PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE GENUS PALAPTERYX. 365 



PI. LIV., good and sufficient evidence it is presumed has been adduced of the former 

 existence in New Zealand of a large Struthious bird, more nearly allied to the existing 

 Struthionida; than to the Dinornis, and agreeing in the characters of the cranium and beak 

 more with the genus Dromaius than with the genus Apteryx. The particulars in which 

 the cranium (PI. LIV. figs. 1—4) resembles that of the Emeu (PI. XXXIX. figs. 1 & 2), 

 as e.^. the broad flat under surface of the basisphenoid (5), the pterygoid processes 

 from its fore-part (5'), the semicircular paroccipital plates (4), the single articular cavity 

 for the tympanic (y), the size, form and independence of the mastoid and postfrontal 

 processes, &c., are corroborative proofs of the accuracy of the ascription of the above- 

 described struthioid premaxillary and mandibular bones (PI. LIV. figs. 1, 2 & 3, 22, 6 & 7) 

 to that cranium. At the same time the cranium, by its greater breadth behind and 

 minor depth, its vertical foramen magnum and prominent occipital condyle, the inferior 

 position of the basisphenoid platform, the marked angle which it forms with the almost 

 vertical basi-occipital, and the shorter pterygoid processes, concurs with the beak in 

 differential characters establishing the generic distinction of the great New Zealand bird 

 to which it belonged. 



As the characters which induced me in the former Memoir (p. 327) to separate those 

 bones of the extremities that by their more slender proportions approximated the 

 Struthionida, and by the indication of a small back-toe the Apteryx more especially, 

 from others of corresponding size but of more robust proportions, and devoid of the 

 back-toe, and to assign to the genus more nearly allied to the struthious Apteryx 

 the name of Palapteryx, and to restrict the term Dinornis to the other specimens, — so 

 the corresponding characters which indicate in the first of the skulls above-described a 

 deviation from the struthious type, and in the second an approximation thereto, clearly 

 indicate the propriety of assigning the one to the genus Dinornis, and the other to the 

 genus PalApteryx. Time, and future more fortunate discoveries of the skull and other 

 parts of the skeleton so associated as to yield reasonable proof of having belonged to 

 the same bird, may give the requisite confirmation or rectification of these partial and 

 tentative restorations. 



Lower jaw of a large Dinornis or Palapteryx, 



On similar grounds to those that have induced me to combine the cranial and rostral 

 portions of the skull of the two genera of gigantic birds figured in Plates LII. & LIV., 

 I have been led to associate together the detached portions of cranium and upper and 

 lower jaws figured in PI. LVI. fig. 7, which establish a third genus of apparently 

 extinct New Zealand bird. But before proceeding to describe these singular and inter- 

 esting remains, I must notice a remarkable fragment of a lower jaw of some species 

 of Dinornis or Palapteryx much exceeding in size those of which the crania have been 

 described. 



This specimen (PI. LIII. figs. 1, 2 & 3) consists of the articular end of a ramus of the 



