. The structure and classification of birds . that these may bethe marks of the inplantation of feathers, of which, therefore,the Mpyornis may have possessed a frontal crest—a featurewhich has also been observed in certain moas. There arealso, as in the moas, a prominent basi-temporal platform, Observations sur les ^pijornis de Madagascar, Comptes Bend, , p. 122; Sur les Ossements dOiseaux, &o., Bull. Mus. Nat. Hist. 1895,p. 9 ; On the Skull, Sternum, and Shoulder Girdle of JSpyomis, Ibis (7), 376 ; On some Remains otMpyornis in the British Museum, P. Z. S. 1894,p. 108. STEUTH
. The structure and classification of birds . that these may bethe marks of the inplantation of feathers, of which, therefore,the Mpyornis may have possessed a frontal crest—a featurewhich has also been observed in certain moas. There arealso, as in the moas, a prominent basi-temporal platform, Observations sur les ^pijornis de Madagascar, Comptes Bend, , p. 122; Sur les Ossements dOiseaux, &o., Bull. Mus. Nat. Hist. 1895,p. 9 ; On the Skull, Sternum, and Shoulder Girdle of JSpyomis, Ibis (7), 376 ; On some Remains otMpyornis in the British Museum, P. Z. S. 1894,p. 108. STEUTHIONES 523 an open Eustachian groove, and a similar structure of thearticular facet for the quadrate. The sternum is singular by its extraordinary breadthand great shortness; the length in the middle line is onlyone-fifth of the greatest breadth. The hinder border is notnotched, but forms a gently concave curve. The antero-lateral processes are stout. There is, of course, no coraco-scapula is typically ratite, the angle between. Fig. 251.—Shoulder Gibdle of ^pyomis (aftee Andkews).gc, Ecapula; pc, procoracoid; /.spc, foramen supracoracoideum ; ffl, glenoid cavity. the two being very slight. As will be seen from the figure,it most resembles that of Casuarius. The bird had arudimentary humerus. DinornithidsB.—This family consists of a number ofgenera, all New Zealand in habitat; their remains are soabundant in various parts of the country that they musthave existed in countless numbers. That there should have 524 STRUCTURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS been within so limited an area at least twenty-five distinctspecies is explained by Captain Hutton by the view that atone time the two islands of New Zealand were divided up intoa greater number—an archipelago, in fact—the result of thisbeing what we now see among the cassowaries, where eachof the islands inhabited by them has its own peculiar species,,isolation, indeed, permitting of the specialisation. All themoas
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1898
