264 Mr. E. L. Layard on the Ornithology of Ceylon. 



gular, with the angles rounded off, and having two sides some- 

 what larger than the third one ; the angularity decreases pro- 

 gressively to the other end of the specimen, and at that portion 

 but faint traces of it are observable ; at this end of the bone the 

 greatest diameter rather exceeds 10 lines. The thickest portion 

 of the walls of the bone, which is at the curves supplying the 

 place of the angles at the larger end, is If line, while the 

 thinnest portion in the same plane is about the middle of the 

 shortest side of the triangular section, and does not exceed f of 

 a line. 



These structural proportions, in combination with the micro- 

 scopical characters and the great density of the walls of the bone, 

 leave no doubt of the character of the animal to which this spe- 

 cimen has formerly belonged ; and from the marks of muscular 

 attachment, the form and other peculiarities, my friend Professor 

 Quekett, who has examined the bone, is of opinion that it has 

 formed part of the proximal end of a tibia belonging to a bird 

 little if at all inferior in size to an Emu. On comparing the 

 fossil with the tibia of an adult Emu, the skeleton of which was 

 about 6 feet high, I found that the latter was 16 inches in length ; 

 and on measuring the diameter of the parts of the recent bone 

 corresponding with those of the fossil one, they appeared to be 

 as nearly as possible identical ; and the remains of the impression 

 of the muscular attachment, and of the orifice for the admission 

 of the blood-vessel into the shaft of the bone, which are situated 

 in the recent one within the first 6 inches of its length from the 

 proximal end, are in precisely the same relative position in both 

 specimens. 



There is every appearance therefore, as far as the mutilated 

 condition of the fossil will allow us to judge, that it has formed 

 part of an ancient Struthious bird as large as, and probably 

 closely allied to, the Emu. The section of the bone represented 

 in the woodcut is taken at the transverse fracture, about one- 

 third of the length of the specimen from the larger end. 



XXV. — Notes on the Ornithology of Ceylon, collected during an 

 eight years' residence in the Island. By Edgar Leopold 

 Layard, F.Z.S., C.M.E.S. &c. 



[Concluded from p. 115.] 



257. Numbnius arquata, Linn. Coudrey-malley-cotan, Mai. 

 Whelp, Dutch. 



Common along all the flat sea borders in company with 



