128 
bed of peat was exposed, to which Mr. Earl’s attention was attracted by observing some 
bones projecting from its surface. These and many other bones, obtained by digging 
close to the surface, or at a moderate depth in the peat, all belonged to species of 
Dinornis. 
Commencing with the leg-bones referable to known species, I first select for description 
the femur of the Din. giganteus, of which hitherto only the shaft has been described ; 
but I have now had the opportunity of examining four perfect specimens contained in 
the collections of Dr. Mackellar and Mr, Percy Karl. 
The femur of the gigantic Dinornis closely accords with the generic characters of the 
bone, as given in the preceding memoir (pp. 86, 87). ‘The rough surface for implanta- 
tion of a muscle at the middle of the fore-part of the proximal end is well-marked, and 
there is an obtuse prominence from the middle of the rotular concavity (Pl. XXXVI. 
fig. 2, r) above the transverse ridge which divides this from the lower inter-condyloid 
space. The back-part of the proximal extremity of the bone is entire and imperforate, 
as in the other species of Dinornis. Its dimensions are given in the ‘ Table of Admea- 
surements’: the length precisely accords with that conjecturally assigned to the femur 
of the Gigantic species in the former memoir (p. 86, Table of Dimensions of Femora, f. 1] 
and Note’). 
The circumference of the middle of the shaft exceeds that of the fragment there de- 
scribed, and indicates the Gigantic Dinornis of the Middle Island to have been a stronger 
and more robust bird than that represented by the bones from the North Island, de- 
scribed in the former memoir. In Plate XXXVI. the proximal (fig. 1) and distal (fig. 2) 
extremities of this noble bone are figured of the natural size. 
Fine tibize of Din. giganteus in both Dr. Mackellar’s and Mr. Percy Earl’s collections 
supplied, by the perfect state of their articular ends, what was defective in the more 
ancient and rolled bones from the North Island. The head of the tibia is characterized in 
Birds by the flat or sinuous, or sometimes slightly convex articular surface (Pl, XXXVIL. 
a, a) adapted to the inner condyle of the femur, by the large size of the tuberosity (i. ¢) 
which divides this from the smaller sloping articular surface applied to the inner side of 
the outer condyle, and by the ‘epicnemial’ ridge (b), which is commonly broad and 
more or less produced upwards from the anterior and outer part of the proximal sur- 
face of the tibia. From the outer, usually more or less obtuse, angle of the epicnemial 
ridge a short ‘ ectocnemial’ ridge (k) is commouly continued downwards upon the outer 
part of the shaft: a compressed prominent ‘ procnemial*’ ridge (p) is continued further 
down the fore-part of the shaft of the tibia. 
The proximal end of the tibia of the Gigantic Dinornis (Pl. XX XVII. fig. 1) agrees, like 
* To facilitate and make more intelligible the comparisons of the tibia in the different species of Dinornis 
and other birds, I have proposed the above names for the well-marked and constant processes and ridges which 
have not before received any distinct appellations in Comparative Anatomy. 

