232 Transactions—Zoology. 
short legs, and the presence of a hind toe elevated above the level of the 
others, shows an approach to the Gallinaceous order, while their long bill, 
with its slightly swollen tip, resembles in some measure that of the Scolopacide, 
which have also the same habit as the kiwi of feeling about on the ground 
with their bill. Gallinago pusilla moreover lives in holes, and only comes out 
at night (Travers, see Art. xxii), 
Thus the Apterygide have a more generalised structure than the other: 
Struthious birds ; they therefore belong to an older type, and cannot with any: 
degree of correctness be said to represent the extinct race of moas. The 
relations between the second family, or the Sétruthiones proper, are very 
complicated, but Dinornis, which alone concerns us here, appears to be 
intermediate between the rheas of South America, and the emus and casso- 
waries of Australia and the adjacent islands. It approaches the rhea in the 
structure of its egg-shell and in having only three pairs of sternal ribs, 
while the emu, the cassowary, and also the kiwi, have four, and the ostrich 
five pairs. In the structure of its feathers, and in the shape of its pelvis and 
skull the moa approaches the emu. The Struthious birds exhibit a type of 
structure intermediate in many respects between the Carinate birds and the 
extinct Dinosaurians, and this leads naturalists to suppose that they are but 
the remnant of a race that once spread over the whole earth. About twelve 
species are known outside New Zealand ; while here, besides our four species 
of Apteryx, Professor Owen has determined fourteen species of Dinornis, three 
of Aptornis, and one of Cnemiornis, thus making a total of twenty-two species 
of Struthious birds, belonging to four different genera, living in New Zealand 
only a few hundred years ago, that is to say, nearly twice as many as are 
found in all other parts of the world put together. 
Probably, however, some of Professor Owen’s species of Dinornis are but 
the young of others, and it seems to me very doubtful whether Aptornis and 
Cnemiornis should be regarded as Struthious birds at all. It is evident that 
these two genera are closely related, and if the wing bones placed upon | 
Cnemiornis calcitrans really belong to the legs of the same bird we must 
suppose that the sternum had a keel sufficiently developed to support muscles. 
of a size proportionate to the wings ; for although we can understand how the 
kakapo (Stringops), belonging to an order of deeply keeled birds, may have 
lost, by disuse of the pectoral muscles, the keel on its sternum, we cannot 
possibly explain how a Struthious bird could have had large wing bones 
developed unless it had also sufficiently powerful muscles to use them. TI also 
observe that Aptornis defossor now wears a skull similar to that of the late 
Dinornis casvarinus, which skull Mr. W. K. Parker says undoubtedly 
belonged originally to a Notornis. But omitting these two genera, and 
making a due allowance for doubtful species of Dinornis, the great number of 
