450 RESIDUE OF EXTINCT BIRDS OF QUEENSLAND AS YET DETECTED, 



this very obvious objection, young metatarsals have been procured 

 from a considerable number of birds of different families, all of 

 which show confluence of the metatarsal elements to the same 

 extent distad as in adults. 



Associated with lengthened pedicels we see both in the Apteryx 

 and in the fossil bird approximate equality in length attained by 

 the lateral trochlear processes in their entirety, and, furthermore, 

 an extension of the mesial trochlea almost entirely beyond the 

 extremities of the other two. Greater weight will attach to a 

 deduction from this composite character if one of the antecedents 

 be expressed in the words of Owen, who, pointing out (Comp. 

 Anat. of Yert. Vol. ii., p. 81) the leading differentiations of the 

 metatarse in birds, says, " In the Apteryx and tridactyle cursores 

 the mid-troehlea is the largest and extends by almost its whole 

 length beyond the other two, which are nearly on a level." It is 

 only necessary to add that the degree of extension of one lateral 

 trochlea beyond the other is, allowing for difference of total 

 dimensions, appreciably the same in the Apteryx and in the fossil. 



In the absence of any feature proper to the Carinatce, it would 

 seem justifiable on the grounds already advanced to admit the 

 extinct bird to a place in the apterygine division of the Ratitce. 

 But by way of fortifying the position taken up, it may be 

 observed that there are other characters which, though less 

 weighty, tend to confirm it. The distal end of the shaft in Apteryx 

 is anteroposteriorly compressed and, in consequence of the 

 divergence of the lateral pedicels commencing higher up the shaft 

 than in other birds, laterally expanded. A glance at the figure 

 (PI. xxiii., figs. 8a and Sb), will show that the form of the shaft and 

 the cause of its lateral expansion alike pre-existed in the fossil even 

 more pronouncedly than in the living bird. 



Again, in the whole number of recent metatarsals examined for 

 the purpose, there is but one which shows on the surfaces of the 

 shaft traces of embryonal conditions in the presence of lines of 

 junction between its coalesced segments. As it is within the 

 limits of possibility that none of these bones were derived from 

 young birds, the immature metatarsals previously mentioned were 



