25 
trunk I took the muscle, without boiling, hut with the cervical 
vertebrae and the legs I adopted my usual course of boiling. 
After they had been boiled, till I thought the muscle would be 
easily cleaned off with a brush, I took the kettle off the fire and 
allowed it to cool, and then found that the muscle was as firmly 
attached as ever. I therefore boiled them again for two or 
three hours, and at last I found the ligament so firmly attached 
to the bones that I had to take it off them individually with a 
knife. This convinced me that it must have been a very old bird, 
and led me to think that the difference between our skeletons 
was merely the result of age, and that in the apteryx osseous 
matter is so slowly formed and deposited, that anchylosis does 
not take place early in life. The whole of the ribs also appear 
to be wider in my skeleton and to cover more space than in 
Professor Owen’s skeleton. The apteryx differs from all other 
birds from having the nostrils almost at the extremity of the 
bill, so that the organs of smell are so elaborate that they are 
used for discovering its food; while its eye is so feeble and 
small, and different from what we should expect to find in a 
nocturnal bird, and the sclerotic ring so feeble that the sight is 
less developed than in almost any other bird. It differs again 
from all other birds but the dinornis in having a scapulocoracoid. 
The wing consists of a humerus, a radius and ulna, and two 
or three fingers, but it has no metacarpal bones, and is smaller 
than in any other bird. The bones are dark coloured, and in 
texture more resemble those of a lizard than a bird. The broad 
ribs are not covered by muscle, but by successive layers of strong 
but thin membrane ; and the broad ribs, with their overlapping 
appendages, are peculiarly fitted to resist the great pressure to 
which they must be subjected in being forced violently through 
the tangled forests of New Zealand by the great muscular power 
of their legs. Professor Owen found the larva of a large butter¬ 
fly in the stomach of his bird; also fragments of the legs and 
wings of insects. The stomach of my bird was quite empty. 
I forwarded to Professor Owen the substance of this paper, and 
received a letter in reply. It "was dated from the British 
Museum, 7th September, 1872, and Professor Owen observed: — 
I am obliged by the facts which you have kindly imparted to 
