THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE IV. VOL. III. 



No. VI.— JUNE, 1896. 



OZRIO-IILT^Ij aeticles. 



I. — Note on a nearly complete Skeleton of Aptornis defossou 



(Owen). 



By C. W. Andrews, B.Sc, F.G.S., of the British Museum (Natural History). 



(PLATE X.) 



IN a collection of bird-remains sent to Dean Buckland from North 

 Island, New Zealand, in 1842, Professor Owen noticed a tibia 

 which he regarded as belonging to a very small species of Dinornis, 

 to which he gave the name Dinornis otidiformis. A few years after- 

 wards further material showed that this bird was not Dinornithine 

 at all, but was probably a gigantic flightless rail, and it was there- 

 fore referred to a new genus, Aptornis. Subsequently, on the 

 evidence of a nearly perfect skull, considerably larger than that 

 of A. otidiformis, a second species, A. defossor, was described, and 

 it is to this larger form that the fine skeleton figured on Plate X 

 belongs. The bones from which this specimen was reconstructed 

 were found in 1889, by Mr. W. S. Mitchell, in a chasm in the 

 Limestone at Castle Eocks, Southland, New Zealand ; together 

 with them occurred more or less complete skeletons of Harpagornis 

 (both species), JSfotornis, a large species of Fulica, allied to that 

 recently discovered by Dr. H. 0. Forbes in the Chatham Islands, 

 a small Ocydromns, Stringops, Anas, Apteryx, and also Anomalopteryx 

 didina and A. didiformis. A very interesting account of the mode 

 of occurrence of these remains has been given by Mr. A. Hamilton, 

 to whose papers ' those interested may be referred for further infor- 

 mation on this point. The same writer has also given a brief 

 description, 2 with numerous measurements, of the bones of the 

 species with which we are now concerned. It appears that the 

 more or less perfect skeletons of several individuals were found 

 mingled with one another; and, although the greater number of 

 the bones constituting the present specimen no doubt belonged to 



1 " On the Fissures and Caves at the Castle Bocks, Southland ; with a Description 

 of the Remains of the Existing and Extinct Birds found in them": Trans. New 

 Zealand Institute, vol. xxv (1892), p. 88. Also, op. cit., "Result of further 

 Exploration of the Bone-fissure at the Castle Rocks " : vol. xxvi (1893), p. 226 



2 " On the Genus Aptornis, with more especial reference to Aptornis defossor 

 (Owen) " : op. cit., vol. xxiv (1891), p. 175. 



DECADE IV. VOL. III. NO. VI. 16 



