168 ME. W. K. PAEKEE ON THE STEUCTUEE AND 



turned postfrontal is an inch in front of the descending splint-plate of the squamosal, 

 which does not reach so far down the side of the os quadratum as in the ordinary 

 Ostriches. This process is, however, nearly an inch long ; in Struthio camelus 8 lines, 

 and about 6 lines in the Great Notornis ; but in the latter bird there is another osseous 

 tongue an inch in length, and which runs over in front of the os quadratum to within 

 3 lines of the postfrontal, to which it is connected by an osseous bridge. This super- 

 numerary bar of bone is double in Porphyrio poliocephalus, and the front one has con- 

 nected with it a large ossified mass of the tendon of the temporal muscle. 



The large anterior process in the Great Notornis lies so tightly upon the os quadratum, 

 that a synovial gliding joint is formed at that part — a very curious structure. In Por- 

 phyrio the postfrontal is very short, and does not reach the squamosal spur ; old indivi- 

 duals of the Psophia have this long process, which is of tendinous origin. This temporal 

 bridge, which could not have existed if the postfrontal of the Great Notornis had not 

 been of an inordinate size, is the rule in the Gallinacese, but is imperfect in Talegalla. 

 But this overgrowth of the postfrontal in the Notornis is, as may be seen by the large 

 oblique passages above it, merely a shooting of bone into the dense fibrous tissue of 

 the superciliary region, and extends nearly an inch from the cartilaginous knob on the 

 alisphenoid, which is the true postfrontal. This thick, notched, slit-up mass is ossified 

 separately as distinct bones in the Psophia (half a Rail and half a Crane) and the Tina- 

 mous. The temporal fossae of the Giant Notornis are equally developed with those of 

 N. Mantelli and the Porphyrio, almost more so ; and very different indeed to their 

 indefiniteness in the strong-headed Dinornis rohustus, notwithstanding that its jaws are 

 relatively twice as strong as those of the Emu. Undoubtedly the lower jaw of this 

 large Eail, with its pickaxe-shaped upper jaw, monstrously large ossa quadrata, and 

 wide, deep, and well-margined temporal fossae, must have been very strong ; only a little 

 inferior in this respect to that of Notornis Mantelli. In PI. 53, figs. 1, 2, 3, op. cit. 

 are given figures of the end of one of the mandibular rami of a large bird ; on comparing 

 these with the mandibles of struthious birds and Rails, I find that they agree with the 

 latter ; and with none better than the jaw of the little Corn-Crake, Crex pratensis. The 

 whole shape of the " articulare," and the manner in which the " coronoid" turns obliquely 

 upwards on the inside of the large open space, thus dividing it into two, these are per- 

 fectly ralline, and make it very probable that these are figures of part of the mandible 

 of the Great Rail (Notornis casuarinus, Owen, sp.). With regard to the curve of the 

 Great Notornis's bill, I think a few comparisons will make the matter clear. Let the 

 reader put beside this large skull that of Porphyrio poliocephalus, and of the semiralline 

 Psophia ; if one straight line be drawn from the tip of the bill to the end of the zygoma, 

 and another from the con.mencement of the zygoma to this ideal basal line, he will 

 have the following results, viz. that the vertical line is one-ninth the length of the basal 

 in the Porphyrio, and one-seventh in the other two. The curve downwards in the Great 

 Notornis and in the Psophia is equal, is similar, and in the latter only wants the robust- 

 ness of the former to make the likeness striking. This accords with the fact that the 



