22

2
gular of Birds were recorded by Mr. Yarrell in the first volume of the Transactions of
the Zoological Society¹.

Mr. Yarrell at the conclusion of his excellent description expresses "a hope, that the
zeal and liberality of the numerous friends and corresponding members of the Society
in that part of the globe inhabited by the Apteryx directed to the attainment of this ob-
ject will yet be successful, and enable us at some future period, perhaps not far distant,
to supply the deficiencies which at present exist in our knowledge of the natural history
of the Apteryx²." This hope has been fulfilled, and the appeal made by the able orni-
thologist just quoted has been satisfactorily responded to.

The same Noble Cultivator and Patron of zoological science, to whom Ornithologists
are indebted for the means by which the true external characteristics of the Apteryx
australis have been established, has also liberally contributed the materials on which
has been founded the chief part of the account of its internal anatomy contained in
the present memoir.

The trunk of a male Apteryx containing the viscera, and extremely well preserved for
anatomical investigation, was transmitted by the Earl of Derby for that purpose to the
Zoological Society in March 1838. Some months afterwards the abdominal viscera,
with the bones and tendons of the feet of a female Apteryx, were liberally presented to
me by Dr. Logan, R.N., through the friendly intercession of Sir Wm. Hooker. Subse-
quently I received the entire body of a male Apteryx, preserved in spirits, from my
esteemed friend Mr. Geo. Bennett of Sydney, N. S. Wales, a zealous and valuable Cor-
responding Member of the Zoological Society. These are the materials from which the
following descriptions have been taken.

The Apteryx presents such a singular and seemingly anomalous compound of cha-
racters belonging to different orders of Birds, as may well make the naturalist pause
before he ventures to pronounce against the possiblity of a like combination of peculi-
arities in the historical Dodo. It seems, as it were, to have borrowed its head from
the Longirostral Grallae, its legs from the Gallinae, and its wings from the Struthious
order. It is clothed with a plumage having the characteristic looseness of that of the
terrestrial birds deprived of the power of flight ; its feathers resemble those of the
Emeu in the general uniformity of their size, structure and colour, but they are more
simple than in any of the tridactyle Struthionidae, as they want the accessory plumelet'.
The skin of the Apteryx is remarkably thick and strong as compared with that of most
other birds ; it is fully a line in thickness along the back, and gradually diminishes to
half a line along the under part of the neck and trunk. A grest quantity of fat, of the

¹Description, &c. of the Apteryx Australis of Shaw, by W. Yarrell, F. L. S. ,Zool. Trans. i. p. 71. 1883
²Loc. cit. p .75.
³ Pl. I. fig. 5.