bods regarded as of Pliocene age '. The evidence of the occurrence 

 of a representative of the Dinornithidce in Australia rests upon the 

 proximal extremity of a loft femur from Queensland, described by 

 Uo Vis " under the name of Dinornis qiwenslandice. This specimen 

 appears indistinguishable from the femora of true Dinornithidce, and 

 is quite different from the femur of JJromornis. 



Genus DINORNIS, Owen \ 



Syu. ralapteryx, Owen ' {non IlaastJ. Mua and Movia, Reiclienbach^. 



The type genus. The skull is broad and much depressed, with a 

 comparatively wide, somewhat pointed, and deflected beak ^, a 

 flattened frontal region, and a wide median ridge on the upper 

 surface of the premaxillae ; the mandible (fig. 55, A) is in the form 

 of a narrow U' with the angle much inflected, no distinct post- 

 articular process, and the symphysis moderately wide, narrowing 

 anteriorly, with a prominent and broad inferior ridge, widest in 

 front. The quadrate is elongated, with a very large pneumatic 



Pis?. bQ. 



Dinornis maximus. — Ventral aspect of sternum, a, costal process ; 

 b, lateral process. 



foramen (fig. 68). The sternum (fig. 56) is nearly as long as broad, 

 very convex, with distinct coracoidal facets, three costal articula- 

 tions, very small and reflected costal processes, the lateral processes 

 very broad and widely divergent, and a wide xiphisternal notch. The 



^ See Trans. N. Zealand Inst. vol. xi. p. 318 (1888). 



^ Proc. R. Soc. Queensland, vol. i. p. 27, pis. iii., iv. (1884). See also 

 Etberidge, Rec. Geol. Surv. N. S. W. vol. i. p. 128 (1889). 



3 Trans. ZdoI. Soc. vol. iii. p. 235 (1844— read 1839). 



* 1/nd. p. 327 (1846). = Nat. Syst. Vogel, p. sxs (1852). 



^ Haast (Ibis, ser. 3, vol. iv. p. 212) stated that Dinornis had a narrow beak, 

 but this was corrected by Hutton, Trans. N. Zealand Inst. vol. ix. p. 364. 



