CATALOGU E 



B I R D S. 



Order V. COLUMILE. 



( // iracters. Ilostrum swollen at the tip, which is hard and 

 convex, its basal portion covered by a soft skin, in which the 

 nostrils open, overhung by an incumbent valve. Feet constantly 

 with four toes ; the hallux on the same level with the rest ; the 

 anterior toes without membrane at the base. Tarsi covered 

 laterally and behind with hexagonal scales, and more or less 

 feathered on the upper part, but sometimes entirely naked. 



Palate schizognathous ; nostrils schizorhinal ; basipterygoid pro- 

 cesses (except in Didi) present and placed medially. Angle of the 

 mandible not produced and recurved, but abruptly truncated. 

 Dorsal vertebra) heterocoelous. Sternum variously shaped, generally 

 with four deep posterior notches, the inner pair of which may be 

 converted into foramina; sometimes (Qeophaps) the sternum is very 

 narrow and has only two notches ; when there are four notches the 

 external lateral processes thus formed are, as in GaUince, much 

 shorter than the internal ones. 



Furcula (except in Didi) well developed. 



Feathers without aftershaft or with a rudimentary one. Spina] 

 feather-tract well defined on a considerable part of the neck by 

 lateral bare tracts, and divided into a fork on the interscapular 

 region ; primaries eleven ; fifth secondary absent ; tail-feathers from 

 12 to 20. 



Oil-gland nude or absent. 



Cseca generally rudimentary, not functional ; gall-bladder mostly 

 absent (present in Carpophaga, LophciUemus). 



Carotids both present [Oarrod). 



