104 Mr. P. C. Mitchell on the 



seventeen forms under notice. Austro-Malaya is the metro- 

 polis of the Kingfishers, and contains both eutaxic and 

 diastataxic forms. Such presumably far-travelled forms as 

 the American H. rufu and C. americana are eutaxic, as is 

 al^o the European Alcedo. The presence of a tuft on the 

 oil-gland is almost certainly the more primitive condition 

 among Kingfishers. The Ctttura, in which the gland is naked, 

 are eutaxic. Forbes mentions that the gland is also naked 

 in Tany sifter a ; it would be intert sting to find if that genus 

 also is eutaxic. The characteristic arrangement of the ventral 

 pterylse in the Kingfishers is that the ventral tract, as in 

 .4/cef/o, divides at the base of the neck into two lateral tracts, 

 each of which almost immediately divides again. This 

 arrangement is well marked in all the eutaxic forms, in 

 Daceln, and in Ctryle ma.vimn. In one of the eutaxic forms, 

 Ctryle americana, the median divisions of the lateral tracts 

 coalesce soon after their separation from the lateral divisions, 

 and then separate again. A similar condition is seen in the 

 diastataxic C. alcyon. But in the species of Sauropatis, 

 although least so in S. sanctn, there is a broad, difi'use, 

 pectoral tract, hardly distinguishable into lateral tracts. I 

 do not quite agree with Beddard, who called attention to 

 this, that it can be regarded as a generic character of Sauro- 

 patis, as it is not so apparent in Sauropatis sancta ; but it is 

 interesting to notice that the forms in which this absence of 

 differentiation occurs are dia-tataxic. The wings of the 

 eutaxic Ibrms have on the whole a smaller number of 

 secondary quills, and these individually are larger; the 

 carpal covert and carpal remex tend to be smaller, and are 

 absent in one of the Aicedines. The eutaxic Ceyx has the 

 second toe absent, certainly not a primitive character. 



Muscular Anatomy. 



Biventer Link. — The only noteworthy peculiarity that I 

 have found in the muscles of the head and neck relates to 

 a tendinous link first noted by Dr. 11. O. Cunnin-hani (3) 

 as u.iiting the btventres ceroids musc'es in Ceryle stelluta, 

 but absent in Alcedo. Bcddurd (4) examined a number of 



