66 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



" 'Inhere is no ossified internasal septum, nor any ossification of the 

 narial cartilages. The lacrymal is small, anchylosed with the naso- 

 frontal region of the skull above, and with the 'pars plana' below." 



" On the posterior as])ect of the skull there are no traces of the 

 occipital fontanelles, which are found in so many l)irds related to the 

 Plovers. ' ' 



"The supraorbital impressions for the nasal glands, which are so 

 conspicuous in most Plovers, the (kills. Auks and many other birds, 

 are absent in the Parridse." 



Forbes showed by a drawing ho\\' unlike the sternum of J/i'/o//t//us 

 albiniiclia was thel)one as it is found in the Ral/idcv, and added : "In 

 the latter grouj) the sternum is always peculiar in that the xi])hoid pro- 

 cesses exceed in length the body of the sternum, which tapers to a 

 point posteriorly, and from which they are separated by very long and 

 well-marked triangular notches. The carina sterni also is less well 

 developed, and the clavicles are weaker and straighter, l)eing less 

 convex forwards than in the Parridi^. The sternum and clavicles of 

 Parra and Alctopidiiis in general form, on the other hand, resemble 

 closely the type found in some of the Pluvialine birds (<?. >(., Thiuo- 

 conis, Attagis) . " 



" The pelvis, again, of the Rails presents certain well-marked pecu- 

 liarities. If that of Rail us aijiiaticits l)e taken as a typical form, it 

 will be found that the ilia are long and narrow, and but little exi)anded 

 in their preacetabular part. The postacetal)ular portion of the |)elvis 

 is but little bent down on the preacetabular ])art ; and the ischia and 

 pubes are but little everted. The ischia are united by l)road bony 

 plates to about the three most posterior ' ' .sacral ' ' vertebras ; between 

 these plates and the expanded part of the ilia above are well -developed 

 and deep fossae, occupied, in the fresh state, by the posterior portion 

 of the kidneys. Viewed from above, the well-marked " postacetabu- 

 lar " ridge, which divides off the dorsal from the lateral aspect of the 

 pelvis, running from just behind the antitrochanteric eminence to the 

 posterior spine of the ilium, presents, a little behind those two points, 

 a strongly projecting process. The greatest breadth of the postace- 

 tabular part of the pelvis is therefore here, and not at the more an- 

 teriorly situated prominence, close to the antitrochanter. Viewed from 

 the side, this ridge forms a sort of overlapping roof to the slightly 

 excavated external pelvic fossa. The genera Ocydi-oiiiiis, Araniidcs, 

 Fuliia and Porplixrio do not essentially dejiart from this type." " In 



