BuLLEE. — On the Notornis. 241 



The characters of the genus Notornis were first determmed by Professor 

 Owen, in 1848, from certam fossil remains collected by Mr. Mantell in the 

 North Island of New Zealand, and consisting of the skull, beaks, humerus, 

 sternum, and other parts of the skeleton of a large brevipennate Eail. The 

 sagacity with which the learned professor had interpreted these bones, and 

 the absolute correctness of his prevision, were exemplified in the discovery 

 which enabled Mr. Grould, in 1850, to communicate to the Zoological Society 

 the complete generic characters of the bird, already known to science as 

 Notornis viantelli, Owen. In illustration of these, Mr. Gould furnished to 

 the society a coloured sketch of the head of Notornis, in his usual artistic 

 style ; and at a later period he published, in the supplement to his " Birds 

 of Australia," a full-sized drawing of the bird. These plates are very 

 beautiful, but on a close comparison with the specimen to which these notes 

 more especially refer, I find that some of the minor features have been 

 overlooked by the artist, or sacrificed to pictorial effect. In the following 

 descriptive notes, I have, therefore, deemed it best to record the characters 

 (generic as well as specific) with some minuteness of detail. 



The bill is somewhat shorter than the head, greatly compressed on the 

 sides, and much arched above, the culmen having a convex or rounded 

 aspect, with a uniform width of f of an inch from above the nostrils to 

 within half an inch of the tip, when it rapidly diminishes, terminating in a 

 rounded point. Where it merges into the frontal shield, the culmen is f 

 of an inch in width. Gould has somewhat exaggerated in his drawings 

 the angle of declination towards the corners of the mouth, also the serrated 

 edge of the upper mandible. In this specimen there is only the shghtest 

 indication of pectination. The cutting edges of both mandibles are sharp 

 to the touch. The horny covering of the bill rises on the forehead to a line 

 with the posterior angle of the eye, forming a depressed frontal shield 

 (not arched as in the drawing). Nostrils oval, placed in a depression near the 

 base of the bill, and forming an oblique opening, nearly twice as large as 

 shown in Gould's sketch of the head (Proc. Zool. Soc). Wings short, 

 rounded, and slightly concave ; ample in appearance, but useless for purposes 

 of flight ; first quill shortest, second half an inch shorter than third ; third 

 fourth and fifth longest and about equal ; sixth scarcely shorter than 

 fifth. On examining the wing-feathers they are found to be feeble and 

 pliant, the outer webs being almost as broad as the inner. The tail-feathers 

 are likewise soft and pliant, with disunited filaments, much worn at the tips. 

 The tarsi are long, strong, and well proportioned to the bird ; longer than 

 the toes (exclusive of claws), rounded in form, and armed in front with 

 fourteen more or less broad, regular, transverse scutell®, forming an 

 effective shield ; on the middle toe there are twenty-three transverse scales, 



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