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sponding to those in the Ostrich, and with an allowance of three inches 

 for the natural angle of the toes and the callous integuments beneath the 

 distal joint of the metatarsal bone, makes the height of the hind-leg to 

 the highest point of the femur five feet six inches : from the level of 

 this point to the top of the head, supported upon an erect neck of the 

 same proportions as in the Ostrich, would be five feet, making the total 

 height of the Dinornis giganteus ten feet six inches. If the tarso- 

 metatarsal bone of the Dinornis had borne the same proportion to the 

 tibia as in the Ostrich, its height would have been nearly twelve feet, but 

 the acquisition of the tarso-metatarsal belonging to the largest tibia for- 

 tunately prevented this error of exaggeration. 



But since the Cassowary and Apteryx, as compared with the Ostrich 

 and Emeu, combine shorter tarso-metatarsals with their shorter necks, 

 the Dinornis is more likely to have resembled these birds than the 

 Ostrich in the proportionate length of its neck, and we know that 

 it resembled the Apteryx much more than the Ostrich in the robust 

 proportions of the cervical vertebrae. In the Apteryx, however, the 

 peculiar length of the bill compensates for the relative shortness of the 

 neck ; and until we have proof to the contrary, we must suppose the 

 Dinornis to have had a bill of the ordinary proportions which it presents 

 in the large existing Struthionidce : the Cassowary seems, therefore, to 

 offer the best term of comparison by which to calculate the height of the 

 Dinornis. In the skeleton of a full-grown Cassowary the tarso-meta- 

 tarsal bone measures eleven inches in length : allowing an inch for the 

 callous integuments beneath its distal articulation, the tibia and femur, 

 articulated at the angles natural in the standing posture, rise to the 

 height of two feet nine inches. From the level of the top of the tro- 

 chanter to the top of the cranial crest is two feet three inches, and to the 

 base of the crest two feet. We have evidence in No. 1552 that the Dinornis 

 did not possess that peculiar defence upon the head, and therefore, from 

 the groundto the summit of the trochanter of the Dinornis giganteus being 

 five feet six inches, from this level to the top of the head, according to the 

 proportion of the uncrested Cassowary, would be four feet, making the 

 total altitude nine feet six inches. Thus, if we take the average of the 



