PROF. OWEN ON THE STERNUM OF NOTORNIS. 



691 



1882.] 



was founded by Prof. Owen in the year 1848; the skull was fully 

 described in the ' Transactions of the Zoological Society,' and the 

 genus referred to the family Rallidce as a close ally of Porphyria. 

 Shortly after he received a femur, a tibia, and a tarso-metatarse of the 

 same bird, as well as a sternum which he, at first, erroneously referred 

 to Notornis, but afterwards (in 1871) recognized as belonging to 

 Aptornis otidiformis " '. 



Far from the genus Notornis belonging " to a totally different 

 form," the acquisition of additional osteological data confirms its 

 reference, together with the extinct Aptornis, to the Ralliue family. 



Fig. 2. 



Sternum of Notornis mantelK, side view ; nat. size. 



Prof. Parker selects the New-Zealand genera Tribonyx, Porphyria, 

 and Ocydromus for his illustrations of this aflSnity of Notornis ; and 

 in regard to the sternum, finds the closest resemblance to it in that of 

 Tribonyx : in this " it is of the same proportional length to breadth ;" 

 it is shorter relatively than in Porphyrio, but is considerably longer 

 than in Ocydromus ; but its breadth, in proportion to the length of 

 the trunk, is greater than in any of the three smaller Rallines. 



As in Tribonyx and the flightless " Wood-hens," the manubrial 

 margin of the sternum of Notornis (fig. 1, p. 690, e) does not develop 

 > ' Transactions of the New-Zealand Institute,' vol. xiv. 1882, p. 245. 



