486 Transactions.— Geology. 



Art. XLII. — On the Footprint of a Kkvi-like Bird from 



Manaroa. 



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



[Read lefore the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 2nd November, 



1898.] 



Plate XLV. 



The specimen which I exhibit was found by H. Wynn 

 Williams, Esq., in a creek near his house at Manaroa, 

 Pelorus Sound, and was by him presented to the Canterbury 

 Museum last month. The rock is a pale-grey, hard, argil- 

 laceous sandstone, without any appreciable amount of car- 

 bonate of lime. It is jointed, and with iron-oxide coating the 

 sides of the joints. It reminds me of the sandstones of the 

 Waitemata series at Auckland, and is, apparently, of Miocene 

 or Eocene age. 



The impression is the left foot of a bird, and is sharply 

 marked, but the surface of the stone has been somewhat 

 abraded, and the impression of the distal portion of the inner 

 toe has almost disappeared. There is a mark behind the foot 

 which looks like the impression of the claw of a hind toe, but 

 I do not think that it is so. If such were the case, the impres- 

 sion must have been made by a straight claw, about 1 in. long, 

 lying flat on the surface, while the rest of the toe must have 

 been elevated, for there is no impression joining the supposed 

 claw to the foot. The distance thus unmarked is about ^in., 

 and is too short for the hind toe of Notornis, or an allied 

 form ; while in birds with the hind toe elevated and short 

 the claw is short and curved, and would only make a circular 

 impression on the ground. x\lso, this impression in the stone 

 is of a different character to the others, and has, I think, been 

 made later. There is no appearance of any interdigital mem- 

 brane. 



The following are the dimensions : Length from heel to 

 end of the claw of the middle toe, 98 mm. ; to end of inner 

 toe, 90 mm. ; to end of outer toe, 93 mm. ; spread from claw 

 of outer to that of inner toe, 112 unn. ; breadth of the impres- 

 sion of the middle toe, 13 mm.; depth of the impression at 

 the heel, 8 mm. 



The impression is much smaller and more slender than 

 the footprints that any known moa would have made, and the 

 base of the foot is too broad for any species of Ocydromus or 

 allied form ; but, so far as size and shape goes, it might have 

 been made by a large specimen of Apteryx aitstralis. 



The figure (on Plate XLV.) is from a photograph by Mr. 

 W. Sparkes, and is rather less than the natural size. 



