162 DE. JULIUS VON HAAST ON A NEW 



I at once requested the permission of the authorities of the Nelson Museum to describe 

 them. At the same time I made a short communication of their existence to the 

 Philosophical Society of Nelson, naming this new and interesting species Megalapferyx 

 hecton, in acknowledgment of the manifold services Dr. J. Hector has rendered to 

 science in New Zealand. 



The bones consisted of right and left femora, left tibia, fibula, and tarso-metatarsus, 

 one phalanx, and one ungual phalanx ; so that there was ample material, not only to 

 identify all the characteristic features of the principal leg-bones, but also to compare 

 them thoroughly with the corresponding bones of Apteryx on the one hand, and of 

 Dinornis on the other. 



Though, owing to the size of the bird, the bones of Megalapferi/x are somewhat more 

 massive than those of Apteryx, nevertheless they are easily distinguished by their 

 elegant form from those of the Dinornithidse, which, even the most slender forms, have 

 all a more pachydermal type than this new species. This is principally observable if 

 we compare the bones of Megalapteryx with the corresponding bones of the diminutive 

 Dinomithidce, as, for instance, Dinornis curtus, in which that pachydermal character is 

 most conspicuous. However, apart from the consideration of mere bulk, the osteo- 

 logical characteristic features through which Apteryx is differentiated from Dinornis 

 are all present in Megalapteryx, and thus the generic relation between it and Apteryx 

 can be easily and fully established. 



The few differences from Apteryx, in which Megalapteryx approaches more nearly 

 the Dinornithidte, may, as before pointed out, be easily explained by the greater bulk 

 of the latter when compared with Apteryx. 



Takso-metataesus. (Plate XXX. figs. 1, 2.) 

 Table of Measurements. 



inches. 



Total length 5-65 



Circumference of shaft at middle 2'20 



Breadth of proximal end 1'62 



Breadth of middle of shaft . . .... 0"85 



Breadth of distal end 2*20 



Antero-posterior thickness of shaft . . . . 0'48 



it will be seen from the measurements that there is not a single species of the 

 Dinornithida;, even those in which the tarso-metatarsus is shorter, showing such slender 

 proportions as the species under consideration. In fact, the antero-posterior thickness 

 of Megalapteryx, if reduced to that of the size of Apteryx, is even less than in that 

 genus. 



