ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE MOAS. 247 



ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE MOAS. 



BY CAPTAIN F. W. HUTTON, F.G.S., &c. 



(Abstract of a paper read to the Canterbury Philosophical Institute, on 

 1st October, 1891.) 



In all but three of the species of Moa described by Sir R. Owen 

 the bones of the leg had to be put together conjecturally from 

 collections sent him at different times between 1843 and 1872. In 

 consequence, the bones have, in many instances, been misplaced, and 

 the skulls have also often been attached to the wrong species. These 

 mistakes were, at the time, unavoidable, but the collections in the 

 colony are now sufficiently large to enable us to detect most of the 

 errors ; and this paper is an attempt to reduce the confusion to order, 

 to clear up the characters of the different species, and to provide a 

 basis for further investigation. 



The Moas are all included in one Family — the DinornithidEe — 

 but are divided into seven genera and twenty six species. The genera 

 are founded chiefly on the skulls, but also have characters derived 

 from the sternum, the pelvis, and the robustness of the leg-bones. 

 The species are distinguished almost entirely by size, but sometimes 

 characters derived from the skull can be given. In many cases the 

 species run one into the other and the lines between them are drawn 

 so as to give about an equal range in variation to each species. In 

 Owen's species the metatarsus is taken as the type, except in D. 

 ingens, where the tibia forms the type. 



Genus Dinornis. 



Skull depressed, the lambdoidal ridge flattened and the parietals 

 hardly rising above it ; the breadth at the squamosals greater than 

 the length from the supra-occipital to the nasals. Beak rather longer 

 than the head, depressed and obtuse at the tip ; the lower jaw much 

 curved. A scapulo-coracoid without any glenoid cavity. 



Sub-genus Dinomis. 



Top of the head flattened. Extinct Birds of N.Z., Plate 61. 



D. alius, Owen — South Island. Larger and more slender than 

 D. maximus. 



D. maximus, Owen — South Island. 



D. excelsus, sp. nov. — North Island. Same size as D. maximus 

 but more slender. 



D. validus, sp. nov. — South Island. Larger and more robust 

 than D. giganteus. 



D. giganteus, Owen — North Island. 



D. robustus, Owen — South Island. 



D.firmus, sp. nov.— North Island. Same tize as D. robustus but 

 more slender. 



