72 Transactions.—Zoology. 
elegance of form, of which the drawings attached to this memoir will 
convey an accurate conception better than words can do. .- : 
Tn the following pages I shall offer a description of the larger and perfect 
pelvis, which I assigned to Harpagornis moorei, whilst the references to that of 
the smaller И. assimilis will prove the close generic, if not specific, relations of 
both. 
In comparing the pelvis of Z. moorei with those of Aquila амаз, the 
wedge-tailed Eagle of Australia, and of Circus assimilis, the Harrier, and 
 Hieracidea, nove zealandie, the Sparrow-Hawk of New Zealand, as shown in 
the following table, the striking difference in size becomes at once manifest. 
TABLE OF MEASUREMENTS, IN INCHES. 
Pelvis of Greatest Length. Greatest Breadth. 
Harpagarnis moorei m 7:22 is 3:38 
Aquila audax ay . 475 А 2°55 
Circus assimilis И 245 e 1-40 
Hieracidea nove zealandie ... 2-00 p 1:15 
When examining this table of measurements another peculiar feature of 
the fossil bone will present itself to our attention, namely, its great length 
when compared with its breadth; whilst in the three recent species the double 
breadth is more than the length, in Harpagornis it is considerably less. This 
peculiarity is produced principally by the greater steepness of the pelvic roof 
and by the comparatively greater length of the ilio-ischial plates ; moreover, it 
is also higher in proportion than any of the recent species of Diurnal Laptores 
with which I could compare it. е 
When viewed from below the space formed by the hind part of the 
neurapophysial crest and the two ilia has an oval shape; whereas in the 
three recent species previously alluded to it is shorter, more open, and semi- 
circular (a). 
Beginning with the first saeral vertebra, we observe that the articular 
surface of its centrum is broader in a transverse than in a vertical direction, 
0-69 inch by 0°58 inch. The neural canal has an oval form, its largest diameter, 
0-21 inch, being in the vertical line, in this respect resembling Circus; whilst in 
Aquila, and still more in Hieracidea, the canal approaches the circular form. . 
The prezygapophyses (pr.) are of middle size and stand forward, their 
articular surface of a rounded shape, being almost plane. The neural spine is 
broad and strong at its base, gradually contracting, and forming only near its 
e a small neurapophysial expansion lying between the iliac plates 
n). 
А. broad and deep ilio-neural opening is formed on each side of the spinal 
plate, having a greater vertieal than lateral extent, and here again differing 
from the pelvis of the three recent species previously alluded to, the roof 
