INTESTINAL TEACT OF BIRDS. 



235 



It is plain that in the Limicola? there is displayed a uround-form very close to what I 

 described as the Gruifomi metacentre, but rather more areliecentric than that. Prom 

 this condition the Charadriidte exhibit a striking set of progressively more apocentric 

 moditications, reaching a climax in tlie conformation of the gut in Scolopax. The otlicr 



iM<?. ;)o. 



"X 



Intestinal Tract of Slercoriirii's crejiidiitus. Lettcriug as before. 



families, the ChionidiX', Glareolidae, Thinocoridoe, ffidicnemidiX', and I'arridyu, all display 

 types closely allied to tliat of Xiimenins, but still simpler. In other words, a form of 

 srut like that in Numenius is a metacentre common to the Gruiformes and the Limicohu : 

 from this the Gruiformes have diverged in one direction, the specialized Charadriida' in 

 another, while the other families cluster about the metacentre. 



