Remains of an extinct gif/antic Bird. 331 



merely full-grown but old Rhea, we shall find that it looks 

 somewhat different, and that it presents the very same 

 appearances as are above described in the fossil fragment. In 

 other words, this fragment no doubt belonged to an adult 

 Rhea, and certainly not to a bird more or less allied to 

 Cariama ; it does not exhibit any striking similarity to the 

 tarso-metatarse of the latter in any particular. The same 

 holds good with regard to the middle portion of a right tibia, 

 marked No. 8 in Lund's collection, and in his catalogue 

 stated to be of the same bird (gigantic Wader) as the tarso- 

 metatarse (No. 9). As this bone lacks the most characteristic 

 parts (the two extremities), its agreement with the Rhea's 

 tibia would not perhaps be very clearly apparent from a 

 descri[)tion ; but on placing the two tibise side by side, the 

 similarity appears at once, in spite of the serious injuries 

 which the cave-bone has suifered. It is a fragment of the 

 bone, rather nearer to its distal than to its proximal end ; and 

 the striking flatness of its posterior surface compared with 

 the high transverse convexity of the front, the slight indica- 

 tion of a ridge on this side along the interior margin ; and, 

 lastly, the just perceptible longitudinal curve inwards exhi- 

 bited by the fragment, are all details found exactly reproduced 

 in Rhea ; so that, in my opinion, there can be no doubt that 

 it belonged to that bird. Finally, as regards the digital 

 phalanx, which Lund also ascribed to his gigantic Alectorid, 

 thinking it belonged to the same individual as the fragmentary 

 tarso-metatarse, we have already said that we have only draw- 

 ings to go by ; and of these we give copies (figs. 2 & 3, p. 330) . 

 They show that this bone had been injured at the proximal 

 end, but that only very little, scarcely more than the articular 

 surface itself, was wanting. It is, moreover, easily perceived 

 that even before being tlius damaged this phalanx was at most 

 but three times as long as it is thick, and that it by no means 

 presented any similarity to the rather slender and very elon- 

 gated digital phalanx of Palamedea. On the contrary, the 

 drawings of this Ijone point no less clearly than the fragments 

 actually preserved of other bones to Rhea ; and it can 

 scarcely be doubted that it was thefirst phalanx of the middle 

 toe of that bird. 



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