1888.] Development of the Skeleton of the Apteryx. 59l 



II. " Preliminary Note on the Development of the Skeleton 

 of the Apteryx." By T. J. Parker, B.Sc, Professor of 

 Biology in the University of Otago.* Communicated by 

 W. K. Parker, F.R.S. Received February 9, 1888. 



[Note by W. K. P. — This is not the first, but it is the most important, 

 of the " Notes" sent to me by my son, on the development of this, the 

 lowest and most Reptilian of all birds known. Seven stages before 

 hatching have been obtained, and will yield, I am satisfied, most 

 instructive results and, added to what has already been done in the 

 other forms of the Ratitse, will give something like completeness to 

 our knowledge of the morphology of these archaic types. It is not 

 merely as low kinds of birds that the Struthious types are so important 

 to the biologist ; they are so intimately related to the more primitive 

 forms, both of Reptiles and Mammals,' that any new fact as to their 

 structure is of great value. This short paper is accompanied by one of 

 my own, purposely to throw light upon its meaning and bearing.] 



Extracts from a Description of the Skull of Apteryx at about Period of 



Hatching. 



Each alisphenoid is connected by a rod of cartilage (A) with the 

 postero-dorsal angle of the mesethmoid ; a transverse cartilaginous bar 

 is thus produced, which forms the anterior boundary of the pituitary 

 fossa and the dorsal boundary of the optic foramen. 



Fig. 1. 



V Pituitary fossa- 



* The Note here given is on the skull only, but. I have already received notices of 

 things found in the rest of the skeleton of the apteryx that are only second in 

 importance to those upon the skull. — W. K. Parker. 



