109 



Palmipeds surpass the Ostrich in the number of cervical vertebra, yet 

 these stand out rather as exceptions in their particular order ; while 

 an excess over the average number of cervical vertebra in birds is 

 constant in the struthious or Brevipennate order. Thus in the Cas- 

 sowary 1 9 vertebra precede that which supports a rib connected with 

 the sternum, and of these 19 we may fairly reckon 16 as analogous 

 to the cervical vertebra in other birds. In the Rhea there are also 

 16 cervical vertebra, and not 14, as Cuvier states. In the Ostrich 

 there are 18, in the Emeu 19 cervical vertebra. In the Apteryx we 

 should reckon 1 6 cervical vertebra if we included that which sup- 

 ports the short rudimental but moveable pair of ribs. Of the 22 

 true grallatorial birds cited in Cuvier's Table of the Number of Ver- 

 tebra;, only 9 have more than 14 cervical vertebra ; while the Ap- 

 teryx with 15 cervical vertebra, considered as a struthious bird, has 

 the fewest of its order. The free bony appendages of the ribs, and 

 the universal absence of air-cells in the skeleton, are conditions in 

 which the Apteryx resembles the Aptenodites, but here all resemblance 

 ceases : the position in which the Apteryx was originally figured* is 

 incompatible with its organization. 



" The modifications of the skull of the Apteryx, in conformity with 

 the structure of the beak requisite for obtaining its appropriate food, 

 are undoubtedly extreme ; yet we perceive in the cere which covers 

 the base of the bill in the entire Apteryx a structure which exists in 

 all the struthious birds ; and the anterior position of the nostrils in 

 the subattenuated beak of the Cassowary is an evident approach to 

 that very singular one which peculiarly characterizes the Apteryx. 

 "With regard to the digestive organs, it is interesting to remark, that 

 the thickened muscular parietes of the stomach of the most strictly 

 granivorous of the struthious birds do not exhibit that apparatus of 

 distinct iVfuscw/i digastrici and laterales which forms the characteristic 

 structure of the gizzard of the gallinaceous order : the Apteryx, in 

 the form and structure of its stomach, adheres to the struthious type. 

 It differs again in a marked degree from the GalUna, in the absence of 

 a crop. With respect to the cacal appendages of the intestine, though 

 generally long in the GulUna, they are subject to great variety in 

 both the struthious and grallatorial orders : their extreme length and 

 complicated structure in the Ostrich and Rhea form a peculiarity only 

 met with in these birds. In the Cassowary, on the other hand, the 

 caca are described by the French academicians as entirely absent. 

 Cuvierf speaks of ' un caecum unique' in the Emeu. In my dissec- 

 tions of these struthious birds I have always found the two normal 

 caca present, but small ; in the Emeu measuring about five inches 

 long and half an inch in diameter ; in the Cassowary measuring 

 about four inches in length. The presence of two moderately de- 

 veloped caca in the Apteryx aflfords therefore no indication of its re- 

 cession from the struthious type : these caca correspond in their 

 condition, as they do in the other struthious birds, with the nature 



• Shaw's Miscellany, xxiv. pi. 1075. 



t Lemons d'Anat. Comp. 1836. iv. p. 291. 



