PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE GENUS DINORNIS. 263 



vertebral column, as is shown by the pneumatic foramina in the vertebrae, but were not 

 continued into the femora. We may infer, therefore, irom the known relations of the 

 development of the air-cells to that of the anterior members in existing Struthionidce, 

 that these were more rudimentary in the Dinornis than in the Emeu, but not quite so 

 minute in proportion to the body as in the Apteryx. The size of the bones on this 

 inference, even in the Dinornh giganteus, must have been small enough to prevent any 

 surprise at their not having yet been recovered ; especially when it is remembered that 

 no part of the sternum nor any of the ribs, which doubtless surpassed the scapula and 

 humeri in size, appear hitherto to have been found. 



Stature of the different species 0/ Dinornis. (PI. XXX.) 

 The height of the hind leg of the Dinornis giganteus in the ordinary standing posture, 

 from the sole of the foot to the upper ridge of the trochanter, being given by the bones 

 of the pelvic extremity in the present collection, the total altitude of the bird may be 

 approximatively determined by the analogies of the existing Struthionida:. In these the 

 neck varies slightly in its relative length, being longest in the Ostrich and Emeu, in 

 which it includes 18 or 19 vertebrae, and shortest in the Cassowary and Apteryx, which 

 have respectively 16 and 15 cervical vertebrae ; but in all the species it is of sufficient 

 length to enable them readily to pick up substances from the ground by a slight rotation 

 or bending down of the trunk and pelvis upon the hip-joints. 



In estimating the height of the Dinornis giganteus by the standard of the Ostrich, I 

 have taken the latter at eight feet four inches, which is the altitude given by the skeleton 

 of one with a tibia two feet in length'. The distal end of the metatarsus being raised 

 in the living bird one inch and a half from the ground, the tarso-metatarsal bone, tibia 

 and femur, placed at the angles which they form with one another in the standing pos- 

 ture, rise to the height of four feet four inches ; and from the level of the highest point 

 of the femur to the top of the head with the neck erect is four feet. The longest tibia 

 of the Dinornis giganteus, with its extremities entire, measures two feet eleven inches : 

 this bone articulated with a femur of sixteen inches and a tarso-metatarsal bone of 

 eighteen inches in length, at angles corresponding to those in the Ostrich, and with an 

 allowance of three inches for the natural angle of the toes and the callous integuments 

 beneath the distal joint of the metatarsal bone, makes the height of the hind leg to the 

 highest point of the femur five feet six inches : from the level of this point to the top 

 of the head, supported upon an erect neck of the same proportions as in the Ostrich, 

 is five feet, making the total height of the Dinornis giganteus ten feet six inches. If 

 the tarso-metatarsal bone of the Dinornis had borne the same proportion to the tibia 

 as in the Ostrich, its height would have been nearly twelve feet, but the acquisition of 



' The tibise of mature specimens of the Ostrich in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons measure 

 respectively 1 foot 8 inches, 1 foot 91 inches, and 1 foot 11 inches in length. The accurate and learned 

 authors of the ' Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society • state that the Ostrich " is generally from 

 ei-x to eight feet in height."— Vol. ii. p. 51. 



