62 Transactions. — Zoology. 



ing that we have seen to be characteristic of the Maori femur, 

 and ahnost to the same extent. Platycnemia is sHghtly more 

 pronounced than in the Maoris, and the tibia shows all the 

 other characteristics due to the squatting posture which have 

 been already described. 



The description of the Maori skull contained in the pre- 

 ceding pages agrees in all essentials with that already given 

 by other observers. It is, according to my measurements, 

 mesaticephalic, though on the verge of dolichocephaly ; metrio- 

 cephalic ; mesoseme ; mesorhine, though almost leptorhine ; 

 orthognathous ; brachyuranic ; phsenozygous : and the males 

 are megacephalic. 



Though the Maori cranium has, so far as its race charac- 

 ters go, been exhaustively studied — nearly two hundred skulls 

 having now been more or less fully described — few have had 

 the opportunity of examining the other bones of the skeleton. 

 I have been fortunate in this respect, and have been able to 

 show that the vertebral column is typically savage in the 

 form of its component parts ; that the pelvis is platypellic, 

 with a platyhieric, almost subplatyhieric, sacrum ; that the 

 upper limb is mesatikerkic ; while the lower limb, though 

 brachycnemic, is on the verge of the dolichocnemic group ; 

 that platycnemia is well marked ; and that the limb-bones 

 generally show the modifications of form characteristic of 

 most of the coloured races. 



If any further proof were needed of the mixed origin of the 

 Maori race it is given in this paper. An examination of the 

 cranial indices and of the extent of their variation shows this 

 clearly. These demonstrate two distinct types and inter- 

 mediate forms. At the one extreme we have skulls approach- 

 ing the Melanesian form, as met with in the Fiji group, long 

 and narrow, high in proportion to their breadth, prognathous, 

 and with wide nasal openings. At the other are skulls of the 

 Polynesian type, such as are common in Tonga and Samoa, 

 shorter and broader, with orthognathous faces. And it must 

 be noted that these extreme forms do not belong to different 

 tribes or districts, but may both be found in one. Among the 

 skulls of the Ngaitahu Tribe alone we have as great a varia- 

 tion in almost all the indices as is met with in the entire 

 collection of crania gathered together from all parts of both 

 these Islands. 



Though a thorough mingling of the two parent stocks has 

 thus taken place, it is yet clear that their distinguishing 

 characters are not seen in the same proportion in each district. 

 Undoubtedly intertribal differences exist. The material at 

 my disposal has allowed of nothing more than a comparison 



