38 



Mr. F. E. Beddard on the 



from forming by tlieir union a catapopliysial canal, such 

 as is to be found on the neck-vertebrse of many birds. It 

 often happens that the vertebrae which immediately follow- 

 that which bears the last pair of catapophyses are furnished 

 only with a single median hypapophysis, the transition being 

 thus perfectly abrupt between the paired and unpaired ventral 

 median process of the vertebral centra. Now, in Aramus 

 there is a transition ; for the fourteenth vertebra, although 

 it has indeed but a single median hypapophysis, has that 

 hypapophysis distinctly bifid at its free extremity, mIucIi 



Fio-. 1. 



V.e.N\ 



Neck-vertebi'fe of Balcarica (right-hand figin-e) and Aramics 

 (left-liand figure). Nat. size. 



naturally suggests that it is the product of a fused pair of 

 catapophyses. This process is not bifid upon the remaining 

 hypapophyses of the cervical series. We may now compare 

 the conditions which obtain in Aramus with those which 

 prevail in other genera of the Gruidse. 



In Grus carunculata, which will serve as a type of the 

 restricted genus Grus, the conditions are really practically 

 identical. The only difference is associated with the larger 

 number of the cervical vertebise of this bird. In it the 

 last vertebra which possesses paired catapophyses is the 



