On the Number of Cervical Vertebre in Dinornis. 407 
discocellular spot on the belt; several greyish-brown costal 
spots, and an imperfect series along the outer margin; a 
discal spot beyond the cell and a streak near the anal angle 
tawny. Body pale brown; pectinations of antenne blackish. 
Under surface whity brown: wings mottled with grey, with 
blackish discocellular dots; primaries with a central costal 
spot and discal arched streak grey. Expanse 1 inch 3 lines. 
Hakodaté (Whitely). 
The type of this species is somewhat rubbed ; it is possible 
that in fresh examples there may be a brownish belt’ across 
the primaries. 
[To be continued. | 
XLVI.—On the Number of Cervical Vertebre in Dinornis. 
By F. W. Hurron, Professor of Zoology in the University 
of Otago. 
THE number of cervical vertebrae in Dinornis was estimated 
in 1856, by Prof. Owen, at 15, in D. elephantopus (Trans. 
Zool. Soc. iv. p. 161); and this number was also adopted by 
Prof. von Haast in his printed schedule of Moa-bones in the 
Canterbury Museum. In Prof. Owen’s paper in Trans. Zool. 
Soc. vol. x. p. 147, which, much to the regret of all New- 
Zealand naturalists, he announces as probably his last on the 
Moa, he still adheres to the same number, and suggests that 
in the photographed skeleton of D. elephantopus (more pro- 
perly I now think D. crassus) in the Otago Museum there 
are two cervical vertebree too many*. However, specimens 
in the museum of the necks of individual birds show that the 
real number is 20 or 21; and I therefore think it necessary 
for me to give the evidence for my restoration of the skeleton 
referred to. 
The museum possesses nine necks, or portions of necks, 
from the sand-hills at Shag Point, Otago, belonging to single 
birds. These were all found in their proper positions, and 
were at once strung, and then numbered so as to prevent the 
possibility of any subsequent misplacement. ‘The species to 
which they belong cannot yet be accurately determined; but 
they are of three different sizes. The smallest (A, B, and G) 
belong, I believe, to D. casuarinus ; the middle size (C, D, 
* Prof. Owen has been led into a mistake by having a photograph only 
to examine. In the skeleton, as restored, there are twenty-one, not 
seventeen, cervical vertebra. 
