1882.] PROF. OWEN ON THE STERNUM OF NOTORNIS - 689 
1. On the Sternum of Nofornis and on Sternal Characters. 
By Professor Owen, C.B., F.R.S., F.Z.8., &e, 
[Received November 10, 1882.] 
In the ‘ Proceedings’ of this Society for 1882, referring to the 
meeting held January 7th, it is stated that ‘‘ Professor Newton 
exhibited the skin and bones of the trunk of a specimen of Notornis 
mantelli, obtained in the province of Otago eighteen months before.” 
On these specimens the sole remark recorded is, ‘‘ that the sternum 
figured in the Society’s ‘ ‘'ransactions,’ vol. iv. pl. 4. figs. 5-8, as of 
this species must belong to a totally different form” (loc. cit. p. 97). 
As a means of judging of the degree and kind of difference, it may 
not be unacceptable to ornithologists to compare the subjoined 
figures (pp. 690, 691) of the sternum of Notornis mantelli, of the 
natural size, with those of the sternum in the plate above cited, the 
original of which may be seen in the Geological Department of the 
Museum of Natural History, Cromwell Road. 
Prior to the date of Prof. Newton’s communication I had received 
from Prof. T. Jeffery Parker, University of Otago, New Zealand, a 
notice of the arrival there of the skin and following parts of the 
skeleton of a Notornis mantelli, viz. the bones of the trunk with 
some lower cervical and anterior caudal vertebra, the scapular 
arch with sternum, and both femora articulated with the pelvis. 
As it was Prof. Parker’s expressed intention to submit a descrip- 
tion of these unique specimens to the Otago Institute, and as he was 
so good as to send me an impression of the plate, giving reduced 
views, front and side, of the sternum with other bones of the trunk, 
I reserved any remark thereon until the reception of the Professor’s 
full and instructive ‘ Memoir,’ which has appeared in the 14th volume 
of the ‘Transactions of the New-Zealand Institute,’ 8vo, p. 255 
(1882). 
Not until the year 1870 had I the opportunity of describing the 
sternum of Aptornis, the extinct Ralline genus surpassing in size 
Notornis. 1 then remarked :—“ The inferiority of size of the 
sternum figured (plate 4. figs. 5-8) to the sternum of Aptornis 
defossor is greater than that of the femur of Aptornis otidiformis as 
compared with that of Aptornis defossor.” This might have favoured 
the conclusion arrived at, or inclined to, in 1850, and indicated in 
the title to my former paper, in vol. iv. p. 1, of our ‘ Transactions.’ 
But further insight was to be had by comparison of the subject of 
plate 4. figs. 5-8 with the parts of the skeleton of Aptornis otidi- 
Jformis subsequently acquired. 
Such comparison suggested, in 1870, the following remarks :— 
‘The relative size of the smaller sternum to the femur of Aptornis 
otidiformis is more like the relative size of the sternum of Aptornis 
defossor to the femur of that species, than is the relative size of the 
‘smaller sternum’ to the femur of Nofornis. Seeing, therefore, in 
? Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. iv. pp. 1-18, Febr. 1850. 
46* 
