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PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE GENUS DINORNIS. 325 



'f- which I propose to call Dinornis crassus. It is intermediate in size between Din. ingens 

 and Din. struthoides : with a stature nearly equal in height to that of the Ostrich, the 

 femur and tarso-metatarsus (PI. XLVIII. figg. 4 & 5) present double the thickness in 

 proportion to their length : it must have been the strongest and most robust of Birds, 

 and may be said to have represented the pachydermal type and proportions in the 

 feathered class. 



The species described under the name of Din. casuarinus combined the stature of the 

 Cassowary with more robust proportions, and especially more gallinaceous character of 

 the feet. The third new species is intermediate in size between the Din. didiformis and 

 Din. otidiformis, and I propose to name it Dinornis curtus. Although the majority of \/ 

 the remains of Din. casuarinus have come from the Middle Island, a few Rpecimens 

 have reached me from the North Island. Remains of Dinornis crassus have hitherto 

 been found only in the Middle Island, and those of Dinornis curtus are at present as 

 exclusively from the North Island. 



Of the Dinornis curtus I have received from Mr. Cotton the shaft of a femur, a little 

 more complete than that of the Dinornis otidiformis, and apparently shorter in pro- 

 portion to its circumference, but having the same relative superiority of general size, 

 and especially thickness, which is manifested in the tibia and tarso-metatarse of the 

 Din. curtus. 



The tibia of Dinornis curtus (PI. XLVII. figg. 3, 4 & 5) resembles that of Dinornis 

 casuarinus in the extent and form of the ectocnemial process {k) ; in the distance between 

 this and the procnemial crista (p), and in the position and course of the ridge continued 

 thence down the fore-part of the shaft to the inner pier of the distal osseous bridge (/). 

 It ditfers from Din. casuarinus and the other larger species of the genus in the lower 

 position of the nutri-arterial foramen, which is nearly half-way between the two ends of 

 the bone. The distal condyles resemble those of the tibiae of the larger species much 

 more than those of the smaller Din. otidiformis. The inner side of the shaft is more 

 rounded, less angular than in Dinornis didiformis or Din. casuarinus, and the anterior 

 surface slopes more abruptly backwards to the fibular ridge ; the surface between the 

 anterior ridge and fibular ridge being convex in Din. curtus, but almost plane in Din. 

 casuarinus. The outer (fibular) division (o) of the distal condyle is less produced for- 

 wards than in Din. didiformis, but in this respect resembles that in Din. casuarinus ; its 

 transverse extent is however relatively greater. The tibia, and consequently the whole 

 leg of Din. curtus, is shorter in proportion to the femur and the tarso-metatarsus than 

 in the Din. didiformis or any other species, except probably the Din. crassus, of which 

 only the femur and tarso-metatarsus have yet been obtained. 



That Dinornis curtus is not the young of Din. didiformis, is proved by its tarso- 

 metatarsal bone (PI. XLVIII. fig. 6). The tarso-metatarsal bone m 2, p. 244, mem. cit., 

 proves that the homologous bone of a young Din. didiformis, of the size of that of Din. 

 curtus, (see ' Table of Dimensions,') wanting therefore one-fourth of its full size, would 



