184 PKOFESSOE OWEX ON THE GENUS DINOENIS. 



illustrations, natural size, of previous descriptions of the bones of the hind limb, in the 

 ' Transactions of the Zoological Society,' vol. vi., preclude the necessity of further 

 trespass. The femora, tibiae, and metatarsi in the skeleton of Dinornis maximus in the 

 Canterbury Museum, and in that of the British Museum, closely accord with the first 

 received detached bones indicative of the species. 



The side view of this skeleton prefixed by Dr. BuUer to his excellent work on the 

 existing Birds of New Zealand precludes the necessity of repetition, as my drawing 

 differs in little else than showing the trunk of the bird at an angle with the hind limbs 

 which somewhat diminishes the height of this largest of known birds as compared 

 with that indicated by the figure of the Maori Chief which Dr. BuUer has introduced 

 into his Plate. 



The height of the skeleton of Dinornis maximus, as articulated in an easy standing 

 position, in the British Museum, is 11 feet ; the length of the trunk (dorsal and sacral 

 series of vertebrae) is 4 feet 4 inches ; the length of the hind limb, in the same position, 

 following the angle of the segments, is 9 feet ; the total length of the skeleton, from 

 the point of the beak to the end of the tail, following the curves of the spine, is 11 feet 

 4 inches. 



Eeviewing the osteological facts ia the present and preceding memoirs on Dinornis, 

 the following characters seem to be common to the genus : — 



1. Skull with a rather short, broad, moderately arched bill, not attaining the height 

 of the cranium ; occipital condyle not projecting so far back as the upper border of the 

 occipital foramen. 



2. Horizontal palatal plates of the palatines and maxillaries more or less confluent, 

 not uniting solidly, but suturally, with the premaxillary and the vomer. 



3. An Apterygian, not Dromseine, pelvis. 



4. A short, broad sternum, with small, ill-defined coracoid pits, and with three 

 posterior notches. 



5. Scapula and coracoid small and feeble, forming no angle, not developing a glenoid 

 ca\'ity at their bony confluence. 



6. Four toes; the hallux small and high-placed. 



7. Terminal confluent caudals of less vertical extent than the antecedent free caudals. 

 In every example of associated or connected parts of a foot the small back toe has 



been found. Its absence in the earlier transmitted foot-bones I have since had reason 

 to regard as accidental ; and should so small and seemingly functionless a toe have 

 been the subject of congenital defect, the true generic characters of Dinornis will be 

 given by the species demonstrating the Apterygian structure of the foot rather than 

 by a propagable variety exemplifying the ' monstrum per defectum.' 



As the present may, probably, be the last of the series of papers " On Dinornis " 

 which I have to communicate to ' The Transactions of the Zoological Society,' I append 

 to it illustrations of the most authentic evidences of the plumage of the extinct species 



