187 
himself to the difficult task of restoring the original skeleton and 
to multiplying it by plaster-casts. 
The hones of this skeleton of Palapteryx ingens, — a species 
of which only rudiments were known heretofore, — are those of 
a young not quite fully-grown in- 
dividual, since the last rib-bearing 
vertebra is not solidly connected 
with the pelvis. The height of the 
restored skeleton in plaster-cast, as 
it stands, is 6% feet to the top of 
the head. This is the average height 
of an ostrich. A grown specimen, 
however, might have been taller 
by about V B ,h of the whole. The 
original bones required nearly all 
a more or less thorough repair be- 
fore a cast could be made of them; 
and various wanting parts, such as 
the feinura, had first to be model- 
led after corresponding parts of other 
individuals. The pelvis especially 
was in a very deficient state of pre- 
servation and has been imitated for 
the most part from the pelvis of 
Dinornis didiformis , which 1 had 
brought with me from North Island. 
Of the skull also there was only a 
fragment left. However, I was 
fortunate enoua'h to 
£0 
111 
tl 
10 
Kiwi-like Moa. 
Palapteryx ingens. Front of the skeleton. 
same cave, from which the respec- 
tive hones had been dug, a very well preserved skull of a quite 
recent appearance, which probably belonged to another, older 
specimen , but , as was seen on comparing it with said fragment, 
doubtless to a specimen of the same species. Even the little bones 
in the auditory passage and the bony shell of the nose are preserved 
