422 



HOACTZIN 



the LinricBan genus Phasianus, some of its many peculiarities were 

 recognized by Illiger in 1811 as sufficient to establish it as a dis- 

 tinct genus, Opisthocomus ; but various positions were assigned to it 

 by subsequent systematists, whose views, not being based on any 

 information respecting its internal structure, do not here require 

 particular attention. L'Herminier, in 1837, was the first to give 

 any account of its anatomy {Comptes llendns, v. p. 433), and from 

 his time our knowledge of it has been successively increased by 

 many authors.^ 



After a minute description of the skeleton of Opisthocomus, Avith 

 the especial object of determining its affinities, Prof. Huxley {loc. 



HOACTZIX. 



cit.) declared that it " resembles the ordinary Gallinaceous birds and 

 Pigeons more than it does any others, and that when it diverges 

 from them it is either sui generis or approaches the Mmophagidx.^ 

 He accordingly regarded it as the type and sole member of a group, 

 named by him Heteromorph.^, which sprang from the great 

 Carinate stem later than the Tiiiaiimnorplw;, Turniromorplini, or 

 Charadriomorphx, but before the Peristeromorpiha', Pferoclomoiphx, or 

 Aledoromorpha'. This conclusion is substantially the same as that 



' Johannes Miiller, Ber. ATcad. Wissensch. Berlin, 1841, p. 177 ; Deville, 

 Rev. Zool.. 1852, p. 217; Gervais, Expid. Amirique du Sud, Zool. Anaf. 

 (Castelnau), p. 66 ; Huxley, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, p. 304 ; Garrod, op. cit. 1879, 

 p. 109; Perrin, Trans. Zool. Soc. ix. p. 53.3; Parker, o^'- t"''^- xi"- PP- 43-85; 

 C. G. Young, Notes Leyd. Mus. x. pp. 169-174, pi. 8 ; Quclch, Ihis, 1890, pp. 

 327-335 ; Gadow, Trans. R. Irish Acad. sev. 3, ii. pp. 147-154, pis. vii. viii. 



