1894.] ME. J. T. LAST OS THE BONES OF .EPTORNIS. 123 



7. Haast, Julius tox. — " Eeraarks on the Extinct Birds of New 



Zealand." The Ibis, 1874, p. 209. 



8. j\Iajoe, C. I. FoESTTH. — " On Meqaladapis madagascariensis." 



Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. liv. 1893, p. 176. 



9. VAiiEifCiEisTfES. Comptes Eendus de I'Acad. d, Sci. t. xxxix. 



p. 837. Paris, 1854. 



EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 



Plate XIV. 



Fig. 1. Mpyornis midleri (?), Milue-Edw. & Grand. Right, tarso-metatarsus 

 from behind. 



2. Mpyornis mulleri (?). Right tarso-metatarsus from inner side, h, Point 



of attachment of hallux. 



3. JEpi/ornis titan. Left tibio-tarsus from front. (Type specimen.) 



4. The same from inner side. 



All the figures are one-fifth natural size. 



Plate XV. 



Fig. L (?) Mullerornis af/ilis, Milne-Edw. & Grand. Distal portion of right 

 tibio-tarsus from front. ^ nat. size. 



2. Cervical vertebra of a small species of Mpyornis (?) from left side. 



Nat size. 



3. The same from above. Nat. size. 



4. The same from front. Nat. size. 



5. Dorsal vertebra of large species of JEpyornis from right side. \ nat. size. 



6. The same from front. J nat. size. 



4. On the Bones of the ^pyornisj and on the Localities and 

 Conditions in which they are found. By J. T. Last. 



[Received February 4, 1894.] 



Li response to the kind invitation of the Secretary of this 

 Society, 1 beg leave to offer the following remarks on the bones of 

 the fossil Mpyornis for their consideration. There may be much of 

 what 1 shall say which will, perhaps, not be new to them, yet if it 

 confirms that which was already known it wUl not be altogether 

 useless. 



I first arrived in Madagascar in the summer of 1889. I made 

 Nossy-be, an island on the N.W. coast, my head-quarters, and 

 then slowly worked my way down to Nossy-ve, an island near the 

 S.W. extremity of Madagascar. It was in the early spring of 

 1891 that I arrived at Nossy-ve, and I remained in the south and 

 south central parts of Madagascar till September of 1893, and then 

 I began to turn my face towards home. During the time I was in 

 the south parts of Madagascar I had several opportunities of 

 searching for remains of the ^^pyornis. These I made use of with 

 varied success, and though I may not have been so unfortunate 

 as I had hoped, yet my efforts and the experience I gained gave 

 me an insight of the bird's former habits, and the kind of places 

 where its remains are hkely to be found. 



