344 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



first observed by Brandt, which led him to the application of 

 the term " hemipterygoid" to the anterior segment of that 

 bone. As the result mainly of this line of enquiry, the author 

 is led to associate the Tinamous (Crypturi) definitely with the 

 Ratitte, as was first proposed by Garrod and has since been 

 all but done by others, and to reject, for cogent reasons, the 

 Sub-class names Ratitse and Carinatai. Dealing with the 

 palate, he distinguishes between the PaUeoynathce (Ratitee 

 + Crypturi), in which the palatines are connected with the 

 pterygoids by either synchondrosis or suture, and the rest 

 of the birds or Neognathce, in which the palatines and 

 pterygoids are in articulation. 



Having had access to the rich collections of the British 

 Museum, the Zoological Society's Prosectorium, and other 

 leading institutions in London, the author is enabled to show 

 that in the passage from the paheognathous to the neognathous 

 condition, the segmentation of the pterygoids and loss of 

 independence by their anterior segment, by co-ossification 

 with the palatines as these approximate medially and come 

 to underlie them, is still actually undergone, and that the 

 resulting freedom of the pterygoid (in reality of its posterior 

 moiety only), characteristic of the Neognathce alone, is conse- 

 quently a secondary feature. 



Passiug, on this basis, to a reconsideration of accepted 

 views of the inter-relationships of the seven orders of Palceo- 

 ynathm, the author comes to regard the Dromajidee as the 

 most primitive birds now living, and to look upon the Rheas 

 as most nearly allied to the Dinornithidie and Tinamous. 

 The Dromseidte for him embrace the Emeus and Cassowaries ; 

 and concerning the Ostriches, he is led to regard the absence 

 of palatine processes to the prem axilla and the greatly 

 reduced condition of the vomer as indicative of specialization. 

 While he would thus deny their primitive rank among the 

 Palaognatho;, he points to details in Struthio meridionalis, 

 which he justly revives, of conditions which are intermediate 

 between the higher Struthiones and the lower palaeognathous 

 type, and similarly points to details in cranial anatomy in 

 which the Crypturi may well be annectent between the latter 

 and the JSeognathce. 



