112 PETRIFACTIONS AND THEIR TEACHINGS. CHAP. II. 



Bustard (Otis tarda), in the ridges that connect the sides of 

 the basisphenoids with the paroccipital processes. 



The form of the foramen magnum is that of a vertical 

 ellipse with straight sides divided by a small tubercle sent off 

 from the ex-occipitals. (Lign. 27.) The occipital condyle is 

 a hemispherical tubercle supported on a short pedicle, and is 

 situated in the centre of the hinder surface of the skull, the 

 foramen magnum occupying the upper half; these are cha- 

 racters hitherto unknown in the air-breathing vertebrata, and 

 approach those observable in the crania of crocodilian reptiles. 



The upper mandible is broad, depressed, and sub-elongate, 

 gently curved downwards, and altogether of a very peculiar 

 configuration; it has been aptly compared to a cooper's 

 adze, or pickaxe. (See Lign. 26.) It must have been well 

 adapted for grubbing up roots and tubers ; and there is proof 

 in the indications of strong muscles attached to the occipital 

 region, and to the large spinous processes of the cervical 

 vertebrae, that it was a very efficient instrument, and capable 

 of being used with great effect. 



The lower mandible is not known ; but there is in Table- 

 Case 16, the articular part of a very large lower jaw, that 

 probably belongs to the Dinornis. 



From the form and structure of these characteristic parts of 

 the skull and upper mandible, Professor Owen observes that 

 it is manifest the Dinornis cannot be assigned to any known 

 family of birds ; and in referring the genus to the Struthio- 

 nidae little more is implied than a feeble development of the 

 wings, and large and powerful hinder limbs for progression on 

 dry land : and although some of the anatomical characters 

 above specified exhibit an analogy with those observable in 

 the Bustard, yet the Dinornis is entirely separated from the 

 Otidce by such striking peculiarities of organization, as to show 

 that this genus of the extinct colossal birds of New Zealand, 

 must be regarded as constituting a distinct family of the 

 order Grallce, or Stilt-birds. 1 



Femur, tibia and fibula : in Case 15. To the genus Dinornis 

 many of the vertebrae, ribs, bones of the pelvis and hinder ex- 

 tremities, and portions of sterni in Wall-Cases B&L C, and in the 

 Table-Cases 15, 16, and 17, belong. In Table-Case 15, there 



1 Memoir on the Dinornis. 



