PULLASTRJS—PYGOSTYLE 753 



Ogilvie Grant {Cat. B. Br. Mas. xxii. pp. 310-316) recognizes 5 

 other species, one inhabiting Affghanistan, a second Nepal and the 

 rest Tibet or China. 



PULLASTR^, an Order proposed by Sundevall {K. Vet.-Acad. 

 Handl. 1836, pp. 69, 116) to contain the CuRASSOWS, Lyre-bird, 

 Plantain-eaters and Pigeons ; subsequently abandoned by him ; 

 but in the meanwhile brought forward by Prof. Lilljeborg {Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. 1866, pp. 11, 15), with the addition of the Megapodes 

 and omission of Menura and Musophagidse. 



PUREE (A.S. Pur, Wright's Vocahdaries, i. p. 21), a common 

 name for the Dunlin in its winter-dress, especially among pro- 

 fessional gunners, who are apt to believe, as did ornithologists for a 

 long while, that the Purre and the Dunlin are distinct species. 



PUTTOCK, an old name for the Kite and Buzzard, suggested 

 by Prof. Skeat {Etymol. Did. p. 480) to signify Boot- or Poult- Hawk, 

 that is to say the Hawk that especially preys on the young of 

 Gallinaceous birds. 



PYGOPODES, Illiger's name in 1811 for a group consisting of 

 the genera Colymbus ( = Podici])es, Grebe), Eudytes ( = Colymbus, 

 Diver), Uria (Guillemot), Mormon (Puffin), and Alca (Auk), and 

 by many Avriters regarded as a reasonably natural group or Order. 



PYGOSTYLE is the terminal bony expansion of the last 6 or 

 7 caudal vertebrae which in almost all Carinatx coalesce into a 

 subtriangular upright plate or blade carrying the Rectrices. 

 Archseopteryz (pp. 278-279) shews the most primitive condition 

 by possessing about 21 free post-sacral vertebrae, of which 

 each, from the 9th to the 20th, supports a pair of well- 

 developed rectrices. In all other Birds, as yet known, the number 

 of post-sacral vertebras is considerably diminished, partly by the 

 fusion of about 6 of them with the Pelvis, and partly by reduc- 

 tion at the distal end, so that not more than some 13 caudal 

 vertebrae are left, of which about one-half are free while the rest 

 form the Pygostyle — a result possibly due to the greater use and 

 development of the rectrices. However, Hesperornis (pp. 649-650), 

 the Eatitse and Tinamidse retain, even when adult, 13 free 

 vertebrae, which diminish in size towards the tip of the tail, and 

 thus these birds present in that respect an embryonic condition, 

 though it is more probable that in them the absence of a Pygostyle 

 has been brought about in a secondary way by the gradual loss or 

 reduction of once strongly-developed rectrices, than that it should 

 be the retention of a primitive feature. A Pygostyle has been 

 occasionally observed in Ajjteryx, and the specimen of an old Ostrich 

 in the Cambridge Museum has one, some 2 inches high and 

 nearly an inch and a half long. In Ichthyornis (p. 651) it is very 



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