474

440

MEMOIR

ON THE

INTEGUMENT AND PLUMAGE OF DINORNIS.

__________________________________________

ALTHOUGH reports, more or less sensational, of the view 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. No stuffed 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 recived 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 " 1. A portion of the skin was attached
also to the sole of one foot of this specimen 2. 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 3.

The dried skin, with portions of feathers, was attached to the upper rhombic area of
the pelvis (shown at c, c, 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 papillae.

"These remains consisted of the basal portions of the shaft and of the accessory

1 Ante, p. 154.
2 The subject of the Memoir, p. 248, plate lxxi.
3 "On the Feathers of dinornis robustus, Owen." By W.S. Dallas, F.L.S., Proc. Zool. Soc., March 14,
1865, p. 265.