24 Frederick Chdpman : 



Hat, with a well-inarked median channel near the base. It 

 is also evident that the medullary portion contained lar<,'e and 

 irreo;ularly disposed air-spaces. The lamellae lie close together, 

 forming the vane ; but occasionally cross one another, as if 

 their cohesion had been destroyed by the damage of the web. 

 The feather is nearly complete to the apex, and there is no 

 appearance of an aftershaft or hyporhachis, such as is seen 

 in the struthious birds. TTie lamellae curve upwards and out- 

 wards from the base of the quill, and are moderately long on 

 one side and short on the other. 



Length of feather, 73.5 mm. ; greatest width, 20 mm. ; width 

 of web on one side of rhachis, 12 mm., on the other, 6.5 mm. ; 

 average width of lamellae, .75 mm. ; thickness of quill near 

 base, 1.25 mm. 



Relationships. 



The characters of this feather are not those of a struthious 

 birdl, there being no after-shaft present ; and. moreover, the 

 lamellae are not typically disconnected. In rts general hrm- 

 ness of web, its length, slight curvature, and roundly acuminate 

 apex, it suggests such a feather as may be nuitched amongst 

 the primaries, especially the upper, in, for instance, the Black- 

 billed Spoonbill (Platalea regia), or one of the Ibises. Of 

 course, no clear identity can be established from the impres- 

 sion of a single feather ; but the probabilities are considerable 

 that, when the ancient lacustrine sediments of Victoria were 

 laid down, some representatives of the long-legged wading 

 birds of the order Herodii were living under conditions similar 

 to those which they enjoy at the present day. 



Associated Remains and Probable Age 

 of the Beds. 



On the same pieces of ironstone with the feather-impressions 

 are some slender, cylindrical and pointed fragments, with tinted 

 surfaces, which are probably portions of reed-like stems of 



1 See also Hutton "On Some Moa Feathers." Trans, and Proc. N. Zealand Inst., vol. 

 jv. (1871), 18V2, p. 172, pl. ix. 



