SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 
TO THE 
‘BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND.’ 
VOL. II. 
Ik the Introduction to this work (page xxxii) I mentioned a specimen of the leg of Dinornis 
el^hantopus, in the Cambridge University Museum, which Professor Newton had kindly forwarded 
to me for inspection, and I then referred to an astragalus-\\ke bone, the presence of which had 
hitherto escaped notice in the osteology of Dinornis. On turning to Professor Owen’s elaborate 
‘ Memoir on the Anatomy of Apteryx ’ *, I found that he had described a somewhat similar inter- 
articular bone as existing in that bird in the following terms: — “ There is a small cuneiform tarsal 
bone wedged into the outer and back part of the ankle-joint.” 
Havino- brought this matter under the notice of Dr. Gunther, at the British Museum, we 
together dissected specimens of Apteryx lulleri and Megapodius pritchardi, and found this little bone 
present in the former bird but not in the latter. At Professor Newton’s suggestion we afterwards 
made a similar examination of the leg of a Tinamou {Crypturus tataupa) and with a successful result, 
there being the same interarticular bone attached to the head of the tarso-metatarsus by means of 
two ligaments, one long and slender, the other broad and short. 
The discovery of this new bone seemed to me of so much interest that I made a special journey 
to York for the purpose of examining the comparatively recent skeleton of Dinornis robustus preserved 
in the public Museum there, as mentioned at page xxiii of my Introduction. Here I found the same 
bone, but of a somewhat different form, being scarcely half as thick as in D. elephantopus, although 
the bird was of much larger stature. It looked more like a cartilage, for which, indeed, it had been 
mistaken, the label attached denominating it a “ knee cartilage.” 
Before returning the unique specimen to the Cambridge Museum I had careful drawings of it 
made by Mr. P. J. Smit, showing the anterior and posterior aspects ; and the artist has performed his 
work very faithfully, even to the minutest details of superficial structure. Plate XLIX. accordingly 
represents the front view of the left metatarsus of Dinornis elephantopus with two of the toe- 
phalanges attached by means of dried ligament ; and Plate L. represents the back view. 
* Trans. Zool. Soc. ii. p. 293. 
