34 PROF. W. H. FLOWER ON THE AUSTRALIAN CASSOWARY. [Jail. 3, 



the frontals, the lachrymals, and perhaps the parietals ; but as all 

 the cranial sutures are obliterated, the limits of the different bones 

 cannot be exactly defined. In the specimen of C. australis, the 

 base of the crest is produced backwards from its point of origin, so 

 as to overlap part of the cranium, leaving a narrow fissure between 

 (see fig., p. 33), whereas in one of the specimens of C. galeatus in the 

 College Museum * the crest at the same spot rises vertically from 

 the cranium. This appeared to be a good diagnostic character, until 

 Mr. Gerrard's specimen was examined and found to agree with C. aus- 

 tralis in the mode of origin of the hinder part of the crest, although 

 in other respects it resembled the two College specimens of the 

 species to which it was referred. 



The anterior portion of the upper jaw, formed by the praRmaxilla, 

 is relatively longer, more curved, and more pointed in C. australis 

 than in any of the specimens of C. galeatus ; but some allowance 

 must be made for the fact that the former was a wild bird, while 

 the latter had all lived some time in captivity, and may not impro- 

 bably have blunted or slightly malformed the extremity of the 

 beak by repeatedly pecking the sides of the cages in which they 

 were confined. No important distinction can be traced in the form 

 or arrangement of the bones at the base of the cranium, except that 

 the united palatine and pterygoid is somewhat broader in propor- 

 tion to its length in the specimen of C. australis than in those of 

 C. galeatus, though it is doubtful whether this is more than an 

 individual peculiarity. 



In the principal characters of the vertebral column and ribs all 

 three skeletons of C. galeatus agree. They all have 25 free verte- 

 bras in front of the sacrum. Of these, 15 are without moveable ribs, 

 4 have moveable ribs not connected with the sternum, 5 have move- 

 able ribs connected below with sternal ribs, of which the first four 

 are articulated directly to the sternum, while the fifth does not 

 quite reach that bone, and one is a floating rib. A rib-bearing ver- 

 tebra (the twenty-sixth from the skull) is aukylosed with the 

 sacrum ; but the rib it carries varies much in size and in characters, 

 being nearly as long as the one in front of it, and quite free, in one 

 specimen, and quite rudimentary and ankylosed to the vertebra in 

 another. The sacrum is composed of about 20 ankylosed vertebrae 

 (not. counting the one which bears a true rib) ; and in the two speci- 

 mens in which the tail is perfect there are nine caudal vertebrae, of 

 which the last three are united together. 



The skeleton of C. australis differs from these in several parti- 

 culars. It has 26 free presacral vertebrae. Of these, 19 are anterior 

 to the first one which is connected to the sternum, and hence may 

 be called cervical, the same number as in C. galeatus ; but the rib 

 is ankylosed in the sixteenth instead of being free. There are five 

 vertebne bearing ribs with sternal ribs attached, all of which arti- 

 culate directly with the sternum, instead of only the first four. 

 Then there are two vertebrae bearing floating ribs anterior to the 



* In the other this part of the skull had been destroyed in taking out the 



brain. 



