But it was now made to appear that the struthious birds in this respect resembled, not only the duck, but a great many other groups - waders, birds-of-prey, pigeons, passerines and perhaps all birds not gallinaceous - so that, according to Cuvier's view, the five points of ossification observed in the Gallinae, instead of exhibiting the normal process, exhibited one quite exceptional, and that in all other birds, so far as he had been enabled to investigate the matter, ossification of the sternum began at two points only, situated near the anterior upper margin of the side of the sternum, and gradually crept towards the keel, into which it presently extended; and, though he allowed the appearance of detached portions of calcareous matter at the base of the still cartilaginous keel in ducks at a certain age, he seemed to consider this an individual peculiarity.
The Ratitae comprehend the struthious birds, which differ from all others now extant in the combination of several peculiarities, some of which have been mentioned in the preceding pages.
The earliest account of these birds is that of Polack (New Zealand, London, 1838), who speaks of the former existence of some struthious birds in the north island as proved by fossil bones which were shown to him.
Struthious birds, was placed beyond cavil, and the author called upon all interested in zoology to aid in further research as to this singular form.
The genus he had founded was usually placed among the Gallinae, and by many writers was held to be allied to the bustards, which, it must be remembered, were then thought to be "struthious."