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IV. On Dinornis (Part XXI.) : containing a Restoration of the Skeleton o/Dinornis 

 maximus, Owen. With an Appendix, on Additional Evidence of the Genus 

 Dromomi!3 in Australia. By Professor Owen, C.B , F.R.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



Read December 7th, 1S75. 



[Plates XXXI.-XXXIII.] 



The indications, communicated in 1869, of an established form of Dinornis surpassing 

 in size those to which the names Dinornis giganteus and Dinornis robustus had been 

 applied have been strengthened by later discoveries, which equally justify the term 

 maximus, and have contributed to an almost complete restoration of that huge species 

 or propagable variety '. 



Osseous remains, agreeing in their dimensions or proportions with those figured in the 

 undercited memoir, have been disinterred, chiefly from that notable locality " Glenmark 

 Swamp," in the province of Canterbury, New Zealand, which have enabled the indefati- 

 gable Director of the Canterbury Museum, Dr. Julius von Haast, F.R.S., to set up a 

 skeleton, of which he has favoured me with photographs, bearing the name oi Dinornis 

 maximus, under which it is exhibited in that Museum. 



A side view of this skeleton is prefixed to BuUer's admirable work on the existing 

 ' Birds of New Zealand' (4to, 1872); but the angle of the trunk to the hind limbs 

 somewhat exaggerates the height of the bird in comparison with the figure of the 

 native Chief in the same plate. 



The abundance of the evidences of this hugest of known birds (recent or extinct) 

 afforded Dr. Haast the materials for a proposition of exchange, which I had pleasure 

 in submitting to the Trustees of the British Museum ; and a series of casts, prepared 

 for articulation, of the Megatherium americanian was, with their sanction, transmitted 

 to the " Direction of the Museum " of the capital of the Canterbury Province, in ex- 

 change for a series of bones of the Dinornis maximus. 



In this series so few parts of tlie skeleton were deficient as to permit of its articula- 

 tion. These parts were the atlas and axis vertebrae, portions of the sternum and of 

 the sternal ribs, also the scapula and coracoid of the right side, those rare bones of the 

 left side being transmitted. Some of these missing or mutilated parts, from other 

 specimens of D. maximus, I have since had the opportunity of describing through the 

 liberality and kindness of other contributors, and especially of the accomplished keeper 

 of the Museum of Science and Art in Edinburgh, William Archer, Esq., F.R.S. 



In now submitting a summary of the osteology of the species I have to supplement 

 former papers chiefly by details of the vertebral structures. These I propose to combine 



' Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. vi. p. 497, pis. Ixxxix. & xc. 



VOL. X. — PART in. No. 3. — October 1st, 1877. y 



