198 STRUCTURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS 



chaudi there are fourteen cervical vertebrae, and four ribs 

 reach the sternum a difference which appears to me to 

 justify the separation of the latter into a distinct genus, 

 Sauromarptis. Halcyon smyrnensis agrees in these points 

 with D. gig antea. 



The last cervicals (from 10 J ) and the dorsal vertebrae 

 (including the first lumbar) have well- developed, often 

 bifurcate, sometimes trifurcate haemapophyses. The four- 

 notched sternum has a well-developed spina externa. 

 As Dr. CUNNINGHAM has pointed out, the lacrymals of 

 Dacelo are larger than those of Ceryle? and, I may add, of 

 Halcyon and Todirhamphus (= Sauropatis) . The skulls of 

 the genera above mentioned are remarkable for the fact that 

 the temporal fossae as nearly as possible meet behind : there 

 is only a slight bridge dividing them. The lacrymal, 

 moreover, dilates into a wide plate, with a notch, on the inner 

 side of which is received the small flat-pointed prefrontal 

 process of the ethmoid. I have observed these skull cha- 

 racters in the Coraciidae. The clavicle reaches the scapula 

 and gives off a longish acromial process. The nares are 

 impervious. 



In Sauropatis albicilla, Dacelo gigantea, Cittura cyanotis, 

 and Pelargopsis (FURBBINGER) the tensores patagii have 

 the somewhat complicated arrangement shown in the figure 

 (fig. 94). There are two tensor brevis tendons, of which 

 the anterior, after giving off a wristward slip, is continued 

 over the arm to the lower side, fanning out as it goes. 

 There is in all a passeriniform tendinous slip. Dacelo has 

 a muscular pectoralis propatagialis. Sauromarptis Gaudi- 

 chaudi and Sauropatis sanctus are quite similar. There is, 

 in Pelargopsis at least, a tendinous slip from pectoralis I. 

 to both longus and brevis tendons. 



In Callalcyon rufa (fig. 93) there is a simplification, 

 only the anterior of the two tendons being present ; the 

 passeriniform slip is barely marked. In Alcedo there is a 

 still further ' degeneration ; ' not only is the passeriniform 



1 On CIO there is a paired hasmapophysis in Dacelo. 



- SHUFELDT, 'On the Osteology of Ceryle,' J. Anat. Phys. xviii. p. 27'.). 



