186 
“Jigamentum teres.” The great trochanter rises above the level of the smooth upper 
surface continued to it from the head: there is a well-marked ridge which extends from 
the inner and back part of the shaft of the bone to the upper and back part of the inner 
condyle ; in this character it resembles the femur of the Apteryx, as well as in its rela- 
tive length to the tibia. The inner condyle reaches downwards nearly as far as the 
outer condyle. ‘The fibular fossa, outside the outer condyle, is well-marked: above it 
is a deep and rough depression. The fore part of both condyles is more prominent than 
in the femora of Dinornis. There is no pneumatic foramen: the compact wall of the 
shaft of the femur is between one and two lines in thickness, As compared with the 
femur of the Bustard, that of the Aptornis is thicker in proportion to its length, and 
longer in proportion to the tibia; and the ridge extending in the Bustard’s femur from 
the middle of the back part of the shaft towards the outer condyle, is not present in 
that of the Aptornis. 
The tarso-metatarse of the Aptornis otidiformis (Pl. L. figs. 5-8) measures three 
inches ten lines in length; its proportions in comparison with the tibia and femur 
resembling those of the Apteryxz. The ecto- and ento-condyloid cavities at the prox- 
imal end of the bone (fig. 6) are deeper than in Palapteryx or Dinornis, are more equal 
in size, and are more widely separated by the intercondyloid tract and eminence ; these 
modifications accord with those of the distal end of the tibia figured in Pl. XXV. fig. 6. 
The intercondyloid eminence is obtuse and relatively higher than in Dinornis or Pal- 
apteryx. The calcaneal processes project further back and blend together in a smooth 
convex plate behind, converting the groove for the flexor tendons into a foramen which 
is remarkable for its width; its shape is shown in Pl. L. figs. 5 & 6, Figure 7 shows 
another character of the calcaneal prominence by which the Ap/ornis differs from the 
Dinornis and Palapteryx, viz.in the absence of the buttress-like support formed in those 
genera by the posteriorly projecting shaft of the mesometatarsal element. The back 
part of the shaft is even and almost flat, the surface being broken only by one or two 
narrow intermuscular or intertendinous ridges: just below the best-developed ridge near 
the inner side of the bone, is the large and well-marked surface for the attachment of 
the metatarsal bone of the hallux,1. The anterior surface of the tarso-metatarse is 
convex transversely, slightly concave lengthwise: the distal end of the bone is so 
equally expanded, that both the inner and outer sides show a nearly equal degree of 
concavity. A short groove on the outer third of the fore part of the bone leads to the 
canal which pierces the confluent parts of the outer and middle metatarsals, two lines 
above the space between the two condyles of those bones: this canal answers to that 
which in the Notornis, Didus, Diomedea and many other birds, transmits the tendon 
of the adductor muscle of the fourth toe (tv). The relative size and position of the 
condyles of the three coalesced metatarsals are shown in figs. 5 & 8. The middle one 
advances further in front of the others than in the Apteryx, Palapterye and Dinornis: 
each condyle is impressed by a well-marked median groove. 


