214 
Dr. J. Haast on the Eoctinct 
different form from those articulating with the five species of 
Dinornis; and as we have obtained a number of the most mi¬ 
nute bones of the smallest species, it would be difficult to con¬ 
ceive that a bone of such considerable size should altogether 
have escaped, the more so as so many specimens of Pala- 
pteryx were excavated. And, although this is only negative 
evidence, it is so strong that there is not the least doubt in 
my mind of the non-existence of a bony scapulo-coracoid. 
The same might indeed have existed in a cartilaginous form, 
attached to the sternum by cartilage ; but of this w'e have no 
evidence. I am well aware that on physiological grounds the 
presence of that bone seems to be indispensable for the me¬ 
chanism of respiration in birds, as Professor Owen has shown 
from his dissection of Apteryx , and he has lately again called 
my attention to the fact (letter to me, dated British Museum, 
Aug. 5,1873 ); but, with the data at present before us, I can¬ 
not alter my views, the more so as I do not deny that such a 
process might have existed as cartilage. 
It will be seen from the subdivisions given above that I 
have not used the term Dinornis giganteus, as there seems to 
be a specific difference between the species of that name from 
the Northern island, to which that term was first given by 
Professor Owen, and the largest bird of this island. In this 
I have followed Professor Owen, who has proposed the specific 
term of Dinornis maximus for the latter, which appears to 
have been altogether of more gigantic proportions than the 
Northern-island bird. I was once under the impression that 
a specific difference could be traced between the largest ske¬ 
letons known, for which the above term, maximus , was first 
used by Professor Owen, and the somewhat smaller skeletons 
for which for some time the designation giganteus was re¬ 
tained by me ; but after a careful examination of a number 
of skeletons, there remains not the least doubt in my mind 
that they belong all to the same species, with a gradual de¬ 
crease of size and robustness. 
And even assuming that the largest skeletons belonged to 
the female birds, a similar considerable difference in size being 
also constant with the different species of Apteryx , there are 
