Prof. Owen on the Dinornis elephantopus. 169 



phurous gas, under proper superintendence, would be the most 

 likely means of destroying these parasites. 



Dr. Crisp also placed on the table some parts of the anatomy of 

 the Common Bittern {Botaurus steUaris), two of which birds (now 

 comparatively rare) had recently been shot on the eastern coast of 

 Suffolk. The bird from which the specimens were taken was a fine 

 male, measuring from the tip of each wing 4 feet 1 inch, and from 

 the point of the beak (when extended) to the lower part of the 

 tarsus 3 feet. Among the peculiarities alluded to, was the smallness 

 of the sternum, which measured only 3 inches longitudinally ; the 

 depth of keel only i of an inch, and the lateral margins the same. 

 The trachea measured twelve inches in length, and consisted of 198 

 imperfect rings ; the bronchi of 20 semicircular elastic cartilages, 

 readily approximated, and hence the production of the peculiar 

 sound from which the bird takes its name. The stomach which was 

 exhibited was large, and contained near its cardiac orifice a circle of 

 gastric glands. A roach, weighing about four ounces, was digested 

 at this part, but the tail, which was in the oesophagus, was intact. 

 To show the voracity and capacity of swallow of this bird. Dr. Crisp 

 said, that Sir W. Jardine and Mr. Yarrell had both taken a Water 

 Rail from the stomach and oesophagus, and in Mr. Yarrell' s speci- 

 men there were six small fish in addition. The pectinated claw was 

 also exhibited. Dr. Crisp believing that it served for the purpose of 

 cleaning the beak and mouth of the bird. 



April 8, 1856.— Dr. Gray, F.R.S., in the Chair. 



On Dinornis (Part VII.) : containing a Description of 

 THE Bones of the Leg and Foot of the Dinornis ele- 

 phantopus, Owen. By Prof. Owen, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., &c. 



Mr. Walter Mantell having, on his recent return from New Zea- 

 land, provisionally deposited his very extensive collection of remains 

 of Dinornithic and other birds in the British Museum, I have gladly 

 acceded to the wishes of that successful and enterprising collector, 

 and of my friend the able Keeper of the Mineralogical Department 

 of the Museum, to devote the leisure at my command to the exami- 

 nation of this interesting and valuable collection. 



I had advanced as far as the determination of the bones of the leg, 

 and their classification according to their species, when the distinctive 

 characters of one series of these bones irresistibly brought a convic- 

 tion that they belonged to a species of Dinornis that had not pre- 

 viously come under my notice, and a species also which, for the 

 massive strength of the limbs and the general proportions of breadth 

 or bulk to height of body, must have been the most extraordinary 

 of all the previously restored wingless birds of New Zealand, and 

 unmatched, probably, by any known recent or extinct species of this 

 class of birds. 



I was so much struck by the form and proportions of the meta- 

 tarsal bone described in the memoir read to the Zoological Society, 



