CLASSIFICATION, AND PHYLOGENT OF THE DINOENITHID.^. 377 



6. Pachtornis, species a, Lydekker. 



The cranium in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.), No. 32197, so named by Lydekker 

 (Foss. Birds, p. 320). 



7. Pachtornis, species h, Lydekker. 



A cranium in the Nat. Hist. Museum, numbered 32205, and described by Lydekker, 

 I. c. p. 345. It agrees in all measurements, except a narrower temporal fossa, 

 with P. elephantopus. 



Genus Mesopteryx \ Hutton. 

 1. Mesopteryx casuarina, Owen. 



a. Twenty-nine crania, with several mandibles, premaxillse, quadrates, and maxillo-jugal 



arches, from Enfield ". (Cant. Mus. and coll. H. O. Forbes.) 



b. A cranium from Hamilton Swamp. (Otago Univ. Mus.) 



c. A cranium from Glenmark Swamp, Canterbury. (Cant. Mus.) 



d. A cranium from Castle Rocks. (Coll. A. Hamilton.) 



The examination of this large series of skulls has convinced me that didina, 

 Owen, and huttonii, Owen, are synonyms of casuarina; there is a perfect gra- 

 dation between the larger skulls {casuarina) and the smaller (didina). The same 

 gradation is found by Prof. Hutton in the case of the leg-bones from Enfield, but 

 as there are considerable differences between the two ends of the series he prefers 

 to keep the species distinct. 



e. A skull in the Natural History Museum, numbered 32210, A typical but unusually 



large specimen. 



f. A skull in the same collection, numbered 32214, 32199. 



This species is figured by Owen as Dinornis rheides (with mandible of 

 Pachyornis), Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. vii. pi. xii. (Ext. Birds of N. Z. pi. Ixxv.). 

 The best of the Enfield skulls is figured in Plate LX. fig. 19. 



'&■ 



' Eeichenbaeh's name /Si/orms lias priority for this genus, having been applied to the type species casuarina; 

 but, as Lydekker has pointed out (n, p. 2.54), this name clashes with >S'2/Hor»is, Hodgson, and I have therefore 

 adopted Hutton's name Mesoptery.v, the type species of which {M. didina) is probably only a small form of 

 casuarina. [Captain Hutton (Trans. N. Z. Inst. vol. xxvii. 1894) now considers that Meiononiis, Haast, is 

 the correct name of this genus. — June 1895.] 



^ According to Mr. Forbes (2) the Moa-remains from Enfield belong chiefly to the species elepliantopus, 

 ingem, and rheides. This is hardly correct ; the vast majority of the skulls belong to the species now under 

 discussion, a few to Pachyornis elephantopus, and one or two to Dinornis, sp., and Emeus, sp. My deter- 

 minations are confirmed by Prof. Hutton's measurements of 351 metatarsi from this abundant deposit sent to 

 the Canterbury Museum. He finds that 181, or more than half, are referable to three doubtful s^edB&— casuarina, 

 didina, and huttonii, aU of which I include under casuarina ; of the rest he assigns 40 to rheides, 38 to crassus, 

 40 to various species of Dinornis, and 52 to species of Pachyornis. 



