248 C. W. Andreics — JEpyornis from Madagascar. 



mainly by the expanded upper portions of the neural spines of the 

 sacral vertebree, the original divisions between which are indicated 

 by an outer and inner row of inter-osseous foramina, the outer 

 marking the boundary between the vertebrae and the ilia, the inner 

 running close to the middle line ; between the two there is a shallow 

 depression with sharply defined margins, which seems as if it may 

 have lodged an ossified tendon. The ilia terminate posteriorly in 

 an angle which lies some distance behind the last fused caudal 

 vertebra. The nearly vertical external surface is extended downward 

 as a thin flange of bone, the straight lower edge of which is, in one 

 specimen, almost in contact with the straight upper margin of the 

 expanded portion of the ischium ; this ventral flange extends some 

 distance below the centra of the fused caudal vertebrae. The 

 acetabulum is large and its anterior edge is produced outward into 

 a prominent preacetabular process. The ischium is proximally 

 a trihedral rod, but its distal portion is greatly widened by the 

 presence of wing-like expansions of its upper and lower borders, 

 the upper being much the larger and, in one specimen, having for 

 some distance a straight upper border which is nearly in contact 

 with the ilium, the two bones being separated only by a narrow 

 slit for about 12 cm.; the greatly expanded distal portion extends 

 some distance behind the ilia. The ischium also bears on its ventral 

 margin a small process, which nearly meets the pubis and closes the 

 obturator foramen. 



Fig. 1.~Vebnsoi yEpyornis midebrandti,'Bmck\. ; reduced to between one-eightli 

 and one -ninth nat. size. i;.=ilium, is. =ischium, jyj. =pubis. (In another pelvis 

 the distance between the ilium and ischium is only three millimetres at the narrowest 

 point.) •' 



The pubis is a long curved rod, triangular in section, with one of 

 the sides of the triangle forming the external surface. For a great 

 part of its length the upper and lower angles are produced into 

 narrow thin plates of bone ; distally the bone is somewhat expanded. 

 Both the pubis and ischia of opposite sides diverge from one another, 

 so that the posterior opening of the pelvis is very wide. 



There seem to have been ten pairs of free ribs : the first three, 



