622 STRUCTURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS 



in one specimen a radiale is present in the carpus, in another 

 a bone which appears to represent radiale and distal carpals ; 

 this specimen had a free third metacarpal. In two other 

 instances there is a carpo-metacarpus, as in A. australis. 

 There are two or three phalanges and, as always, a claw to 

 the index. 



The development of the manus of Apteryx shows plainly 

 what is also apparent from its adult structure, that it is in a 

 condition of degeneration. Traces of three distal carpals, as 

 well as of radiale and ulnare, are visible ; all the metacarpals 

 are distinct, the third being as long as the second and having 

 a rudimentary phalanx. 



The .ffipyornithidse, containing the type genus JSpyornis 

 and a recently established new genus, MuUerornis,^ was for 

 some time only known by the subfossil egg and by the 

 bones of the hind limb. More recently Messrs. Milne- 

 Edwards and Geandidiee, and more recently again Mr, 

 C. W. Andrews, have described other parts of the skeleton, 

 so that now, though there are still many lacunae, we have a 

 fair knowledge of several important parts of the skeleton. 

 This family is limited to Madagascar, where its remains have 

 been found chiefly in marshes. 



The skull is only incompletely known — the palate, for 

 instance, so important in determining its affinities, is quite 

 unknown — being only represented by what is little more 

 than a calvaria, and by an imperfect mandible. The occipital 

 condyle is pedunculate, as in the moas. The frontal region 

 of the skull is covered by many pits, which are arranged in 

 a fairly regular fashion ; it is suggested that these may be 

 the marks of the inplantation of feathers, of which, therefore, 

 the Mpyornis may have possessed a frontal crest — a feature 

 which has also been observed in certain moas. There are 

 also, as in the moas, a prominent basi-temporal platform, 



' ' Observations sur les ^pijornis de Madagascar,' Comptes Bend, oxviii. 

 1894, p. 122 ; ' Sur les Ossements d'Oiseaux,' &o., Bull. Mus. Nat. Hist. 1895, 

 p. 9 ; 'On the Skull, Sternum, and Shoulder Girdle of JSpyomis,' Ibis (7), ii. 

 p. 376 ; ' On some Remains otMpyornis in the British Museum,' P. Z. S. 1894, 

 p. 108. 



