4 Transactions. — Zoology. 



skin on which no feathers are retained, but, as Sir E. Owen 

 says,' ;: " their pits of insertion are manifest, slightly increasing 

 in size towards the occiput and upon the cervical integument, 

 where the pits become prominent." This, of course, indicates 

 that in the species under discussion the feathers on the head 

 were quite small. 



Through the kindness of Sir James Hector I have lately 

 had the opportunity of examining an almost perfect moa's 

 skull in the Colonial Museum, Wellington. It was found in 

 1879 by Mr. A. McKay, + on the Salisbury Table-land, Nelson, 

 in association with the neck, and in my forthcoming paper on 

 the skull of the Dinornitliidiv is referred to as Mcsoptcmjx, 

 species b. 



On the anterior region of the skull-roof in this specimen 

 (PI. I.) are numerous small shallow pits, from one to two 

 millimetres in diameter. They are arranged in two symme- 

 trical groups, a median space about 20mm. long by 15mm. 

 in diameter being entirely free from them : the two groups 

 are, however, connected immediately posterior to this bare 

 area by a narrow band of small and shallow pits. They are 

 absent on the supra-orbital ridge and on the pre-orbital pro- 

 cess (lacrymal). The hinder boundary of the entire pitted area 

 is a line joining the posterior borders of the post-orbital pro- 

 cesses, its anterior boundary a line joining the posterior edges 

 of the pre-orbital processes. On the right side the arrange- 

 ment of the pits is quite irregular, but on the left they are 

 arranged in more or less regular lines radiating from the 

 curved posterior border of the pre-maxillary groove or de- 

 pressed area on the nasals for the reception of the nasal 

 process of the pre-maxilla. 



In the skull of the type specimen of Dinornis torosus, 

 Hutton, kindly lent to me by Mr. E. I. Kingsley, a similar 

 pitted area is seen. There is, however, no bare space behind 

 the pre-maxillary groove, and the pits extend forwards, on 

 each side of the pre-maxillary groove, onto the exposed portions 

 of the nasals, and are also continued onto the pre-orbital pro- 

 cesses (lacrymals). Moreover, while very faint markings can 

 be seen as far back as the posterior edge of the post-orbital 

 process, the distinct, well-marked pits reach only as far back 

 as its anterior border. As in Mcsopteryx, species b, they are 

 arranged in fairly-distinct radiating lines, and those in the 

 middle — i.e., immediately posterior to the pre-maxillary groove 

 — are much smaller than the rest. 



In two skulls of Anomaloptcrijx didiformis, Owen, belong- 

 ing to Mr. A. Hamilton, there are paired pitted areas, similar 



* " On Dinornis," Part 24, Trans. Zool. Soc, vol. xi., p. 257 

 f " Reports of Geological Explorations " (N.Z.), 1878-79, p. 131. 



