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and other long bones of the Mammalia above cited are
equally or more marked than in the femora.
The texture of the bone which affords the chief
evidence of its ornithic character, presents ne
extremely dense exterior crest varying from one
to two lines in thickness : this then rapidly degenerates
into a lamello-cellular structure of from two to
three lines in thickness. The lamelli rise vertically
to the internal surface of the dense medullary are
xxxxx directed obliquely to the axis of the bone,
dissepate, & intercept spaces which are generally
of a rhomboidal form, & from two to three lines
in diameter. This coarse cancellated structure is
continued through the whole longitudinal extent
of this fragment, & immediately bounds the medullary
cavity of the bone, which is about one inch in
diameter in the middle and slightly externally
towards the extremities. There is no bone of similar
size which permits a cancellous texture so closely
resembling that of the present bone or does xxxx
the femur of the Ostrich : but this structure is
interupted in the Ostrich ..t the middle of the
shaft, where the perimeter of the medullary,
or rather air cavity, are smooth & unbroken.
From this difference I conclude our extinct
bird to have been a heavier & more sluggish
species than the Ostrich, its femur, & probably
its whole leg, was shorter & thicker. In no other
femur resembling or approaching in form
and size that of which the shaft is here described
have I found superficial reticulate inspections*
like those above described, except in that of
the Ostrich. The Ostrich's femur is subcompreped*
while the present fragment is cylindrical
approaching in this subject nearer to the
femur of the Emeu ; but its diameter is one

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