[ 395 
XJ. On Dinornis (Part X.): containing a Description of part of the Skeleton of a flight- 
less Bird indicatiwe of a New Genus and Species (Cnemiornis calcitrans, Ow.). 
By Professor Owen, F.R.S., F.Z.8S., &c. 
Read May 23, 1865. 
[Prates LXIII.-LXVII.} 
IN the collection of bones, including the skull of Dinornis rodustus, Ow. (described in 
Part IX.), gathered from the bottom of the fissure in the limestone rock at ‘Timaru,’ 
Middle Island of New Zealand, there were remains of smaller birds, the tibia of one of 
which attracted attention by the unusual size of the muscular crests and processes at 
its proximal end. 
A comparison of this tibia with that bone in other birds proved it to belong to a 
species hitherto unknown, and gifted with legs, if one might judge by the unusual pro- 
vision for muscular attachments, capable of being applied with greater force than in 
the rest of the class: for not only does the epicnemial process rise high above the 
knee-joint, as in Colymbus, but both procnemial and ectocnemial plates are as extraordi- 
narily developed. 
This tibia was about the size of that in Aptornis didiformis' and Dinornis geranoides ; 
nearly equalling in length, but exceeding in thickness and strength, that of the larger 
Argalas and Storks; more closely resembling in both proportions the tibia of the 
Mooruk Cassowary. 
With the tibia from Timaru was a femur of proportional size, and fitting thereto as 
well as the loosely adjusted articular surfaces of the bones forming the knee-joint admit 
of in birds. There was also a metatarsus more decidedly belonging to the same bird 
by the closer adaptation to the distal trochlea of the tibia; and the three bones gave a 
total length of leg of about 24 inches. 
A pelvis, by its proportions to this limb, and more especially by the relative size of 
the acetabulum to the head of the femur, claimed to be entered in the list as part of 
the same bird. To the fore part of this pelvis fitted the articular surfaces of the back 
part of one of some dorsal vertebrz belonging to the same backbone ; and the characters 
of size led to the like conclusion in regard to part of the series of cervical vertebree. 
‘ The tibia of this species, referred in Part I., 1843, to Dinornis didiformis (Zool. Trans. vol. iii. pl. xxv. 
figs. 5 & 6, pl. xxvr. figs. 5 & 6), and the skull referred in Part III., 1848, to Dinornis casuarinus (Zool. 
Trans. vol. iii. pl. u11.), were determined as belonging to the genus Aptornis in 1856 (Zool. Trans. vol. iv. 
p- 62), and have been so labelled in the exhibited series of the fossil remains of birds in the British Museum 
since that date. 
3F2 
