ; Trans. N.Z. Inst., 

 vol. vi., p. 71, pi. ix., figs. 1, 2, 3. Owen, " Extinct Birds of New Zea- 

 land," vol. ii., pi. cv., figs. 1, 2, 3. 



