284 REPORT ON ZOOLOGY, MDCCCXL1V. 



between the singing Birds and the other genera. (Hornsch. 

 Archiv skand Beitr. I, S. 156.) 



It follows, as a result of the whole investigation, that the singing, 

 i. c. those Birds whose inferior larynx is provided with five pairs of 

 muscles, exhibit in every respect a peculiar structure, with only some 

 occasional aberrations therefrom, and that all the remaining kinds of 

 aquatic, wading, gallinaceous, and rapacious Birds, with the Parrots and 

 Cuckoo-like species, however dissimilar they may appear in outward habitus, 

 still exhibit a definite and exclusively fundamental form, which approximates 

 that of the singing Birds merely thwragh the medium of some trausitiouary 

 forms (among which the Woodpeckers constitute the most important) that 

 range next to the Cuckoo birds. In the singing Birds even the fleshy 

 part upon the outside of the fore-arm is denuded of feathers, and covered 

 only by the small feathers that rest upon the loose integument, in front of 

 and above the humcrus. The large scapularics are so short that they simply 

 attain half the length of the primaries or arc still smaller : of the lower 

 wing-coverts or secondaries, the first of the two inverted series is wanting, 

 and the remainder are far less numerous than in other Birds. The first pri- 

 mary or wing-feather exhibits a general tendency to shortening, and is rudi- 

 mentary or missing in about half the known species ; the cubital feathers or 

 secondaries are nine, rarely more, in number. A peculiar form of the bra- 

 chial muscles, which rounded, or as it were swollen out in caliber, and fur- 

 nished with long tendons, joined to a special curve of the larger bone of the 

 fore-arm or ulna, as well as sundry other peculiarities in the internal parts, 

 give the whole arm a singular form, which will be readily recognized, even 

 when the feathers have been pulled out. The remaining orders have 3-5 

 complete rows of feathers upon the fleshy external side of the arm ; their 

 large scapularies extend far beyond the middle of the secondary wing- 

 feathers ; and of the lower tertiaries the first series is always found reversed. 

 The first primary wing-feather is always found and is but seldom abbreviated, 

 so that these Birds have invariably at least ten primary wing-feathers ; some 

 few forms possessing eleven. The secondary wing-feathers are with few 

 exceptions more than nine, but in the rest the number varies exceedingly ; 

 the ulna is arciform, not presenting a siginoid, but curved, outline, and the 

 brachial muscles are of equal thickness, with short tendons, and present in 

 many respects a form opposed to that of the singing Birds. (Compare also 

 Die Porhaudl. vid. dc skaud Naturf Stockh. 1S43, p. 585 ; iibers Isis, 1845, 

 S. 452. 



CORVINE. A new species from Guatemala has been established by Hart- 

 laub, in the 'Rev. Zool.,' p. 215, under the name of Garrulus (C'l/anocorux) 



