494 Miscellaneous. 



Venus, f. 4). I have always understood that Dr. Gray's reference 

 of the " pipi " (on the authority of Sinclair and DiefFenbach) to 

 Mesodesma Chemnitzii, Deshayes (Wood's Cat. Mactra, f. 24), was 

 the correct one. 



20 Huntly Gardens, Glasgow, 

 Not. 15, 1878. 



Note on the Number of Cervical Vertebrce in Dinornis robustus. 

 By Prof. F. W. Htjttok, of the Otago University. 



Last July a magnificent skeleton of Dinornis robustus, found in 

 the Shag valley, was presented to the Otago Museum by A. W. 

 Bell, Esq. This skeleton is complete, with the exception of the 

 cranium, first, second, third, and sixth cervical vertebrae, a few 

 caudal vertebrae, two left ribs, and the metatarsal of the lefb 

 hallux. 



The cervical vertebrae are twenty-one in number (including the 

 four that are missing), and the dorsal are six, or twenty-seven in 

 aU. The fifth is without any median hypapophysis. The neural 

 spine becomes single on the nineteenth ; the hypapophyses become 

 single on the twentieth. The hj'papophyses are furthest apart on 

 the fifteenth. It thus appears that the number of vertebrae in the 

 long-legged species of Moa was the same as in the short-legged, 

 in which I have already shown (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1878, 5th 

 series, vol. i. p. 407) the number of cervical vertebrae to be twenty 

 or twenty-one. 



A remarkable peculiarity in this specimen is that the neural sj)ine 

 is single on the fourth and fifth cervicals. There are six ribs on 

 each side, of which the third and fourth alone bear sternal ribs. 

 There is no appearance of any floating sternal rib as in D. elephan- 

 topus. The proximal phalanx of the hallux is articulated to the 

 ungual phalanx, but not to the metatarsal of the hallux, which is 

 detached. 



There is in the Museum collection the leg and foot of a specimen 

 of D. cnstiarinus, in which the metatarsal of the hallux is preceded 

 by another bone. This bone is thin, flat, and triangular in shape, 

 it apex being distal and completely detached from the other meta- 

 tarsals. Whether it is a continuation of the metatarsal, or whether 

 it represents the calcaneum, I am uncertain. 



On the Affinities of the Coleopterous Genus Hades, Thomson (Hetero- 

 mera, Nilionidae). By Chakles 0. Waxerhotjse. 



T have just been referring to M. Thomson's monograph of the 

 family Nilionidas * ; and seeing that the new genus Hades was 

 founded on a Javan insect received from Dr. Horsfield, I at once 

 looked at the Horsfield collection of Javan Coleoptera in this 

 museum, and was glad to fijid two specimens which are undoubtedly 



* ' Mus^e Scientifique/ 1860, p. 13. 



