Stermim, and Slioulder-Girdle o/.Epyoruis. 379 



tliprc are four main rows ; the outer pair extend back on to 

 the bases of the jjostorbital processes, while the inner terminate 

 opposite the posterior marginof the orbit. In addition to these, 

 there are a number of irregularly distributed depressions. The 

 presence of these pits seems to indicate the former existence of 

 a frontal crest of large feathers in the species to which these 

 skulls belong, and it is a point worthy of note that, on the 

 same grounds. Prof. Jeffery Parker has inferred the existence 

 of a similar crest in certain species of Moa*. 



The basi-temporal platform (PI. VIII. fig. 2) is very much 

 more prominent than in any of the Dinornithidse, its nearly 

 vertical posterior surface being about as deep as broad, while 

 in the New Zealand birds the depth is always much less than 

 the breadth. In the other Ratitaj, except Casuarius, the basi- 

 temporal platform is only slightly raised above the general 

 level of the floor of the skull, and the only bird in which it is 

 more prominent than in u^pyornis appears to be Aptornis. 

 The vertical basi-occipital surface has its ventro-lateral angles 

 produced into stout mamillar tuberosities {m.t.) (in the 

 figure that on the left has been restored), between which its 

 inferior border is concave : immediately beneath the occipital 

 condyle there is a hemispherical depression, the precondylar 

 fossa ip.c.f). 



The ventral surface of the platform is remarkable for its 

 extreme shortness from front to back, its length from the 

 base of the rostrum to the mamillar tuberosities being 

 rather less than its width at those processes. One of the 

 consequences of this shortening is that the bases of the large 

 basi-pterygoid processes are separated from the mammillar 

 tuberosities by a shallow groove only. This is the ventral 

 prolongation of the Eustachian groove, which is short and 

 nearly vertical, and, as in the Diiiornithidae, remains open in 

 the adult, although for a short distance near its lower end 

 its edges come very near together. The posterior wall of 

 the Eustachian groove is united to the inner angle of the 

 paroccipital process by a narrow bridge of bone ; between 



* " On the Presence of a Crest of Feathers in certain Species of Moa," 

 Trans. New Zeahuul Institute; vci. xxv. (IHIH^) p. '.}. 



SKK. VI I. VOL. II. 2 E 



