12 PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE GENUS DINORNIS. 



Bones of the Leg of Notornis. 



The genus Notornis, of the family of the Rallidce, and most nearly allied to the Por- 

 phyria, was established on a skull described and figured in my Memoir of 1848'. 



It is to this genus that I refer the femur, tibia and tarso-metatarse about to be de- 

 scribed, on account of their similar correspondence with the same bones in Porphyria, 

 and their proportional agreement in size with the skull of the Notornis. 



The specimens were obtained from the North Island of New Zealand, and were 

 transmitted by the Rev. WiUiam Cotton, M.A. The femur (PI. II. fig. 3) is moderately 

 long and slightly bent with the convexity forwards, as in the Brachypteryx. A small 

 head supported on a short and thick neck is impressed on its upper part by a large 

 fossa for the ' ligamentum teres ' : the apex of the three-sided trochanter is bent upwards 

 and forwards : the broad irregular convex outer surface of the trochanter extends 

 between a concavity at the inner and fore part of the trochanter and a smaller concavity 

 at the back part of the upper surface of the shaft. A narrow intermuscular ridge ex- 

 tends down the middle of the back part of the shaft to the shallow popliteal space, above 

 the inner condyle, as in the Brachypteryx: the shaft is nearly cylindrical. The rotular 

 intercondyloid surface is wide and slightly inclined inwards. Tlie fibular notch behind 

 the outer condyle, and the rough fossa above it, closely accord with those of the Bra- 

 chypteryx. 



The tibia (PI. II. fig. 4) measures seven inches ten Unes in length, and like the femur 

 is more slender in proportion to its length than in the Aptornis : the proximal articular 

 surface is almost confined to the entocondyloid division, which is very slightly concave 

 in adaptation to the almost flattened broad inferior surface of the inner condyle of the 

 femur : the intercondyloid tuberosity is low. The epicnemial ridge rises much above it, 

 and equals in extent the breadth of the articular surface of the tibia : it forms an angle at 

 the fore part of the middle of the proximal end of the tibia and extends thence obliquely 

 outwards and backwards, where it terminates by meeting at a right angle the ecto- 

 cnemial ridge : this is short, and descending obliquely inwards terminates or subsides 

 upon the prominent fore part of the tibia about an inch below its upper angle. The 

 procnemial ridge has an equally short origin, which is oblique and parallel with the ecto- 

 cnemial ridge : it is broken in the specimen under description, but from the analogy of 

 the Brachypteryx probably projects far forwards : where it subsides at the inner side of 

 the tibia there is a tuberosity, from which a low ridge extends bounding internally the 

 fore part of the tibia as far as the canal for the extensor tendon. The fibular ridge is 

 well-marked ; it begins on the outer side of the shaft one inch below the epicnemial 

 ridge, extends nearly two inches down the shaft, and after a smooth tract of half an 

 inch, reappears as a rough tract of an inch and a half in extent: a low narrow ridge 

 is continued thence to the outer side of the fossa, lodging the extensor canal. The shaft 

 of the tibia is compressed from before backwards, is smooth and rounded on the inner 



' Zoological Transactions, p. 366- 



