274 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Art. XXXVIII. — On the Dimensions of Dinornis Bones. 



By Captain P. W. Hutton, C.M.Z.S. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 12th October, 1874.] 



The large number of Moa bones exhumed last summer from the swamp near 

 Hamilton for the committee of the Otago Museum having passed into my 

 charge, it became necessary for me to try to determine the different species by 

 measurement in order that I might select a complete series to be retained in 

 the museum and ascertain what duplicates there were for exchange. In 

 doing this I made nearly 2,000 measurements, and although I have not a 

 sufficient knowledge of anatomy to be able to give an opinion as to what 

 anatomical characters are sufficient to determine species, yet as the different 

 species of Dinornis have necessarily been distinguished by Professor Owen 

 chiefly by size, I think that the results of my measurements are of sufficient 

 importance to justify my bringing them before you. 



No one I think can examine such a large collection of Moa bones as I 

 have done without beiug struck by the almost exhaustive nature of the 

 researches of Professor Owen, and the collectors who supplied him with the 

 material to work upon. It would naturally be expected that the examination 

 of the remains of some two or three hundred extinct birds would show several 

 forms not hitherto described. Such, however, is not the case, for with but 

 very few exceptions all the bones can be referred with tolerable precision to 

 some name already established, or to an intermediate form between two names. 

 These excavations have certainly brought to light a variety of D. elephantopus, 

 larger and more exaggerated in its characters than any yet recorded by 

 Professor Owen or by Dr. Haast, and they have also proved that, so far as 

 mere size is concerned, two of Professor Owen's species run gradually into one 

 another. But notwithstanding this the difference in the forms he has described 

 is so great that I am of opinion that the whole of his specific names must be 

 retained, while one or two others may perhaps have to be added to them.* 



I have already mentioned that the collection contained the remains of 

 more than 200 birds ; many of the bones, however, were not sufficiently 

 well preserved to admit of accurate measurements being made. I therefore 

 selected out the fully adult and best preserved bones for measurement, except 

 where the form was represented by very few individuals, in which cases all 

 adult bones were measured. 



In the annexed table (Table A) I have arranged the various bones to the 

 best of my judgment, according to the dimensions given by Professor Owen 



* In my paper on the Geographical Relations of the "New Zealand Fauna— I said that 

 probably some of Professor Owen's species of Dinornis are but the young of others 

 (Trans. N. Z. Inst., 1872, p. 232). This is a mistake, Professor Owen's species are 

 certainly all founded on adult specimens , 



