OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 259 
soft oily kind usually found in Birds, is accumulated beneath the skin along each side 
of the spine, about the rump, beneath the abdomen, and more especially in front of the 
sternum, where it fills up the depression below the root of the neck, which is occupied 
by the crop in the Gallinaceous Birds. ‘These prapectoral masses of fat are supported 
by a muscle arising from the sternum and expanding over the sternal aspect of the neck : 
there is no fat deposited beneath the skin covering the rest of the neck; this thinner 
integument adheres through the medium of a close cellular tissue to a cutaneous muscle 
with transverse fibres, which surrounds the whole of the neck, and will be subsequently 
described. 
When the trunk is stript of its plumage, the body of the Apteryzx presents the form of 
an elongated cone gradually tapering forwards, from the broad base formed by the 
haunches, to the extremity of the attenuated beak. The wings appear as two small 
crooked appendages projecting about an inch and a half from the sides of the thorax, 
and terminated by a curved, obtuse, horny claw, three lines long': the antibrachium is 
retained in a state of permanent flexion by the surrounding integument of the wing ; 
and it cannot be brought by forcible extension beyond an angle of 45° with the humerus. 
Nine quasi-quill-plumes, not exceeding in length the ordinary body-feathers, but with 
somewhat thicker shafts, are arranged in a linear series along the ulnar margin of the 
antibrachium ; the terminal ones are the largest, and in one specimen they presented 
a structure differing from that of the ordinary plumes, consisting of a shaft, from which 
radiated a series of flattened horny filaments of nearly equal length. 
The podotheca commences just above the ankle-joint (suffrago) by the development in 
the cuticle of small scales (squame) ; these are smallest at the bend of the joint, where 
they are arranged in transverse rows ; they increase in size as they descend, and at 
the eighth, ninth, or tenth row the two middle scales begin to enlarge and assume the 
character of scutule : a row of these scutule extends down the fore part of the tarsus ; 
most of them are bipartite, but a few are entire : a double row of smaller scutule extends 
down the middle of the back part of the tarsus, as far as the base of the innermost 
toe: the rest of the podotheca is formed by a reticulation of scales, somewhat larger on 
the inner than on the outer side. There is a large convex plantar cushion just behind 
the divergence of the three anterior toes : these differ from the toes of the typical Gal- 
line in not being connected at their base by an intervening membrane ; they are on 
the contrary quite free, as in the tridactyle Struthionide ; a row of entire scutule ex- 
tends along the upper surface of each toe ; the sides and under part are covered with 
small rounded scales, which diminish in size to the ends of the toes. The length of 
the tarsus and of the toes in the largest male specimen of the Apteryx, transmitted to 
me in spirits, corresponds with that of the specimen described by Mr. Yarrell; the 
tarsus being 3 inches in length, the middle toe 2 inches 4 lines, the lateral ones each 
1 inch and 5 lines. 
1 Pl. XLVII. fig. 4. 
2m2 
