Osteology of Aranius scolopaceus. 35 



I have already referred to Prof. Fiirbringer, in whose general 

 work upon Birds are a number of osteological details. I have 

 myself* subsequently referred to a few osteological facts 

 in considering the affinities of Psophia to other Crane- 

 like birds^ and the genus is not passed over in the general 

 works of Dr. Gadow f and myself J. An account of the 

 alimentary tract has been communicated by Dr. P. Chalmers 

 Mitchell to the Linnean Society of London, and will pro- 

 bably be published before the present observations appear 

 in print. 



The skeleton, with which alone I am concerned in the 

 pi'csent communication, has been described and figured to 

 some extent by Eyton in the ' Osteologia Avium ^|], by 

 Garrod in his memoir quoted below, and by Fiirbringer and 

 myself. While these authors have made known the general 

 facts which bear upon the systematic position of the bird, a 

 number of details have not been discussed, some of which 

 have a bearing upon the relationship of Ai'mnus to the 

 Cranes. 



§ Skull. 



I shall not give any elaborate description of the skull, 

 which has been depicted from two points of view by Garrod, 

 and also in the general figure of the entire skeleton by Eyton. 

 In being schizognathous and schizorhinal, in having large 

 free lacrymals not united to the prefrontal processes of the 

 ethmoid, in having but slight furrows for the nasal glands, 

 and, finally, in the possession of occipital foramina, the 

 genus Aramus agrees with the Gruidse alone among its 

 possible allies ; both the Rallidse and the Limicolse differ 

 in one or more of the above-stated characters, which are only 

 combined in the Gruidse. It seems to be unnecessary to 

 take any other group of birds into consideration. Besides 

 these general points of resemblance to Grus and the Gruidae 

 in general, the skull of Aramus shows a few minutite of 



* "On the Structure o? Psophia," &c., P Z. S. 1890, p. 329. 

 t "Ares" in Bronn's ' Klassen und Ordnungen des Thierreichs.' 

 \ 'The Structure and Classification of Birds' (London, 1898). 

 II Plate xiv. K and pi. xxvii. fig. 2, 



