Hutton. — The Axial Skeleton in the Dinornithidce. 163 



not project beyond the 45th or 46th vertebra; its lateral 

 surface slopes downwards and outwards ; and posteriorly it 

 descends as a sharp ridge below the vertebral column. The 

 ischia and pubes project backwards beyond the ilia. The 

 ventral surfaces of the sacral vertebrae — 35 to 37 — are short, 

 broad, and flat. The transverse processes of Nos. 38 and 39 

 are at right angles to the axis, but in all the posterior vertebras 

 these processes slope obliquely backwards, thus leaving a 

 triangular fossa on each side behind the usual pelvic fossae. 



Sternum. 

 The body is broad, with well-marked coracoid pits, short 

 costal processes, long and diverging curved lateral processes, 

 and the median process often notched. 



Genus MEGALAPTERYX, Haast (1885). 

 Type — M. tenuipes, Lydekker. 



Figures. — Pelvis, Lydekker, Fossil Birds in Brit. Mus., 

 p. 278, fig. 63, and fig. 61 (outline). 



The twelve more or less imperfect vertebrae here described 

 were found in a cave in the Lower Buller district with a 

 cranium and leg-bones of M. tenuipes. The cranium has 

 been described by Dr. Parker in Trans. Zool. Soc. 



Cervical Vertebra. 



In the middle cervical region the centra are long and 

 narrow ; the post-axial surfaces broad. The hypapophyses 

 arise considerably behind the pre-axial surface. The neural 

 ridges are very low and flat, converging rapidly anteriorly ; 

 the transverse bar low, and rising very obliquely. A saucer- 

 shaped depression on each side at the pre-axial base 

 of the neural ridge. Faces of the post-zygapophyses more 

 horizontal than in Dinornis. The posterior cervicals — 

 19, 20, 21 — have the centra short. The hypapophysis is 

 single on No. 19 ; on No. 20 it forms a short, compressed 

 anterior ridge, which in No. 21 extends backwards over the 

 greater part of the centrum. The neural spine is double in 

 No. 19; single in 20 and 21. Hyperapophyses occur on 

 Nos. 20 and 21, but not on 19. 



Thoracic Vertebra. 



Nos. 22, 26, and 27 : The post-axial faces are broad. 

 The anterior pneumatic foramen descends below the rib-facet 

 in Nos. 27 and 26, and in 22 it is slightly developed. The 

 posterior pneumatic foramen is large in 27 and 26, obsolete in 

 22. The hypapophysis in No. 22 forms a central compressed 



