BY C. W. DE VIS. 449 



to fraternize with any of them, was reluctantly laid aside in favour 

 of less reserved candidates for examination. In an idle moment 

 some weeks later it chanced that the corresponding bone of a 

 young Apteryx, A. mantelli, was taken in hand, and to his surprise 

 the observer found himself at last in the presence of the more 

 salient features of the fossil. As may be imagined, the two bones 

 were quickly laid side by side and discussed. Whether the result 

 of the comparison be a legitimate conclusion from the premisses or 

 not it is for others to consider, for the future to decide. It can 

 only be pleaded by the way that while "expectant attention" had 

 no part in the recognition of the bone, the just demands upon 

 observant attention made by so significant a fossil have been 

 admitted and honoured. 



From the accompanying figures of this bone (PI. xxiii., fig. Sa and 

 Sb) it will be seen that its most striking feature is the extension 

 distad of what may be called the pedicels of its trochlea?, that is of the 

 metatarsal elements after their release from confluence in the shaft, 

 the trochlear surfaces not included. In contrast with those of all 

 other birds examined, the trochlea? almost appear to be borne on 

 the ends of moderately long stalks. In carinate birds the exist- 

 ence of a pedicel so defined is hardly recognizable on the dorsal 

 side of even the mesial trochlea, and on the plantar surface, which 

 is usually less invaded by an extension of the groove of the pulley, 

 the length of the pedicel is seldom if ever greater than its breadth 

 at the base. The statement is warranted by certain Anseres 

 (Chenopis, Biziura) which have the longest pedicels observed. 

 Still shorter of course are the bases of the lateral trochlea? in the 

 CaHnatce. Among the Ratitce the only genus possessing pedicels 

 which are conspicuously elongated and of equal length on both 

 surfaces is, so far as the writer's experience extends, Apteryx. 

 But the characterization imparted by their unusual length is 

 exactly that which was antedated in greater force in the fossil, 

 while there is also exhibited by the extinct bone a like equality in 

 the length of the opposed surfaces of the lateral pedicels. It may 

 be thought that this greater freedom of the distal ends of the 

 bone is probably the ordinary condition of immaturity. To meet 



