208 
November 12, 1850. 
W. Yarrell, Esq., V.P., in the Chair. 
Professor Owen read a paper “ on the Cranium of the large species 
of Dinornis called giganteus and ingens*. ” He commenced by refer¬ 
ring to a former memoir, in which four generic types of structure had 
been determined in fossil crania of birds from New Zealand, yiz. Isestor , 
Notornis , Palapteryx , and Dinornis proper ; and proceeded to de¬ 
scribe an additional series of fossil skulls obtained by Goyernor Sir 
George Grey from a caye in the district which lies between the river 
Waikato and Mount Tongariro, in the North Island. The most re¬ 
markable of these specimens was an almost entire skull, measuring 
eight inches in length and five inches across the broadest part of the 
cranium ; which in the extent of the ossified part of the mandible 
and its downward curvature, resembled the smaller skull described in 
a former memoir, and there referred to Dinornis. In the structure 
of the occiput and base of the cranium, this large skull more re¬ 
sembled the characters of that ascribed to Palapteryx. The indica¬ 
tions of the muscular attachments, and the form and size of the 
massive beak, bespoke the great power and force with which it had 
been habitually applied in the living bird. 
Its anatomical characters were minutely detailed. Comparisons of 
the area of the occipital foramen for the transmission of the spinal 
marrow with that of the spinal canal in different vertebrae, were made 
with a view of determining the species to which the cranium in ques¬ 
tion might belong; and the peculiar contraction of the spinal canal 
in the vertebrae of Dinornis as compared with that in the Ostrich was 
pointed out. The inference deduced was, that the cranium, not¬ 
withstanding its great size, belonged probably to the species called 
Palapteryx ingens , which was the second in point of size. 
A mutilated cranium of a much younger bird, showing all the 
sutures, but of nearly equal size with the skull first described, might 
belong to the Dinornis giganteus. Two crania, referable to two di¬ 
stinct species of smaller birds of Palapteryx , were described, and sec¬ 
tions of the cranium were shown, to demonstrate the form and cha¬ 
racter of the brain. In the collection transmitted by Governor Grey, 
Professor Owen had, for the first time, recognized a portion of a 
diminutive wing-bone, similar, in the absence of the usual processes 
for the muscles of flight, to that in the Apteryx , and confirmatory, 
both by this character and its extreme rarity, contrasted with the 
abundance of vertebree and leg-bones that had been transmitted, ot 
the inference as to the rudimental condition of the wings in the 
Dinornis and Palapteryx. 
The memoir concluded with a description of a cranium of the Not- 
ornis, more perfect than that fragmentary one on which the affinities 
* This paper will appear in the Transactions as Dinornis, Part V., in continua¬ 
tion of Prof. Owen’s previous memoirs. 
