The third species, (named Ap. Mantelli by Mr. Bartlett),1 though not abundant, and asserted to be rapidly decreasing from the destruction occasioned by the native hunters, and yet more from the ravages of the wild cats, still exists in considerable numbers in the impenetrable thickets of fern in the unfrequented districts of the North Island. Thirty or forty skins are said to have been imported to England last year, and distributed among the museums of Europe and America. In the Zoological Gallery of the British Museum, there are several examples of this bird; and one specimen of the smallest species, which was obtained by Mr. Walter Mantell in the Middle Island. Many fossil bones of the existing species of Apteryx were discovered by my son at Waingongoro.

3

These observations on the living representatives of the Struthionidæ of New Zealand, will prepare us for the examination of the fossil remains of the extinct giants of their class, contained in the cases in Room II.

DINORNIS.-Wall-Case B.-Table-Case 16. Lign. 26, 27.The name Moa is applied indiscriminately by the New Zealanders to all the bones of a large size, though belonging to birds of very different stature and configuration. The scientific term Dinornis (indicating the prodigious gigantic

1 Apteryx Mantelli.—“ Mr. Bartlett exhibited a series of stuffed specimens of the genus Apteryx, including the original bird figured by Dr. Shaw, which was lent by the Earl of Derby for this purpose. The result of Mr. Bartlett's investigation goes to prove that the Apteryx in the possession of Lord Derby was unique until the arrival of the specimen exhibited to the Society, and which was obtained by Mr. Walter Mantell in Dusky Bay, and is now in his father's collection. The species which is commonly seen in museums, and has hitherto been confounded with the original Apteryx Australis of Dr. Shaw, is in reality distinct, and consequently without a specific designation; Mr. Bartlett, after entering fully into the consideration of the distinctive characters of this species, proposed to name it Apteryx Mantelli, in honour of the young naturalist whose researches had enabled the error to be detected."—Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, December 10, 1850.

2 On the structure of the Apteryx, see Professor Owen's Memoirs in the "Zoological Transactions.'

3 Apteryx Owenii and Ap. Mantelli, are figured and described by Mr. Gould in his splendid work on the "Birds of Australia;" the latter species under the name of A. Australis.

a Mr. Bartlett is the eminent taxidermist of No. 23, Great College Street, Camden Town; to whom I entrusted the skins of Notornis, Apteryx, &c. to be stuffed and mounted.

SKULL OF THE MOA OR DINORNIS: DISCOVERED BY MR. WALTER MANTELL, IN THE MENACCANITE-SAND DEPOSIT, AT WAINGONGORO, IN THE NORTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND. (nat. size.)

proportions of the largest species), is now restricted to the most remarkable ornithie type hitherto observed either in a recent or fossil state, and of which there is in the case before us the only cranium and upper mandible that has been discovered.

As the typical crania and many of the bones in this colleetion are figured and minutely described in Vol. III. of the Zoological Transactions, I would refer the scientific observer to the original memoirs, and confine myself to a concise commentary on the anatomical characters of a few of the principal specimens.1

Of the Dinornis there is a nearly perfect cranium, with the upper mandible and portions of two other skulls, in Table-Case 16. This specimen is represented in profile (half the natural size in linear dimensions) in Lign. 26: and the occipital region or hind part of the cranium in Lign, 27.

Cranium of Dinornis.—The cranium of the Dinornis, especially in the temporal and occipital regions, is wholly unlike any hitherto observed in the class of Birds, and approaches that of Reptiles. It is characterized by the nearly vertical occipital plane, the elevated form and position of the foramen magnum, the great development below the occipital condyle, and the strong ridges which border the basi-occipitals, and indicate an extraordinary power in the muscles that moved the head. (See Lign. 27.) The temporal fosse are very deep, and are strengthened by a prolongation of the mastoid process, which is united to the frontal, and forms what may be termed a lateral zygomatic arch. The tympanic bone has two distinct cusps for articulation with the double condyle of the os quadratum.

In no bird is the extent of surface for the attachment of muscles at the back of the head so great, or so strongly marked by ridges and depressions, as in the Dinornis. The extension of the occipital surface in breadth by the expansion of the paroccipitals, (Lign. 27, b. b.) and downwards by the thick wedge-shaped development and abrupt descent of the basi-occipital sphenoidal area (Lign. 27, a. a.), and by its lateral. backwardly produced ridges, is altogether peculiar. The nearest approach to this structure is observable in the large

1 See Appendix C. Memoirs on the Dinornis, by Professor Owen.

Bustard (Otis tarda), in the ridges that connect the sides of the basisphenoids with the paroccipital processes.

The form of the foramen magnum is that of a vertical ellipse with straight sides divided by a small tubercle sent off from the ex-occipitals. (Lign. 27.) The occipital condyle is a hemispherical tubercle supported on a short pedicle, and is situated in the centre of the hinder surface of the skull, the foramen magnum occupying the upper half; these are characters hitherto unknown in the air-breathing vertebrata, and approach those observable in the crania of crocodilian reptiles.

The upper mandible is broad, depressed, and sub-elongate, gently curved downwards, and altogether of a very peculiar configuration; it has been aptly compared to a cooper's adze, or pickaxe. (See Lign. 26.) It must have been well adapted for grubbing up roots and tubers; and there is proof in the indications of strong muscles attached to the occipital region, and to the large spinous processes of the cervical vertebræ, that it was a very efficient instrument, and capable of being used with great effect.

The lower mandible is not known; but there is in TableCase 16, the articular part of a very large lower jaw, that probably belongs to the Dinornis.

From the form and structure of these characteristic parts of the skull and upper mandible, Professor Owen observes that it is manifest the Dinornis cannot be assigned to any known family of birds; and in referring the genus to the Struthionidæ little more is implied than a feeble development of the wings, and large and powerful hinder limbs for progression on dry land and although some of the anatomical characters above specified exhibit an analogy with those observable in the Bustard, yet the Dinornis is entirely separated from the Otida by such striking peculiarities of organization, as to show that this genus of the extinct colossal birds of New Zealand, must be regarded as constituting a distinct family of the order Gralla, or Stilt-birds.1

Femur, tibia and fibula: in Case 15.-To the genus Dinornis many of the vertebræ, ribs, bones of the pelvis and hinder extremities, and portions of sterni in Wall-Cases B&C, and in the Table-Cases 15, 16, and 17, belong. In Table-Case 15, there

1 Memoir on the Dinornis.