440 RESIDUE OF EXTINCT BIRDS OF QUEENSLAND AS YET DETECTED, 



flexure outwards of the distal end, gives a perceptibly sigmoid 

 shape to the whole. In Tribonyx the antero-interior side of the 

 trochlea is entire, and its shape as' a whole is a pretty regularly 

 convex oval. From T. mortieri the fossil differs in the following 

 points : the radial trochlea is shorter and makes with the long 

 axis of the shaft a more oblique angle; the ectepicondylar tubercle 

 is less tumid and there is consequently more space between it and 

 the trochlea ; the ulnar trochlea is broader at its junction with 

 the inner condyle. In size the bird was about equal to T. mortieri. 



PORPHYRIO MACKINTOSHI, n.S. 



Distal extremity of a right tarsometatarse (PI. xxiv., fig. 2a and 

 26). It is probable that this and P. reperta, m., will eventually be 

 placed in a new genus, as in both the hind toe is less elevated 

 than in the recent genus, and the inner trochlea (imperfect in the 

 cotype of P. reperta) is found in the present fossil to be distinctly 

 shorter, or rather not to extend so far clistad as in G. tenebrosa — 

 in fact, it fails distinctly to reach as far as the mesial trochlea 

 instead of overlapping it. The present species differs from P. 

 reperta in its greater size, showing, indeed, in this respect a 

 superiority over the existing species, in a prolongation of the 

 mesial trochlear surface nearly to the base of the process on its 

 plantar aspect, and in the much larger size of the depression for 

 the hind toe. It is dedicated to a gentleman who rendered most 

 kindly aid to the collector, Mr. Hurst, during his search for 

 fossils of this kind near Warwick. 



Gallinula peralata, n.s. 



The humeral index of the recent G. tenebrosa is 7*81, its tarso- 

 metatarsal index 7*94. The fossil metatarse, on which the species 

 G. strenuipes was founded, has an index of 8*18, and, assuming 

 approximately identical proportions in extinct and living species, 

 the humeral index of G. strenuipes should be 8*03 or thereabouts. 

 A humerus of a gallinule with an index so far raised as 9-18, as 

 in the present fossil, cannot therefore be referred to strenuipes 

 without forsaking a base of determination too useful to be quitted 



