559 



Order XIX. ALCiE.* 



(By W. R. OGILVIE-GRANT.) 



Skull schizorhinal ; schizognathous ; nares pervious : vomer free, 

 blade-shaped, and cleft posteriorly; basipterygoid processes vestigial or 

 absent ; lachrymal vestigial, fused with nasals ; supraorbital grooves 

 deep ; temporal fossae deep ; with a well-marked " cerebellar dome " ; 

 maxillo-palatines laminate ; dentary sulure of mandible with a well- 

 defined lower limb. All vertebrae free ; hypapophyses of thoracic 

 vertebraj well developed; those of last cervical and 1st and 2nd 

 thoracic bifid ; neural spines and transverse processes with long 

 tendinous ossifications ; metasternum rounded posteriorlv, pro- 

 jecting beyond the posterior lateral processes ; corpus sterni greatly 

 elongated ; a spina communis lying between the coracoid grooves ; 

 furcula with a facet for articulation with the acrocoracoid ; pre-ilia 

 separated one from another by the dorsal border of the neural 

 spines of the synsacrum : post-ilia with a more or less extensive 

 flattened dorsal surface separated one from another by the trans- 

 verse processes of the synsacrum ; pre-ilium longer than the post- 

 ilium : ischia produced backwards far beyond the post-ilia ; pubcs 

 of great length, as long as or longer than the whole ilium ; posterior 

 dorsal and ventral ribs of great length, running backwards as far as 

 the free end of the pubes ; cnemial crest not greatly produced beyond 

 the level of the articular surface for the femur ; tarso-metatarsus 

 not laterally compressed ; toes webbed, 3rd toe longest. Xestling 

 nidicolous. \_W. P. Pycraft.'] 



* The following works refer to the anatomy, osteology, etc. of the group: — 

 Aud. Orn. Biogr. v. p. 627 [anatomy of U. grylle], p. 628 [anatomy of A. tarda] 

 (1839); id. B. Amer. vii. p. 259 "(1844) [anatomy of A. alle]; Owen, Tr. 

 Zool. Soc. V. pp. 317-335, p'.s. li., lii. (1865) [osteology of P. impennis] ; Huxlev, 

 P. Z. S. 1867, pp. 430, 455 [skull of A. torda] ; Garrod, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 34, 

 fig. 1 [skull of P. impennis], p. 470 [both carotids present in A. torda and 

 U. troile, left only in A. alle], p. 642 [muscles] ; Forbes, P. Z. S. 1877, pp. 307, 

 310,314 [Bursa Fabricii] ; Bureau, Bull. Soe. Z. Fr. ii. pp. 377-399, pi. \y. 

 (1877), iv. p. 28 (1879) [shedding of the sheath of the bill] ; Coues, Bull. Xutt. 

 Orn. C. iii. pp. 87-91 (1878) ; Ridgw. Bull. Nutt. Orn. C. v. pp. 126-128 

 (1880j ; Meyer, Abbild. Togel-Skel. p. 42, pi. liii. (1884), pi. cix (1886) [U. troile 

 and A. torda] ; Lindsay, P. Z. S. 1885, p. 690, fig. 1, & p. 694 [embryonic deve- 

 lopment of the sternum in U. troile]; Sundevall, Ibis, 1886, pp. 389, 456 

 [wing] ; Shufeldt, P. Z. S. 1887, pp. 43-47 [yiseeral anatomy of B. marmoratus 

 and S. antiquus]; id. Amer. Nat. p. 777(1887); Maekay. P. R. Soc. 1888, 

 pp. 394-402; Beddard, P. Z. S. 1888, pp. 252-258 [visceral anatomy of 

 F. arctica]; Shufeldt, Auk, v. p. 328 (1888) [osteology of L. cirrh'ata]; 

 id. J. Aaat. Phys. xsiii. pp. 1-39, pis. i.-iv. (1888) [osteology of A. torda aud 

 F. impennis], xxiv. pp. 89-116, pis. vi.-viii. (1889) [osteologv] : Lucas, Auk, 

 vi. p. 195 (1889; [additional pair of ribs] ; Parker, P. Z. S. 1889, p. 170; 

 Beddard, P. Z. S. 1890, p. 439 [anatomy of U. troile and F. arctica] ; id. 

 P. Z. S. 189li, pp. 542-547 [anatomy] ; 1897, p. 471 [intercentra]. 



