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XVI. — On DiNOKNis (Part XII.): containing a Description of the Femur, Tibia, and 

 Metatarsus q/' Dinornis maximus, Omen. By Professor OwE\, F.B.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



Read November 28th, 1867. 



[Plates LXXXIX., XC] 



Ix the letter of the date of February 15th, 1864, in which Dr. Hector, F.G.S., Pro- 

 vincial Geologist of Otago, New Zealand, communicated to me the particulars of the 

 discovery of the almost entire skeleton of the Binornis, of which the skull and scapulo- 

 coracoid were described in a previous Memoir (No. IX.), he remarked that " The 

 skeleton was not that of one of the largest-sized Moas, the tibia, for mstance, being 

 only 27 inches in length, whereas I have frequently seen them as much as 36 inches.'" 



The tibia of the specimen in the British Museum, which is the type of my Binornis 

 rohustus, measures 32 inches in length; and it is probable that the difference in the 

 length of the tibia of this specimen and that of the skeleton at York (27 inches) indi- 

 cates the range of size as exemplified in iadividuals of different sexes of this species. 



I have, however, for some years, been cognizant of a species of Binornis from the 

 Middle Island of New Zealand, having a tibia rather exceeding the length stated by 

 Dr. Hector, and of a thickness proportionally the same as in Binornis rohistus. In 

 1858 the Duke of Argyll favoured me by sending for my inspection a tibia of this size, 

 together with a femur and metatarsus of like proportions, and purporting to be of the 

 same limb of a Binornis, which bones had been transmitted to His Grace from the 

 Middle Island, New Zealand, by the Rev. Dr. Lillie. With the liberal permission of the 

 Duke, casts were taken from these bones for the British Museum, which have been 

 exhibited in the Palseontological Gallery as of the " Binornis giganteus, var. maximus." 



In 1861 I was favoured by Henry Joseph, Esq., with an inspection of a femur of a 

 Binornis of the dimensions of that of B. maximus, which had been found beneath drift- 

 sand at Otago, New Zealand. 



In 1863 Professor Tennant, F.G.S., was so kind as to bring for my inspection the 

 shaft of a femur of a Binornis, from New Zealand, locality not stated, of the general 

 dimensions of the two above specified, but heavier from some infiltration of mineral 

 matter, and rather more robust. The least circumference, e. g., of the shaft of the 

 femur in Dr. Lillie's and Mr. Joseph's specimens was 8 inches 1^ line ; in Professor 

 Tennant's specimen it was 8 inches 9 lines. 



In March, 1867, 1 was favoured by Major J. Michael, of the Madras Staff Corps, with 



' Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. v. p. 340. 



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