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XXIII. On the Struthious Birds living in the Society's Menagerie. By Philip Lutley 

 ScLATER, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Sj'c, Secretary to the Society. 



Read April 24 and May 8, 1860. 



[Plates LXVII. a.— LXXVI.] 



J. HE collection of Struthious birds now living in the Society's Gardens is by far the 

 finest and the largest ever yet brought together, embracing, as it does, examples not only 

 of all the older known members of the group, but likewise of several others, which appear 

 to be new and hitherto undescribed species or varieties of these birds. The able pencil 

 of Mr. Wolf has produced a series of beautiful sketches of these birds, from which 

 the accompanying illustrations have been chiefly drawn on stone by Mr. J. Jury. The 

 occasion seems favourable for attempting to give a general resume of the present state 

 of our knowledge of the species of this interesting family, which was until lately sup- 

 posed to consist only of four or five recent representatives, but has received within these 

 last few years so remarkable an addition to its number of known species. 



The Order Struthiones, or Cur sores as it is also called, embraces those birds which, 

 not requiring their wings for purposes of flight or for movement in the water, have the 

 sternum unprovided with the normal crest which usually serves for the attachment of 

 the pectoral muscles. In this and other points of their osteology and anatomy, they 

 are so different from the more typical birds, that more than one authority has divided 

 the class "Aves" into two great divisions — one of them containing only the Struthiones , 

 and the other all the remainder of the class of Birds'. 



Though the members of the Order Struthiones now existing on the earth's surface are 

 but few in number, we have good reason to believe that at a comparatively recent geo- 

 logical epoch they were, in some localities, numerous. Treating, however, at pre- 

 sent only of the recent species, we find them constituting two very distinct groups 

 or families. The first of these, the Strut hionidee or Ostriches, embraces the largest and 

 in some respects the most Mammal-like of the whole class of Birds ; in the other, 

 the ApterygidcE or Kiwis, the species are of small size, and present, in some respects, 

 almost Reptilian characters. The Order Struthiones thus embraces two of the most 

 abnormal types of the whole Class, which are nevertheless aUied by unmistakeable 

 characters into one group. 



The following table will serve to show some of the more noticeable characters by 



' Merrem, who calls these divisions Jves carinatcE and Aves ratitce, and De Blain^'ille, who applies to them the 

 terms Trojjidosteruiens and Homalosterniens (' Organisation du Regne Animal ') . Nitzsch, in his treatise on the 

 Carotid Artery of Birds, places this order at the end of his system, under the name Platysterncs. 



VOL. IV. PART VIII. 3 D 



