64 
with those in ordinary birds of flight, has been already pointed out. Nor is the corre- 
spondence less remarkable in the muscles of the leg and foot, especially as manifested 
in the condition of the ‘ perching muscle’ (pectineus) , in which it could hardly have been 
anticipated. The strong flexors and extensors of the leg and toes are strictly adapted 
to the exigencies of a bird which obtains probably most of its nourishment from the 
earth by means of feet resembling those of the Gallinacea, and which owes its safety to 
_ the speed with which it runs by means of legs which have the proportions of those of 
the Struthious tribe ; and which, finally, is reported to seek concealment and to incubate 
in subterraneous burrows. 
Female Organs of the Apteryx australis. 
The trunk of a specimen of this species, transmitted to me from New Zealand by the 
lamented botanist Mr. Cunningham, having proved to be that of a female, enables me 
to complete this anatomical monograph, by the description of the organs of generation 
in that sex. These consisted of two ovaria and one oviduct. The right ovarium was, as 
usual in Birds, in an atrophied state, and situated in front of the corresponding supra- 
renal body, attached to that body and the adjoining trunk of the vena cava. It was a 
small, flattened, minutely granular body, measuring eight lines by five lines, and about 
one line in thickness. 
The left ovarium (Pl. XV. a) was in a state of full development, of the usual racemose 
structure, consisting principally of one enormous calyx (0), ripe for dehiscence, containing 
the vitellus of an ovum, which measured three inches in length by two inches in breadth, 
indicating an unusually large egg for the size of the bird. All the other calyces were 
comparatively small, and the greater number of minute size. 
The oviduct commenced by the usual simple unfringed or entire slit-shaped aperture 
(c), two inches in its long diameter: the tube soon contracted to a diameter of half an 
inch, with longitudinally plicated walls, indicating its dilatability: it then expanded to 
an inch diameter, and after slightly contracting, suddenly enlarged, to form the uterine 
or shell-secreting part (d), which was nearly one inch and a half in diameter; here the 
muscular tunic is thicker, and the lining membrane presents a peculiar character, con- 
sisting of transverse, linear, sub-parallel streaks, sending off numerous short processes 
at right angles, both streaks and processes being of a white colour, relieved by the 
darker mucous membrane. A magnified portion of this structure is given at fig. 2. This 
structure occupied nearly two inches of the uterine dilatation, which reassumed the 
longitudinal plications about one inch before terminating in the uro-genital compartment 
of the cloaca. ‘I'he terminal outlet (¢) is of a narrow elliptical form, with a tumid margin 
covering a sphincteric arrangement of the muscular fibres. 
