OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 295 
deviation from the Struthious type in the length of the femur, and a tendency to the 
gallinaceous type in the shortness of the metatarsal segment: the development of the 
fourth or inner toe may be regarded as another deviation ; but it should be remembered 
that in the size and position of the latter the Apteryr closely corresponds with the ex- 
tinct Struthious Dodo. The claw on the inner toe of the Apteryw has been erroneously 
compared with the spur of certain Galline, but it scarcely differs in form from the claws 
of the anterior toes. 
In the broad ribs (see the Cassowary), in the general freedom of anchylosis in the 
dorsal region of the vertebral column, and the numerous vertebre of the neck, we again 
meet with Struthious characters ; and should it be objected to the latter particular, that 
some Palmipeds surpass the Ostrich in the number of cervical vertebre, yet these stand 
out rather as exceptions in their particular order ; while an excess over the average 
number of cervical vertebre in birds is constant in the Struthious or Brevipennate group. 
Thus in the Cassowary 19 vertebre precede that which supports a rib connected with 
the sternum, and of these 19 we may fairly reckon 16 as analogous to the cervical ver- 
tebre in other birds. In the Rhea there are also 16 cervical vertebre, and not 14, as 
Cuvier states. In the Ostrich there are 18, in the Emeu 19 cervical vertebre. In the 
Apteryx we should reckon 16 cervical vertebre if we included that which supports the 
short rudimental but moveable pair of ribs. Of the 22 true grallatorial birds cited in 
Cuvier’s Table of the number of Vertebre, only 9 have more than 14 cervical vertebre ; 
while the Apteryx with 15 cervical vertebre, considered as a Struthious bird, has the 
fewest of its order. Its neck is relatively shorter, in correspondence with the shorter 
legs ; the Cassowary, among the Struthionide, comes nearest to the Apteryr in these 
proportions. 
The free bony appendages of the ribs, and the universal absence of air-cells in the 
skeleton, are conditions in which the Apterya resembles the Aptenodytes, but here all 
resemblance ceases : the position in which the Apteryx was originally figured’ is incom- 
patible with its organization. 
The modifications of the skull of the Apteryz, in conformity with the structure of 
the beak requisite for obtaining its appropriate food, are undoubtedly extreme ; yet we 
perceive in the cere which covers the base of the bill in the entire Apteryzx a structure 
which exists in all the Struthious birds ; and the anterior position of the nostrils in the 
subattenuated beak of the Cassowary is an evident approach to that very singular one 
which peculiarly characterizes the Apteryr. With regard to the digestive organs, it is 
interesting to remark, that, with the exception of the Ostrich, the thickened muscular 
parietes of the stomach of the granivorous Struthious birds do not exhibit that apparatus 
of distinct musculi digastrici and laterales which forms the characteristic structure of the 
gizzard of the gallinaceous order: thus the Apteryz, in the form and structure of its sto- 
mach, adheres to the Struthious type. It differs again in a marked degree from the 
1 Shaw’s Miscellany, xxiv. pl. 1075. 
