236 PEOF. W. K. PARKER ON THE 



XII. — On the MorpJiology of the Young o/Turuix rostrata. 

 In the reaiou round about the keel-less tribes of birds there lie some families that 



a 



eome in between these large arrested and degraded tyj)es and the numerous existing 

 Families and Subfamilies of Gallinaceous birds. One Eamily only of the great general 

 Gallinaceous group, the Pigeons, has shot up into the higher type of arboreal birds ; 

 they are " Altrices," the high-builders, with tender young. Between them and the true 

 " Alectoromorphae " (Phasianidse, Cracidae, Megapodidse, &c.) come in the Sand-Grouse — • 

 birds that are Prsecoces and exhibit a curious mixture of the Pigeon and the Grouse; 

 they have the intestines of the Grouse and the general form and the sternum of a 

 Pigeon, but belong to the zoological level of the Grouse. 



Between the Cracidse and the Batita3 we have the nearly extinct Opisthocomidse ; this 

 type is on the same ornithological platform as the TinamidaB. The so-called " Button 

 Quails " or Hemipods (Tiu^nicidaj) come in between the dwarf kinds of Phasianidae, 

 the Quails {Coturnix), and the semi-struthious Tinamous. The ancientness, or the 

 newness, of all these closely related birds may be determined and measured by their 

 potency in genera and species. 



The extremes, therefore, in this respect are the Hoatziu {Opisthoconms) on one hand, 

 one species for one family, and the " Alectoropods " among the true Powls on the other, 

 the high-heeled Gallinacege ; the main family, Phasianidse, having subdivisions that may 

 be called Phasianinse proper, Tetraoninse, Meleagrinse, and Numidiinae. 



The Turnicidae are few in number, are small in size, and are confined to the Eastern 

 Regions ; whilst Opisthoconms and the Tinamous are Western types — Neotropical indeed. 



Now, as I showed long ago, the Hemipods are not merely a link between the Quails 

 and the Tinamous ; they also approach, on one hand, to the Sand-Grouse and Plovers, and 

 on the other to the archaic types of Passerine birds. They are not ready-made links 

 to help the Ornithologist to tie together Gallinaceous and Struthious types, for they are 

 rich with an ornithic fulness of Nature ; they are so intensely generalized that they have 

 relations in many families. Yet they are a small and a decaying family, and the 

 specialized Powls arc gradually " improving " them out of existence. 



In three different places I have already treated of the Osteology of the Hemipodidse; 

 the present addition wiU practically give a complete account of their Osteology, both 

 young and adult. 



The first description of their skeleton is given in my paper " On the Gallinaceous 

 Birds and Tinamous " (Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. v. plates 34, 35, pp. 172-190). In this 

 paper the osteology of two adults is given, namely, Jlemipodius varius (see Owen, 

 Osteol. Catal. Ptoy. Coll. Surg. vol. i. p. 274, No. 1423), and of an unnamed species 

 from the Gardens of the Zoological Society. 



The next contribution is in the work " On the Shoulder-girdle and Sternum " (Ray 

 Soc. 1868, plate 16, pp. 184-186). In the figures there given and in the description 

 there is an error with regard to an additional pair of osseous centres in the young of 

 Turnix rostrata. The preparation, still in my possession, which misled me, has the 

 " lophosteon " cracked at its upper margin ; there is no " coracosteon," but merely the 



