PEOrESSOE OWEN ON THE GENFS DINOENIS. 243 



which exaggerates the deiDarture from a 'natural system' when such 'order' is posed 

 as a group equivalent in value to all the rest of the class of birds. 



From the indications of the coracoid notches in the sternum of Dinornis parvus, a 

 diminutive pair of scapulo-coracoid bones may have escaped the notice of the finder of 

 the present skeleton ; they would appear to have been proportionally smaller than the 

 subjects of pi. Ixiv'. taken from B. robustus. 



§ 6. Pelvis. 

 Of the pelvis of Dinornis more or less complete examples have been described and 

 figured in former Memoirs^. 



The least incomplete specimen of the subjects of pi. xix. of the undercited volume ' 

 afforded a comparison with the pelvis of the Ostrich, the difference from which in that 

 of the equally large or larger terrestrial bird is detailed in pp. 253-258 (torn, cit.), and 

 exemplified in figs. 2 & 4. The close resemblance, in the proportions of the pre- and post- 

 acetabular parts of the pelvis, to that of the Apteryx^ is exemplified in the side view of 

 the part in Dinornis dromceoides (pi. xx. fig. 2) and in the under or haemal view of the 

 pelvis of Apteryx austraJis (pi. Iv. fig. 1) and that of D. dromioides. A side view 

 of a more complete specimen of the pelvis of i>. didiformis is given in pi. xx a. fig. 1, 

 of the natural size. A less complete pelvis is described and figured in connexion with 

 the skeleton of Dinornis elephantopus^ ; it agrees in general characters with that of the 

 previously described species of the genus. The least incomplete pelvis already described 

 and figured is that of the skeleton of Dinornis robustus preserved in the Museum of 

 the Philosophical Society of York, and forming the subject of pp. 388-390, pi. xcvi. of 

 the 'work.' But the only perfect example of a dinornithic pelvis which has hitherto 

 come to hand is that of Dinornis parvus, the subject of Pis. LIII. & LIV., and 

 represented more reduced in the view of the entire skeleton (PI. L\ III.). 

 The following are dimensions of the pelvis : — 



in. Kn. 



Length 11 2 



„ anterior to acetabula 5 6 



„ posterior to acetabula 4 5 



Breadth (between ends of pelvic bones) 5 10 



„ (across back part of acetabula ) 5 



„ of ischium from acetabulum 4 6 



„ of pubis from acetabulum 4 9 



' Trans. Zool. Soo. vol. iv. p. 356. = In the ' Work,' hcis citatis at p. 91. 



' Trana. Zool. Soe. vol. iii. 1843, p. 253, pi. xix. (Dinornis giganteus, D. drom^xoides, and D. didiformis), 

 XX. {D. strutkio'idis), and xx«. (D. didiformis). 

 ' Trans. Zool. Sec. vol. ii. pis. liv. & It. fig. 1. 

 ' Ibid. vol. iv. pis. xlvi., xlvii. 



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