552 



Transactions. — Geology. 



the temporal ridges, 36mm. ; height of the skull, 38mm. ; 

 distance between optic foramina, 7mm. It is, I have no 

 doubt, specifically identical with that figured by Owen in 

 " Extinct Birds of New Zealand," pi. 53, fig. 5. 



The Whangarei skull is nearer to Meionornis than is 

 that from Te Ante ; but the curved margin of the tympanic 

 cavity and the sulcus close to the posterior margin of the 

 optic cavity are found in both, but never occur in Meionornis. 

 If to these we add the large pre- sphenoidal fossa and the 

 shape of the articular cup of the mandible, seen in the Te 

 Aute specimen, we have sufficient reasons for placing these 

 skulls in a difi^erent genus from Meionornis, or, at any rate, in 

 a distinct sub-genus of Meionornis. The mandible is quite 

 unique among the moas, combining the slender rami of 

 Meionornis with the broad articular cup of Anomalornis and 

 Pachyornis. The photograph (Plate XLVIL, fig. B) shows 

 the articular cup well, but the point of the beak looks more 

 rounded than it really is, owing to distortion by pressure 

 when wet. The differences between the vertebrae of Cela 

 and Meionornis have been pointed out by me in the Trans. 

 N.Z. Inst., vol. xxvii., p. 166. 



There is in the Museum collection a femur from Tolago 

 Bay, which shows the pneumatic foramen very plainly. 



Euryapteryx exilis, sp. nov. 

 Plate XLVIII., Fig. C. 



Figures. — Femur, Trans. Zool. Soc, iii. (and E.B.), pi. 24, 

 figs. 1-3 (didiformis) : pelvis. I.e. iii. (and E.B.), pi. 19, fig. 2 

 (didiformis) ; pi. 20, figs. 2, 3 {didiformis). 



The type of this species is a nearly-complete skeleton in 

 the Wanganui Museum. It appears to have been common in 

 the southern parts of the North Island, but its bones have 

 been confounded partly with those of A. didiformis and partly 

 with those of C. curta. Indeed, the slimness of the legs 

 would have prevented them being put into the genus Ejiry- 

 apteryx if they had not been accompanied by the skull. 



The following are the dimensions of the leg-bones of the 

 type specimen : — 



But the species evidently attained a larger size, for there 

 are in the Canterbury Museum bones belonging to this species 

 of the following sizes : — 



