OSTEOLOGY OF THE DODO. 57 
outer curve). The head and tubercle are at the same distance as in the preceding, but 
the tubercle is broader. ‘The characters of the body of the rib are very similar; but it 
is narrower, not attaining a breadth of 5} lines at its lower end; the narrowing and 
thickening to the articular surface for the sternal rib is more gradual. 
A last vertebral rib is adapted, by the longitudinal extent and partial division of the 
tubercle, to the vertebra which forms the first of the coalesced series of sacrals ; and the 
body of the rib, instead of preserving the regular outward curve of the antecedent 
ones, is more suddenly bent soon after it emerges beyond the margin of the ilium; the 
lamelliform part thence continued is straighter, and, moreover, shows upon its outer 
surface a flattened facet, indicative of pressure or friction by the movements to and fro 
of the thigh over a rib in such position. Beyond this surface the rib curves in a way 
not shown in the other specimens; the distal end has the flat syndesmotic articular 
surface to which had been attached a hemapophysis not reaching the sternum. In 
this last (eighth) free rib there is no epipleural process, nor any definitely marked liga- 
mental surface on the posterior margin indicative of the attachment of such process. 
The body of a posterior vertebral rib (Pl. XVI. fig. 10) shows a fracture which has 
been healed, with some irregular ossific deposit on the inner surface. All the ribs have 
a pneumatic foramen (ib. figs. 2, 7, 8 p) at the fore part of the neck, near the base of 
the tubercle. 
The eight left vertebral ribs (Pl. XV.) and the five right ones do not, either of them, 
constitute a consecutive series. but have come from different individuals, of different 
sizes, as exemplified in the third rib figured in Plates XV. and XVI. 
The sternal ribs (Pl. XVI. figs. 5 & 12) are characterized by the two facets, nearly 
or quite meeting at an open angle, into which their sternal end expands (ib. fig. 3, ¢). 
One of these ribs, which is entire, shows the single, elliptic syndesmotic surface at the 
opposite end (ib. 4); it is 3} inches in length, with a greatest breadth of 45 lines, and 
is straight. Another and longer specimen (ib. 12) shows a moderate degree of curvature. 
A third specimen is 6 inches in length: the proximal end has a breadth of nearly 
half an inch (the penultimate rib in Pl. XV.). 
Five successive sternal ribs are indicated by gradational size and curvature, and a 
sixth, which does not reach the sternum. Before describing this bone I shall proceed 
with the account of the sacral vertebrae, and the expanded hemal arches of such as 
complete the pelvis. 
§ 4. Pelvis, (Plates XV. & XIX.) 
The pelvis of the Dodo is chiefly remarkable for the flatness and great breadth of the 
posterior half, corresponding with the characteristic proportions of that part of the body 
in the old woodcuts of the Dutch ‘“‘ Dodaersen”'. It includes sixteen coalesced sacral 
vertebrae, with which the iliac bones are continuously confluent. 
1 See, especially, Bontekoe’s figure, copied by Strickland, in the title-page and at p. 63 of the above-cited work, 
VOL. VI.—PART Il. I 
