367 



proportion to the bone of sixteen inches in length, as this does to that 

 of thirty-five inches. The tibia of eight inches and two-thirds in length 

 has its articular extremities as completely ossified and confluent with the 

 shaft, and its proximal and fibular ridges as strongly developed, as in the 

 larger tibiae. 



The shape of its proximal articulation differs more from that of No. 1583 

 than this does from that of No. 1570 ; the tibial half is broader from behind 

 forwards than transversely ; the anterior ridge at the proximal end is 

 nearer the middle of the bone than in No. 1 583, a fortiori, nearer than 

 in No. 1570; the inner side of the bone is more rounded or less angular, 

 especially at the proximal half of the shaft ; the transverse diameter of the 

 shaft is proportionally less than the antero-posterior one ; the posterior 

 notch between the distal condyles is deeper, and the inner condyle is 

 more compressed laterally, and is produced further backwards. 



There is no tarsometatarsal to match the present tibia, but it 

 unequivocally establishes a species of cursorial bird, which, from the 

 agreement of the bone in its general characters with the tibiae of the 

 larger species, most probably belonged to the same genus, Dinornis, but 

 did not surpass in size the Great Bustard ( Otis tarda). I have therefore 

 named the species to which it belonged Dinornis otidiformis. 



1593. A series of plaster-casts or models of the bones of the Dinornis giganteus, 

 articulated according to their natural connections and relations in the living 

 bird, so as to show the height of the hind-legs and pelvis, whereby the total 

 altitude of the bird may be conceived and approximatively determined by 

 the analogies of the existing Strut hionida,. In these the neck varies slightly 

 in its relative length, being longest in the Ostrich and Emeu, in which 

 it includes eighteen or nineteen vertebrae, and shortest in the Cassowary 

 and Apteryx, which have respectively sixteen and fifteen cervical ver- 

 tebrae ; but in all the species it is of sufficient length to enable them 

 readily to pick up substances from the ground by a slight rotation or 

 bending down of the trunk and pelvis upon the hip-joints. The tibia of 

 the Dinornis giganteus, with its extremities entire, measures two feet 

 eleven inches : this bone, articulated with a femur of sixteen inches and 

 a tarso-metatarsal bone of eighteen inches in length, at angles corre- 



