202 STRUCTURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS 



Besides the hornbills and Macrochires the colies are the 

 only flying birds in which the latixxli/uts dorsi metapatagialis 

 is absent. 



The colies have only the left carotid. 



The stomach is not very muscular. The liver is small 

 and has a gall bladder. There are no cteca. The intestines 

 are short, but capacious, measuring nine inches. 



The syrinx has been figured by JOHANNES MULLEE.' It 

 is quite typically tracheo-bronchial. 



The skeleton and the affinities of Colius have been elabo- 

 rately treated of by MuRiE. 2 



There are thirteen cervical vertebrae. Four ribs reach the 

 sternum. 



The skull is holorhinal, without basipterygoid processes, 

 and desmognathous. After a careful maceration GAREOD 3 was 

 unable to find a vomer, the presence of which had been 

 previously 4 asserted (see fig. 95, p. 203). 



TROGONES 



Definition. Feet zygodactyle by reversion of second toe. Skull 

 schizognathous "with, basipterygoid processes. Oil gland nude. 

 Left carotid alone present. Caeca short. Ambieiis absent. Of 

 deep plantar tendons Fl. hall, supplies I. and II., Fl. dig. III. 

 and IV. Vinculum joins them before bifurcation of each. 



This family is chiefly American, but also African and 

 Asiatic. 5 



The feathers of the trogons have very well developed 

 aftershafts. The pterylosis is remarkable for the non- 

 bifurcation of the spinal tract, which is continuous as a single 

 tract to the base of the naked oil gland. It is dilated to form 

 a rhomboidal area behind the scapula. 



There are twelve rectrices. 



1 ' Ueber die bisher unbekannten typischen Verschiedenheiten der Stinim- 

 organe der Passerinen,' Abli . A\ Abaci. Wiss. 1845. 



'-' ' On the Genus Colius, its Structure aud Systematic Place,' Ibis, 1872, 

 p. 263. 



: < ' Notes on the Anatomy of the Colies (Colius),' P. Z. S. 1876, p. 416. 



1 By MURIE. 



' Trogon gallicus is an extinct species from the Miocene of France. 



