270 PROFESSOR OWEN ON CNEMIORNIS. 
structure of its metatarse. The entotrochlea comes off at the same transverse line with 
the ectotrochlea (Trans. Zool. Soc. v. pl. 67. figs. 1 & 3), and shows but a feeble trace of 
the anserine backward production of the internal trochlea, as shown in the side view of the 
bone given in the present paper (Pl. XX XVIII. fig. 12). The metatarse in Tachyeres 
conforms to the rule in Anatide, the innermost digital trochlea not only diverging from 
the confluent shafts at a higher level (as shown in Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. vii. pl. 62. fig. 63), 
but being produced more backward (“ fortement rejetée en arriére”) than the other two 
trochlez (as shown in the side view given in fig. 14, Pl. XX XVIII). 
§ 6. Conclusion. 
The sum of the comparisons instituted in the foregoing descriptions of parts of the 
skeleton of Cnemiornis with corresponding parts in Cereopsis and in Tachyeres weighs 
strongly in favour of the nearer affinity of the non-volant Anserine of New Zealand with 
the feebly flying Goose of Australia than with the non-volant Duck of Magellan’s Strait. 
This is more especially exemplified in the pelvis, the metatarsus, and the skull. The 
characters of shortness, breadth, and obtuseness of the beak which generically distinguish 
Cereopsis nove hollandiw were exaggerated in Cnemiornis, and lead me to infer a 
similarity of diet and terrestrial habits’ in the gigantic goose of New Zealand. 
In the ‘ American Journal of Science and Arts,’ vol. xlix. no. 146, March 1870, Pro- 
fessor O. C. Marsh reports the acquisition, from “‘ the greensand of New Jersey,” of “a 
portion of the shaft and distal extremity of a left tibia which indicates a species, appa- 
rently, of a swimming bird nearly as large as the common wild Swan (Cygnus ameri- 
canus, Sharpless)” (p. 206). ‘The condyles of the distal end are broader anteriorly 
than deep, the inner condyle being more prominent in front, and the outer one pro- 
jecting somewhat further behind. The intercondyloid space is wider than either condyle.” 
“The supratendinal bridge is well ossified;” “it is submedian in position, straight, 
transverse, of moderate width, and spans a deep and well-defined canal, which was 
traversed by the extensor tendon of the toes.” ‘The under trochlear surface is but 
slightly concave transversely, and has a faint median elevation, as in the tibia of the 
Swan.” But this elevation is present in birds of other genera, families, and orders: it 
is shown in many of my illustrations of the bone; and I may refer to the latest (‘Trans. 
Zool. Soc. vol. viii. pl. 59. fig. 2), where it is indicated in the tibia of Dinornis gravis by 
the letter w. With regard to another alleged anserine character, I may remark that in 
every bird with the ‘“supratendinal bridge well ossified,” I have found it spanning a 
canal that might be called “deep and well-defined,” and “ which was traversed by a 
tendon ;” but this I have found to be, in Anserines as in other birds, the tendon of the 
' Mr. Yarrell has recorded his observation that the Cercopsis, like the semipalmated Goose, “ passes much 
of its time on land,” ‘ Proceedings of the Committee of Science and Correspondence of the Zoological Society of 
London,’ 8vo, p. 25 (January 1831). 
