10 BULLETIN r,0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



hh. Sternum keeled;' lumbar vertebne 15; earpalsi'; fureula present;' coracoids not 



coalet^cent with s^capulfe; iliac bones divergent; wings well developed, used 



for flight.-' (Division CarimiLr.*) 



r. :Metacarpals united only at extremities; biceps patagii absent; wings destitute 



of remiges, covered with small horny scale-like feathers, used only as rowing 



naddles Sphenisciformes. 



<■<•. Metacarpals fused for entire length; biceps patagii present; wings with remiges 

 and otherwise normally feathered, used for flight.' 

 (/. Tibia with long, triangular epicnemial process; aquatic, with well-developed 

 hallux; anterior toes fully webbed or else lobated, with broad, flat nails, 



and rectrices absent; bill compressed and acute Colymbiformes. 



<l<l. Tibia without epicnemial process; if aquatic, full webbed anterior toes 

 not combined with a well-developed hallux and acute compressed bill, 

 nor lobated toes, Avith broad, flat nails and absence of rectrices. 

 .. External nostrils tubular; hallux absent or reduced to a single phalanx; 



anterior toes fully webbed Procellariiformes. 



ee. External nostrils not tubular, or else hallux present and anterior toes 

 not webbed. 

 f. Ambiens muscle present; deep i)lantar tendons of Type I, II, III, IV, 

 V, or VII, never of Type VI nor VIII.« 

 //. Toes not zygodactylous. 

 h. Palate desmognathous." 



'The keel obsolete or rudimentary in a meml)er of the Cuculiformes (genus Strin- 

 gops, Suborder Psittaci). 



'■'Except in Stringops and a few other Psittaci. 



^Not used for flight, though well developed, in Stringops. 



*^lres Carinade MERREjr, Tent. Syst. Av., 1813, — . — Carinatx Huxley, Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. Lond., 1867, 418. — Xeornithes Car/nate' Gadow, Bronn'sThier-Reichs,V6g., ii, 1893, 

 119, 299. The Euornithes of Ste.ixegek (Sci. Rec, ii, May 15, 1884, 155; Stand. Xat. 

 Hist., iv, 1885, 64) are nearly equivalent, hnt the iSphcnLviforines and Crypivriformen 

 are excluded, the latter being referred to the Dronnvognuthix' {=Batit:e--Cnjpli(ri- 

 formes). The Di'oinn'ognatlue oi Huxley (Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1867, 456), it may 

 be remarked, included only the Crypturiformes. 



■^ A few exceptions to the use of the wings for flight are exemplified, in addition to 

 the case of Strlngupis, already mentioned, in certain large aquatic birds, as the now 

 extinct Great Auk {Plautim hnpennis, a member of the Charadriiformes) and Pallas's 

 Cormorant {Phalacrorcmix jierspieiUatm, belonging to the Ciconiiformes) ; and, among 

 existing l)irds, the large cormorant of the Galapagos Archii)elago (Phalarrocora.v 

 harrini) and ad nils of the Steamer Duck ( TarJiycres vinereus, of the Anseriformes) of the 

 Straits of Magellan. In all these, however, the wings, although normally feathered, 

 are much too small in i)roportion to admit of flight, their principal function being for 

 propulsion beneath the surface of the water, as in the case of the penguins (Sphenisci- 

 formes) and most diving birds, including even the Passerine genus Cinclns. 



"See GARRon, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1875, pp. 839-348; Gadow, Bronn's Thier- 

 Reichs, Vijgel, ii, 1893, pp. 224, 225, footnote, and in Newton's Dictionary of Birds, 1894, 

 pp. 615-618. The numeration of types here used corresponds with that of the Thier- 

 Reichs and of the text in the Dictionary of Birds, but not of llw figures on page 617 of 

 the latter, where eleven instead of eight types are shown. 



'For definitions of the terms desmognathous, schizognathous, .rgithogudlhous, and 

 dromiLognathous, frequently emi)loyi'd in the present key, the reader is referred to the 

 iuqiortant paper, by Prof. T. Ii. Huxley, On the Classification of Birds, and on the 

 taxonomic value of the modifications of certain cranial bones observal)le in that 

 Class (Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1867, pp. 415-472). 



