Hutton. — Pneumatic Foramen in the Femur of a Moa. 173 



Sternum. 

 Coracoid depressions deep. 



Body of sternum broader than long ; lateral 



processes widely diverging 

 Body of sternum quadrate ; lateral processes 

 not widely diverging 

 No coracoid depressions. 



Body of sternum broad ; lateral processes 



widely diverging 

 Body of sternum quadrate; lateral processes 

 not widely diverging. 



Pneumatic depressions deep 

 Pneumatic depressions none 



Dinornis. 

 Anomalopteryx. 



Pachyornis. 



Meionornis. 

 Euryapteryx. 



Art. XIV. — On the Occurrence of a Pneumatic Foramen in 



the Femur of a Moa. 



By Captain F. W. Hutton, F.E.S. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 2nd May, 1894.] 



Plate IX. 



In his second paper on Dinornis Sir E. Owen remarks, on 

 some moa remains from Poverty Bay, that "in only one out 

 of eighteen femora are the parietes of the bone deficient at 

 the -part where the air is admitted into the interior of the 

 shaft in the ostrich, emu, rhea, and cassowary ; but in the 

 exceptional instance cited the cavity dees not lead to the in- 

 terior of the bone, and may be due to accidental fracture, as 

 there is a similar opening on the opposite side. In all the 

 other femora of the Dinornis the parietes at the back part of 

 the proximal extremity of the bone are entire, as in the 

 Apteryx ; and both the weight and cancellous structure of 

 these bones prove the accuracy of the statement made in the 

 original description of the original fragment that the Dinornis 

 retains the medullary contents of the cavities of the femur 

 throughout life, as in the Apteryx."* 



In the large number of femora of moas of all ages which 

 have passed through my hand I have never, before now, noticed 

 an opening for an air-sac — although there are usually two 

 nutrient foramina in the place where the air-canal exists in 

 the emu — and this absence of a pneumatic foramen in the 

 femur is taken as one of the most essential characters of the 



Trans. Zool. Soc.iii., p. 248; and " Extinct Birds of New Zealand," 



p. 86. 



