440) 
MEMOLIR 
ON THE 
INTEGUMENT AND PLUMAGE OF DINORNIS. 
ALTHOUH reports, more or Jess sensational, of the yiew and even capture of a living 
gigantic Moa have obtained, from time to time, newspaper circulation, no specimen, 
dead or alive, has yet reached Europe, or come into the hands or purview of any com- 
petent scientific observer in New Zealand. Nostuffed Dinornis, alongside the Notornis, 
enriches the ornithological gallery of the national collection of natural history. Yet, 
in 1848, such an acquisition would have been as unlooked for and as unlikely as that 
of the large and seemingly extinct Coot of New Zealand. 
A faint gleam of hope of a possibility of such coming event passed across my mind 
when, in 1864, I received from the accomplished State Geologist of the Province of 
Wellington, JAmes Hector, M.D., F.R.S., &c., the announcement of the discovery of 
an almost entire skeleton of a large-sized Moa, in which “portions of the integument 
and feathers still remain attached to the sacrum ”', A portion of the skin was attached 
also to the sole of one foot of this specimen?. ‘The skeleton in question, determined to 
belong to the species Dinornis robustus, was forwarded, as above stated, to the Museum 
of the Philosophical Society of York, and the experienced Keeper of that Museum 
communicated the results of his examination of the remains of the feathers to the 
Zoological Society of London *. 
The dried skin, with portions of feathers, was attached to the upper rhombic area of 
the pelvis (shown at ¢, ¢, fig. 3, Plate XX.), and extended, on the left side, beyond the 
ridge there bounding the area, down to a part where, beneath the skin, was attached 
the aponeurotic portion of a femoral muscle. ‘The feather-bearing part of the skin 
forms a broad irregular transverse band, and, posteriorly, a little to the right of the 
centre, were many perforations in the rather thick and coarse skin, indicative of 
feathers that had disappeared. The remains of these, in places, were limited to the 
skin on the flat area, in which their insertions give rise to strongly marked papille. 
‘« These remains consisted of the basal portions of the shaft and of the accessory 
' Ante, p. 154. 
* The subject of the Memoir, p, 248, plate xxi. 
* “On the Feathers of Dinornis robustus, Owen.” By W. 8. Dallas, F.LS., Proc, Zool, Soc., March 14, 
1865, p. 265. 
