Zoological Society. 53 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Jan. 11, 1848. — William Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 

 The following communications were read : — 



1. On the remains of the gigantic and presumed extinct wing- 

 less or terrestrial Birds of New Zealand (Dinornis and 

 Palapteryx), with indications of two other genera (No- 



TORNIS AND NESTOR). By PROFESSOR OwEN, F.R.S. ETC. ETC. 



In this memoir (No. III.) Professor Owen confined himself to the 

 description and comparison of the bones of the head and beak, form- 

 ing part of a very extensive and valuable series collected by Mr. 

 Walter Mantell in a deposit of volcanic sand at Waingongoro, North 

 Island of New Zealand. After enumerating the principal bones, now 

 in the possession of Dr. Gideon Mantell, F.R.S., by whom Prof. Owen 

 had been kindly invited to determine and describe them, and stating 

 the species to which the majority were referable, viz. Dinornis gigan- 

 teus, D. casuarinus, D. didiformis, D. curtus, Palapteryx ingens, P. 

 dromioides, P. geranoides, the author alluded to a form of tarso- 

 metatarsal bone, which had supported a strong back-toe, and resem- 

 bled the metatarsus of the Dodo, but was shorter and thicker, as 

 apparently belonging to the tibia of the species described in a former 

 memoir (Zool. Trans, iii. 1843, p. 247), to the Dinornis otidiformis, 

 but which must belong to a genus (Apterornis) distinct from both 

 Dinornis and Palapteryx. He also stated that the collection contained 

 many bones of seals of the genus Arctocephalus , F. Cuv., with a few 

 bones of a dog and of the human subject : the latter had been calcined, 

 and were probably the remains of some cannibal feast of the natives. 

 The uncalcined bones of the seal were in the same state, brittle, 

 absorbent, and of a yellowish brown colour, as the bones of the ex- 

 tinct birds, w r ith which they were associated and appear to have been 

 coeval. Numerous fragments of the shells of more than one kind of 

 egg, the largest surpassing in size the egg of the ostrich, had also 

 been discovered with the bones. 



In the present memoir Prof. Owen described the bones of the head 

 and beak. They belonged to four distinct genera of Birds. The 

 largest skull, with a very strong, broad, subelougate and subincurved 

 beak, like an adze, was referred to the genus Dinornis. The second 

 in size, with a beak to which that of the Emeu makes the nearest ap- 

 proach, was referred to Palapteryx. The third skull, with a beak 

 like that of the Porphyria and Brachypteryx , was referred to the same 

 family — 'Rallidce' — to which those genera belong; but, through the 

 peculiarities of the cranium, formed the type of a new genus, Notornis. 

 The fourth form of beak was referable to the genus Nestor in the 

 family Psittacidce. 



The cranium of the Dinornis presents the family characters of great 

 breadth, and forward inclination of the occipital region, of the ver- 

 tical plane of the occipital foramen, and of the prominent and pedun- 

 culate occipital condyle ; but the downward development of the basi- 



