rrci 



19:3 



spicuous lateral neck spaces ; behind the scapula it forks, 

 and the posterior part of the spinal tract is not in continuity 

 with the interior. The former is at first a single tract, but 

 it divides some way in front of the oil gland, which it 

 surrounds, as in the Picidas and RhamphastidaB ; but in the 



FIG. 91. FEATHER TRACTS OF Megalama asiatica. THE RIGHT-HAND 

 FIGURE SHOWS THE VENTRAL SURFACE, THE LEFT THE DORSAL. 



former family there is also a median continuation of the 

 spinal tract, which stops at the base of the oil gland. On 

 each side of the spinal tract is a very narrow lateral tract, 

 which is figured by NITZSCH as existing also in the Kham- 

 phastidae and the Picidae. Xcuithol(cma rosea shows differ- 

 ences from Megalcema ; the spinal tract divides in the usual 

 way, but the tracts rejoin, so as to enclose a diamond-shaped 

 space ; they then again diverge immediately, and end at the 

 sides of the oil gland in the usual way. 



Xantlwlcema has a faint lateral tract on either side. In 

 spite of NITZSCH'S figures I am disposed to think that this 

 tract, so universal in the barbets, is at most feeble in the 

 toucans. In the continuity of the anterior and posterior 



o 



