185 
MEMOIR 
ON THE 
GENUS APTORNIS, 
WITH A 
DESCRIPTION OF THE STERNUM OF 
PALAPTERYX AND NOTORNIS, 
AND A 
RESTORATION OF THE FEET OF 
DINORNIS AND PALAPTERYX. 
Femur and Tarsometatarsus of Aptornis. 
IN the Memoir on the genus Dinornis, pp. 73, 83, I described and figured (Pl. XXV. 
& XXVI. fig. 5) a tibia obtained by the Very Rev. Archdeacon Williams from a 
fluviatile deposit in the North Island of New Zealand, and referred it provisionally to 
a species of that genus under the name of Dinornis otidiformis’. In the subsequent 
Memoir on the genus Notornis, I determined the tarso-metatarsal bone which articu- 
lated with that tibia, and pointed out some characters of the tarso-metatarsal bone 
which indicated the generic distinction of the bird to which it belonged, from the 
Dinornis, and accordingly I proposed for it the name of Aptornis (p. 153). In the 
present Memoir I propose to give the details of the characteristics of the tarso-meta- 
tarsal bone of the Aptornis otidiformis (Pl. L. figs. 5-8), and to advance the knowledge 
of the characters of the bones of the leg of this genus and species by a description and 
figures of the femur (PI. L. figs. 3 & 4). 
The femur of the Aptornis, which measures six inches three lines in length, has a 
straight, strong, subcylindrical shaft, with which the short and thick neck supporting 
the head stands inwards at right angles. The head is impressed by a large pit for the 
* Zool. Trans. iii. Part iii. p. 235. pl. 25. figs. 5 & 6; pl. 26. figs. 5 & 6. 
3G 
