GKUES 369 



fibrous band fourteen rings above the end of the trachea. 

 The first tracheal ring is not so strongly modified as in 

 Grus. 



13. pavomna hardly differs. 



There are nineteen cervical vertebra in G. carunculata, 

 twenty in Balearica. 



Seven ribs reach the sternum in both. The clavicles in 

 the former and in Tetrapteryx are ankylosed with the sternum, 

 but not in Balearica. Some of the dorsal vertebrae are partly 

 ankylosed. 



The skullh&s occipital fontanelles, as in mostcharadriiform 

 birds. This holds good also of the slightly aberrant Aramus. 

 The impressions for the supra-orbital glands are slight, and 

 largely concealed when viewed from above. The lacrymal 

 bones do not blend with the ectethmoid. The interorbital 

 septum is much fenestrated, but not so much so as in the rails. 

 In Tetrapteryx and Balearica l the palatine bones do not 

 appear to come into contact posteriorly, and at any rate the 

 inner lamina is continued right to the end of the bone. 

 This is not the case with Grus, where the bones do come 

 into contact posteriorly and the inner laminae are not 

 continued to the end. 



The pelvis of the t} r pical cranes (Grus, Balearica, Tetra- 

 pteryx) hardly differs from that of such a rail as Ar amides. 



An outlying member of this group is usually included in 

 the family Rhinochetidae. This family is represented by but 

 a single species, the kagu (Bliinoclietus jubatus), of New 

 Caledonia. The bird is not unlike a heron in appearance ; 

 but BARTLETT, who made a careful study 2 of the habits 

 of specimens at the Zoological Society's Gardens, compared 

 its quick active movements rather with those of a crane 

 than with the slow motions of a heron. The anatomy of 

 the bird has been chiefly studied by PARKER (osteology), 3 



1 So too apparently in Aniliropoides stanlcyanus (PARKER, Tr. Z. S. x. pi. 

 liv. fig. 0). 



- P. Z. S. 18(52, p. 218. 



3 ' On the Osteology of the Kagu,' Zool. Trans, vi. p. 501. 



B B 



