Prof. Owen on Bones o/Dinornis and Palapteryx. 461 



the inuer boundary of that surface is shorter, and rises more abruptly. 

 The deep oval fossa, above the vertical broad groove for the fibula, 

 behind the outer condyle, is well marked. The orifice of the medul- 

 lary arterv- is at the middle of the back part of the shaft of the femur 

 in two of the specimens. 



With regard to the metatarsus of the Dinornis strnthioides, the 

 same satisfactory confirmation of the species has been received, as in 

 the case of the femur, by the addition of three specimens repeating 

 the characters of the original bone described at p. 240, and figured 

 in pi. 27. fig. 2. of my memoir of 1843. One of these specimens, 

 kindly sent to me by J. R. Gowen, Esq., F.G.S., Sec. H.S., was 

 discovered in the tertiary deposits at Waikawaite, ^liddle Island of 

 New Zealand, and has the two extremities more entire than in the 

 original specimen figured. The middle of the distal trochlea is im- 

 pressed by a shallow groove running its whole length, and becoming 

 more shallow as it approaches the contracted back part of the trochlea, 

 which terminates abruptly, projecting beyond the level of the back 

 part of the distal end of the bone. 



A second of the additional specimens of the metatarsus of the 

 Bin. struthioides was obtained by the Rev. Wm. Cotton, M.A., at 

 Tarawaite, in the North Island of New Zealand : a third specimen 

 was discovered by Governor Sir George Grey, in a cave in the district 

 which lies between the river Waikate and Mount Tongariro, in the 

 North Island. 



From the same cave Sir George Grey like-nise obtained and very 

 liberally transmitted to me, with a most valuable collection of other 

 bones of Dinornis and Palapteryx, an entire tibia agreeing with the 

 portion of shaft, which, from the dimensions given at vol. iii. p. 329, 

 I was induced to refer to the Dinornis struthioides, diflFering in its 

 size and proportions from all the tibiae previously described and 

 referred to other species, but presenting similar relations of size to 

 the femur and metatarsus of the Din. struthioides, which the pre- 

 viously described tibiae have presented to the other bones of the leg 

 of the respective species to which those tibiae have been referred. 



I conclude, therefore, that in the tibia transmitted with the meta- 

 tarsus of the Din. struthioides by Sir George Grey, I possess the 

 bone, which I have been so long desirous to obtain in order to com- 

 plete the leg of the Din. struthioides. Like the metatarsus above- 

 cited, it is from the left side, and they appear to have belonged to the 

 same individual bird. 



in. lin. 



The length of this bone is 22 



The breadth of the proximal extremity 5 6 



The breadth of the distal extremity 3 2 



The circumference of the middle of the shaft 5 



The fibular ridge extends down 10 



This ridge begins, as in the tibiae of other species of Dinornis, be- 

 lov/ the expanded end of the tibia near the middle of its back part, 

 inclining: to its outer side. 



