BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 11 



i. Feet not raptorial, but fitted for wading or 8\viuiniing; tip of 

 maxilla not uncinate or else (Ciconiiformes, part) the hallux 

 connected with inner toe by a full web. 

 j. Basipterygoid processes absent; coraco-humeral groove distinct 

 (deep); one pair of tracheo-sternal muscles; caeca rudimen- 

 tary; wading birds with verj' long legs and toes not fully 

 webbed, or if with toes fully webbed the bill bent abruptly 

 downward from the middle (Suborder Phcenicopteri); or 

 swimming birds with the hallux connected with inner t(ie liy 



a full web (Suborder Steganopodes) Ciconiiformes. 



jj. Basipterygoid processes present; coraco-humeral groove indis- 

 tinct; two pairs of tracheo-sternal muscles; cseca well devel- 

 oped, functional; swimming birds, with short legs, the ante- 

 rior toes fully webbed, or else (Suborder Palamede?e) wading 

 birds with the bill short and decurved and the feet enor- 

 mously developed Anseriformes. 



/'/. Feet raptorial, the toes never fully wel)bed; tip of maxilla 



uncinate Falconiiformes. 



/(//. Palate schizognathous, droma'ognathous, or incompletely dt^smog- 

 nathous. 

 /. Palate dromfeognathous; head of quadrate bone single; distal ends 

 of ilium and ischium separated; accessory femoro-caudal mus- 

 cle with a slip arising above the sciatic foramen.^ 



Crypturiformes, 



a. Palate schizognathous or incompletely desmognathous; head of 



quadrate bone double; distal ends of ilium and ischium 



united; accessory femoro-caudal nmscle without slip above 



sciatic foramen. 



/'. Basal end of coracoids united and crossed; spina interna sterni 



present; intestinal convolutions of Type Y, jjlagioccelous ; '■^ 



bill short, the maxilla more or less decurved, vaulted, not 



compressed Galliformes. 



jj. Basal end of coracoids separated; spina interna sterni absent; 



intestinal convolutions of Type I, peri-opisthocoelus;- l)ill 



more or less elongated or else the maxilla compressed, not 



decurved or vaulted. 



k. Dorsal vertebrfe heterocwlous; metasternum 2-notched or 



entire Gruiformes. 



I'k. Dorsal vertebra^ opisthocddous; metasternum 4-notciievl. 



Charadriiformes. 



gg. Toes zygodactylous Cuculiformes. 



ff. Ambiens muscle absent; deep plantar tendons of Type I, V, Va, V^;, 

 \I, VII, or VIII— never of Type II, III, or IV; if of Type I the feet 

 desmopelmous (Striges,^ Desmodactyli^), or the palate fegithognath- 

 ous (Desmodactyli,* Cypseli^). 



^ In all these characters agreeing with the Ratitpe and Odontornithes, and differing 

 from all other Carinatie. 



■^ Gadow, Proc. Zool. Soc. Loud., 1889, pp. 303-316, and in Newton's Dictionary 

 of Birds, 1893, pp. 140-148; Beddard, Structure and Classification of Birds, 1898, 

 pp. 23-30. 



* Suborder of Coraciiformes. 



*Superfamily of Passeriformes. 



^Superfamily of Coraciiformes (Sifborder Macrochires). 



