Page:Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London parts 12 to 15.djvu/595

93 The third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh have elongated, slender, superior lateral processes, which bend rather downwards, and the sixth and seventh rather forwards. The fourth and fifth have a very short, rudimentary, inferior lateral process, which is smaller on the left side. The other vertebrae are without any process. The cervical vertebræ are all free.

The upper part of the spinous process of the second vertebra is very large and convex, covering this part of the next vertebra.

I may here remark that Professor Eschricht informed me that he could find no difference between the Megapteron of the North Sea and the Cape specimen in the Paris Museum. I may also observe that Cuvier (Oss. Foss. v. 381) described the Cape specimen as having the second and third cervical vertebræ united by the upper part of their body, which is not the case with our Northern specimen, and that Cuvier's figures of the lateral process of the Cape specimen are very different from the Northern one here described.

We have abundant evidence that at some former period New Zealand, and probably the Polynesian Islands, have been inhabited by a remarkable group of Birds, of which the Dinoris, so ably described by Professor Owen, formed a part, and of which the genus Apteryx is the only form at present known to exist; this form, so different from all others, has been, and will ever be, regarded with great interest, as the sole remnant of a race of which every other genus is believed to be extinct. Hitherto a single species only of this genus has been recorded; I have therefore no ordinary degree of pleasure in introducing to the notice of this Meeting a second, and if possible a still more extraordinary one than that previously described, and as I reported to the meeting held on the 13th of April, I have intelligence of the existence of a third and much larger species than either of them,

The bird I am now about to describe has just arrived from New Zealand by way of Sydney, but unaccompanied by any information as to the locality in which it was procured, or any particulars of its habits and economy.

It appears to be fully adult, and is about the same size as the Apteryx Australis, from which it is rendered conspicuously different by the irregular transverse barring of the entire plumage, which, with its extreme density and hair-like appearance, more closely resembles the covering of a mammal than that of a bird; it also differs in having a shorter, more slender, and more curved bill, and in the structure of the feathers, which are much broader throughout, especially at the tip, and of a loose, decomposed, and hair-like texture. I propose to characterize this new species under the name of Apteryx Owenii, feeling assured that it can only be considered as a just compliment to Professor Owen, who has so ably investigated the group to which I believe it pertains.