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XI. On DiNOENis (Part X.) : containing a Description of part of the Skeleton of a flight- 

 less Bird indicative of a New Genus and Species (Cnemiornis calcitrans, Ow.). 

 By Professor Owen, F.R.S., F.Z.S., Sfc. 



Read May 23, 1865. 



[Plates LXIII.-LXVII.] 



In the collection of bones, including the skull of Dinornis robustus, 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 gerano'ides ; 

 nearly equalling in length, but exceeding in thickness and strength, that of the larger 

 Argalas and Storks ; more closely resembUng 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 vertebrae 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. ph xxv. 

 figs. 5 & 6, pi. XXVI. figs. 5 & 0), and the skull referred in Part III., 1848, to Dinornis casuarintis (Zool. 

 Trans, vol. iii. pi. lii.), were determined as belonging to the genus Aptornis in 1856 (Zool. Trans, vol. iv. 

 p. 62), and have been so labelled in the e.xhibited series of the fossil remains of birds in the British Museum 

 since that date. 



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