acceded to the wishes of that successful and enterprising coUector, 

 and of my friend the able Keeper of the Mineralogical Department 

 of the Museum, to devote the leisure at my command to the exami- 

 nation of this interesting and valuable collection. 



I had advanced as far as the determiiiation of the bones of the leg, 

 and their classification according to their species, when the distinctive 

 characters of one series of these bones irresistibly brought a convic- 

 tion that they belonged to a species of Dinomis that had not pre- 

 viously come under my uotice, and a species also which, for the 

 massive strength of the Hmbs and the general proportions of breadth 

 or bulk to height of body, mnst have been the most extraordinary 

 of all the previously restored wingiess birds of New Zealand, and 

 unmatched, probably, by any known recent or extinct species of this 

 class of birds. 



I was so much struck by the form and proportions of the meta- 

 tarsal bone described in the memoir read to the Zoological Society, 

 June 23, 1846, and fignred in pi. 48, figs. 4 and 5, vol. iii. of the 

 ' Zoological Transactions,' that I alluded to it as " representing the 

 pachydermal type and proportions in the feathered class*," and the 

 bone unquestionably indicated at that period " the strongest and 

 most robust of birds." By the side of the nietatarsus of the species 

 which I have now to describe, and for which I propose the name of 

 elephantopus, that of the Dinomis crassus, however, shrinks to 

 moderate, if not slender dimensions. But the peculiarities of the 

 elephant-footed Dinomis stand out still more conspicuously \vhen 

 the bones of its lower limbs are contrasted with those of the Dinomis 

 giganteus. 



I propose, in the present memoir, to combine with the account of 

 the leg- and foot-bones of the Dinomis elephantopus, that of the 

 bones of the lower limb of the Dinomis crassus, which had not pre- 

 viously been described, and to bring out their characteristics by 

 comparison with the bones of other species, especially those of the 

 Dinomis robustus. 



Commencing with the femur, I shall premise the following table 

 of admeasurements of that bone in Dinomis : — 



Dimensions of the fenmr in B. robustus. 



In. Lines. 



Length 14 2 



Transverse breadth of proxinial end 6 O 



Fore-and-aft breadth of do 5 O 



Transverse breadth of distal end ... 6 O 



Fore-and-aft breadth of do 4 3 



Circumference, least, of sbaft 7 10 



T), crassus. 



In. Lines. 



II 10 



4 5 



3 9 



4 7 

 3 5 

 6 O 



The above comparative dimensions bring out the characteristic 

 proportions of the femur of the Dinomis elephantopus, as shown by 

 its greater thickness and strength. As compared with the femur of 

 the Dinomis robustus, this character is remarkably exemplified on a 

 comparison of their articular extremities. Had these parts alone 

 of the Dinomis elephantopus been preserved and submitted to me, I 



* Ib. p. 325. 



