35G 



tarso-metatarsal. about a fourth of the length of that bone from its trifid 

 distal end : the Dodo was also tetradactyle, like the Apteryx. Thus the 

 tarso-metatarsal bone of the Dinornis distinguishes that bird generically by 

 its structure from the two last-named Struthionidee, as it does by its shorter 

 and stouter proportions from the Cassowary, the Emeu and the Rhea : 

 the three well-developed anterior toes more obviously distinguish the 

 Dinornis from the didactyle Ostrich 



1568. The metatarsal bone of a young Dinornis giganteus. The condition of 



this bone, or rather group of bones, demonstrates, what could not indeed 

 be reasonably doubted, that a more tardy ossification coexists in the 

 Dinornis, as in other Struthionidce, with the absence of the powers of 

 flight. The marks of immaturity in the present specimen are the gradual 

 deepening and widening of the anterior median channel of the shaft as it 

 approaches the proximal end of the bone, until it divides into the fissures 

 separating the proximal ends of the three constituent metatarsals, which 

 extremities in the specimen are broken off immediately above the point 

 where they begin to coalesce. 



1568'. The partially anehylosed metatarsus of a half-grown Ostrich: in this, 

 which is rather more than two-thirds the length of the same bone in the 

 mature bird, the tarsal bone, which seems to represent a proximal epi- 

 physis, is detached, and the posterior channel of the metatarsus deepens 

 and widens as it approaches the proximal extremity, and is finally lost in 

 the two deep and narrow clefts which divide the proximal ends of the 

 three constituent metatarsals from each other. 



Presented by Prof. Owen. 



1569. The right femur of the Dinornis ingens, Owen. It measures thirteen 

 inches in length and six inches in circumference at the middle of the 

 shaft. 



The femur in this, as in other species of the genus Dinornis, is remark- 

 able for its great strength and the expansion of its extremities. The tro- 

 chanter is unusually broad, thick and elevated ; the distal extremity is still 

 more remarkable for its great size, and especially for the breadth of its 

 rotular concavity. The shaft is rounded, not compressed and subtrihedral 



