52 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXXVII. 



Casuarius recorded in a comparative way that is extremely 

 useful ( Trans. Zool. Soc, London, Vol. XIII, Part XI, October, 

 1895, pp. 410, 411). In closing the brief account of this sub- 

 order, especial attention is invited to the fact that the distal 

 extremities of the ilium and ischium upon either side in the 

 pelvis of Casuarius are firmly fused together as they are in all 

 adult birds of the order Ornithurae, and not free as in all 

 ostriches known to us, either existing or extinct. Although very 

 unostrich-like, yet no one with a knowledge of birds will ever 

 question the claim of the cassowary to a place among the 

 existing representatives of that group. 



The representatives of the family Dromornithidae are all 

 extinct forms discovered in eastern (Dromornis) and southern 

 (Genyornis) Australia. They here constitute the third family 

 of the suborder Casuariornithes, but from the fact that they are 

 fossil forms not far removed from the existing ostrich types, 

 they will not be dwelt upon in this article. T. J. Parker has 

 paid no little attention to them in his exhaustive memoir cited 

 above. (See also Lydekker, Cat. Foss. B., p. 355, 1891.) 



Suborder IV. Dinornithes. 



Family : DinornithiDjE (the moas). 

 Considerable literature is extant of the extinct moas of the 

 North and South islands of New Zealand. This is amply 

 referred to in an admirable article, " Moa," by Lydekker, 

 contributed to A Dictionary of Birds, by Newton. There 

 one will find a number of moa's bones accurately reduced and 

 figured with the remarks that "Moas are distinguished from 

 all existing Ratitse in having a bony bridge on the anterior 

 surface of the lower end of the tibia above the condyles. The 

 tarsometatarsus has three distal trochleas, and in most cases 

 (according to Capt. Hutton probably all) carried a hallux. The 

 beak (unlike that of the kiwis) is short and stout ; the form of 

 the lower jaw being either U-like or V-like. The general form 

 of the pelvis is very like that of the kiwis ; but the sternum 

 differs by the absence of the superior notch, the more divergent 

 lateral processes, and the abortion or disappearance of the 

 grooves for the coracoids " (p. 578). 



