MR. W. YARRELL’S DESCRIPTION OF APTERYX AUSTRALIS. 73 
and the circumference at the lower part 18 inches. The feathers on the top of the 
head and forehead are short, and the skin, carried forwards over the base of the beak 
to the extent of an inch, is covered by a mixture of dark feathers, bristles and hair. 
About the gape on each side are also several long black bristles. The feathers of the 
neck are somewhat longer than those on the head, and they increase in length gene- 
rally in proceeding downwards over the body. Those of the head and neck are of a hair 
brown colour, with the shafts lighter ; on the back, sides and rump, the shafts and inner 
portions of the webs are reddish yellow brown, and the edges dark brown, producing 
an agreeably variegated appearance. On the lower part of the neck in front, the breast 
and the belly, the feathers are lighter in colour than on any other part of the body, the 
shafts still lighter than the webs, and greyish white. The feathers generally are uni- 
form in structure, and resemble those of the Emu; but each feather is much shorter, 
the longest (those hanging over the rudimentary wings) not exceeding 4 inches and a 
half. The webs are of greatest extent, most flocculent and silky at the base of each 
feather, and become more linear and shorter towards its end ; the whole of the fibres 
forming the web are disunited, and the shaft has no secondary or accessory plume. 
On each side, about midway between the head and lower end of the bird, is a rudi- 
mentary wing, consisting of three distinct portions. 
The part of the humerus that remains is about 1 inch in length, and from the ap- 
pearance of the fractured end of the bone, within the skin, was broken off clear below 
the head ; the radial portion figured by Shaw appears to be made up, as far as can be 
ascertained by present examination, of two distinct bones, each about 1 inch and 
three eighths in length, covered with a corrugated skin, and ending at the carpal ex- 
tremity in a small horny claw, supported on a short ungueal bone, the two portions in 
conjunction measuring about three eighths of an inch. 
To the radial portion of the wing several feathers are attached, of the same character 
as those of the other parts of the body; but the feathers above and behind this rudi- 
mentary wing are longer than those of any other part of the body, and being directed 
forwards and downwards, entirely cover and conceal this small and useless wing. 
As far as I am able to judge by the preserved skin, the femur was probably 3 inches 
in length, the tibia about 5 inches ; the articulation of the tibia with the tarsus is 1 inch 
and three quarters below the end of the body, and on a line with the pendent ends of 
the plumage of that part. The tarsus is 3 inches in length, and measures 2 inches and 
an eighth in circumference. The other bones of the leg appear to have been, like the 
tarsal bones, thick and strong. The tarsi are covered with hard and dense reticulated 
scales, larger in size, and arranged in transverse lines, in the front and behind, but 
smaller and more irregularly distributed on the sides. 
The toes are four in number on each foot, the three anterior toes entirely uncon- 
nected. The middle toe is 2 inches and three eighths in length, the claw 1 inch; the 
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