101 
vertebral column, as is shown by the pneumatic foramina in the vertebrz, but were not 
continued into the femora. We may infer, therefore, from the known relations of the 
development of the air-cells to that of the anterior members in existing Struthionde, 
that these were more rudimentary in the Dinornis than in the Emeu, but not quite so 
minute in proportion to the body as in the Apteryx. The size of the bones on this 
inference, even in the Dinornis giganteus, must have been small enough to prevent any 
surprise at their not having yet been recovered ; especially when it is remembered that 
no part of the sternum nor any of the ribs, which doubtless surpassed the scapule and 
humeri in size, appear hitherto to have been found. 
Stature of the different species of Dinornis, (Pl. XXX.) 
The height of the hind leg of the Dinornis giganteus in the ordinary standing posture, 
from the sole of the foot to the upper ridge of the trochanter, being given by the bones 
of the pelvic extremity in the present collection, the total altitude of the bird may be 
approximatively determined by the analogies of the existing Struthionide. In these the 
neck varies slightly in its relative length, being longest in the Ostrich and Emeu, in 
which it includes 18 or 19 vertebra, and shortest in the Cassowary and Apteryx, which 
have respectively 16 and 15 cervical vertebra ; but in all the species it is of sufficient 
length to enable them readily to pick up substances from the ground by a slight rotation 
or bending down of the trunk and pelvis upon the hip-joints. 
In estimating the height of the Dinornis giganteus by the standard of the Ostrich, I 
have taken the latter at eight feet four inches, which is the altitude given by the skeleton 
of one with a tibia two feet in length'. The distal end of the metatarsus being raised 
in the living bird one inch and a half from the ground, the tarso-metatarsal bone, tibia 
and femur, placed at the angles which they form with one another in the standing pos- 
ture, rise to the height of four feet four inches ; and from the level of the highest point 
of the femur to the top of the head with the neck erect is four feet. The longest tibia 
of the Dinornis giganteus, with its extremities entire, measures two feet eleven inches : 
this bone articulated with a femur of sixteen inches and a tarso-metatarsal bone of 
eighteen inches in length, at angles corresponding to those in the Ostrich, and with an 
allowance of three inches for the natural angle of the toes and the callous integuments 
beneath the distal joint of the metatarsal bone, makes the height of the hind leg to the 
highest point of the femur five feet six inches : from the level of this point to the top 
of the head, supported upon an erect neck of the same proportions as in the Ostrich, 
is five feet, making the total height of the Dinornis giganteus ten feet six inches. If 
the tarso-metatarsal bone of the Dinornis had borne the same proportion to the tibia 
as in the Ostrich, its height would have been nearly twelve feet, but the acquisition of 
| The tibice of mature specimens of the Ostrich in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons measure 
respectively 1 foot 8 inches, 1 foot 93 inches, and 1 foot 11 inches in length. ‘The accurate and learned 
authors of the ‘Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society’ state that the Ostrich ‘is generally from 
six to eight feet in height."—Vol. ii. p, 51. 
