206 



but in order to sift the somewhat intricate relationship of this 

 bird, it would be necessary not only to compare it with the Rasores 

 s. Gallinse and with the Turnices s. Hemipodii, but also with 

 interesting and outlying forms such as Tliinocorus, Attagis, Mesites, 

 and various other Limicoline and Ralline genera. Tliinocorus, 

 Attagis, and Mesites I have not yet been able to procure ; of 

 Turnix I have only T. sykesi, in spirits, although several skeletons 

 of other species, I cannot therefore make such comparisons as I 

 would wish, — hence the scantiness of my communication. 



However it reveals something, namely that Pedionomus is 

 closely allied to the Turnices, although not closely enough to in- 

 clude it in that group, unless the limits and the definition of the 

 group be considerably widened. Moreover, it connects the 

 Turnices with the Rasores, not directly, but through a number of 

 characters which indicate the common descent of both from some 

 less differentiated and less specialised Ralline-Limicoline stock. 

 How tlie various branches of our much searched for hypothetical 

 tree converge and diverge is another question. Suffice it to hint 

 at the possible advisability of a Rallo-Galline combination. Fuer- 

 Ijringer, in his monumental work, Taf. xxix.a indicates such a 

 combination as optional, but not so on pp. 1566 and 1567. 



1 do not know that anyone else has published a single line on 

 the anatomy of Pedioiioi^iios. Garrod does not mention it at all. 

 Fuerb ringer, p. 1250 says only "the change of the Turnicidaj into 

 proper cursorial birds has secondarily (via Pedionomus) caused 

 the loss of the hallux." Forbes refers to it in his list of Tridac- 

 tyle birds (Ibis 1882, p. 389) thus: "Turnicida3,(exc. Pe(:/^o?^o^?ms)" 

 meaning that Pedionomus has four toes ; in another paper (Ibis, 

 1882, p. 428) he enumerates it as the last of the eleven known 

 species of Turnicida^. That Gray (Handlist of Birds, Vol. ii., p. 

 271, gen. No. 2429, and Genera of Birds, Vol. iii., p. 511, pi. 131, 

 fig. 3) referred Pedionomus to his Turnicinte, speaks well either 

 for his sagacity or for the occasional value of some of the so-called 

 external characters, but he was wrong in letting the Turnicina? 

 form a subfamily of the Tetraonidixj, the latter being the fourth 

 family of his order Gallina3. 



Tegumentary System. 



The primary remiges are ten in number, of which the seventh 

 to tenth or most distal quills form the tip of the wing ; the eighth 

 and ninth are slightly longer than the rest, but there is no trace of 

 an eleventh (|uil]. Each of the ten primaries possesses an upper 

 large covert, but there is no distinct trace of an eleventh upper 

 covert. The secondary remiges or cubitals consist of eleven longer 

 quills and two or three much weaker and shoi-ter quills on the 

 elbow, a character which occurs also in tlie Rasores, but not in the 

 Turnices. The fifth cubital is absent, although it is present both 

 in the Turnices and Rasores. The alula or wing of the pollex is 



