DEVELOPMENT OF THE SKULL IN THE OSTEICH TEIBE. 168 



Dinornis robustus. 



No specimens of the skulls of young individuals of the Dinornis have come under my 

 jaotice, only sternal and pelvic bones ; I have, however, some remarks to make upon the 

 adult skull of the subextinct form. I have studied the skull of Dinornis robustus both 

 in the specimens contained in the British Museum, and also in Professor Htetl's fine 

 skeleton *. 



But the freshest and most perfect skeleton and skull of this bird has been recently 

 added to the York Museum ; and some of the bones, both young and old, were exhibited 

 and described by Thomas Allis, Esq., F.L.S., at a Meeting of the Linnean Society, 

 June 16 th, 1864. Tendon, cartilage, skin, and even feathers still adhered to these pre- 

 cious bones, the dried articular cartilage having the amber-coloured tint seen in the 

 bones of creatures not long dead. The skull was not exhibited at that Meeting, but my 

 friend H. B. Beady, Esq. (well known as a Rhizopodist) has kindly supplied me with 

 the three very beautiful photographs of these fresh bones of the Moa, published by 

 MoNKHOUSE and Co. 4to. Lendal, York. 



One of these gives an obliquely lateral view of the skull and mandible, and on another 

 sheet there is a basal view of the skull, and an upper view of the coalesced mandibles. 

 All the York specimens were taken out of the same sand-dune in New Zealand, both 

 young and old, the young ones having the sternum in two distinct halves, and the pelvis 

 in distinct pieces ; the ilium quite detached, the ischium and pubis undergoing anchy- 

 losis. These chickens must have been nearly twice the bulk of a large Turkey. The 

 skull of the adult is beautifully displayed in these photographs, is nearly perfect, and 

 the relations of this bird to the other " Struthionidse " can be clearly read off in the 

 light of what has been given above, in my account of the early skulls of the well-known 

 living types. It may be well to remark, in passing, that the pelvis of Dinornis robustus 

 answers to the simple type of that of the Apteryx, Cassowary, Emu, and Tinaniou ; 

 whilst the sternum reminds the observer both of that of Struthio and of Apteryx. 

 Besides characters of its own, the skull has those of the African Ostrich and of the Emu ; 

 we have seen that the Ostrich comes between the Emu and the Rhea : the relations of 

 the whole group are very interwoven. 



The robustness of the skeleton generally is not wanting in the skull, every part showing 

 a solidity, a breadth, and a depth very unlike what is seen in the largest and strongest 

 of the well-known living forms ; and ossification has gone on to a higher degree than is 

 usual in this family of birds, and more like what occurs in the Rails. It would be dif- 

 ficult to find two skulls in more perfect contrast with each other than that of Dinornis 

 robustus and of the so-called Dinornis casuarinus (Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. iii. pis. 52 & 53, 

 p. 348), the latter being in reality a Notornisf. It will save trouble in the comparison 



* In the International Exhibition of 1862. 



t Being anxious to know whether the eminent author of the paper above referred to had changed his view 

 as to the nature of the pickaxe-headed bird since 1848, 1 referred to the well-known recent work of his 

 (Owen, Palaeontology, 2nd edit. 1861, pp. 330-31). In that work the specicB of his genus Palapteryx are, with 



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