II NEORNITHES 
No 
rn 
in number, with two, three, four, and five phalanges respectively, 
ending in claws, the hallux being directed backwards. The 
manus had three free digits, and apparently three free metacarpals ; 
the pollex consisted of two joints, the index of three and the 
third finger of four, while each had a strong hooked claw at the 
tip. The hand was furnished with six or seven well-developed 
primaries, attached to the third metacarpal and the second and 
third digits, the number of secondaries being ten. The long Lizard- 
like tail had no terminal pygostyle, but was composed of about 
twenty-one free post-sacral vertebrae, of which the first twelve each 
bore a pair of large feathers, similar to those of the wing, with 
the inner webs broader than the outer, and with decided shafts.! 
The Sub-class VEORNITHES may be arranged, as above stated, 
in three divisions, (A) Neornithes Ratitae, (B) Neornithes Odon- 
toleae, and (C) Neornithes Carinatae. The first of these con- 
tains the Ratite Birds proper and possibly part of the so-called 
STEREORNITHES of Patagonia (p."43), with several fossil forms of 
doubtful position from England, France, and New Mexico, as will 
be seen below; the second the HeESPERORNITHES of the Cretaceous 
Shales of Kansas, the FvariorNITHES of the Cambridge Upper 
Greensand, and Baptornis of the American Chalk; the third the 
ICHTHYORNITHES of the aforesaid Kansas deposits, and all other 
existing Birds, with various extinct species closely allied to them. 
Of the points of distinction between the Neornithes and the 
Archaeornithes the most important are that the metacarpals are 
fused together, the second digit being the longest, and the third 
more or less reduced; and that the number of caudal verte- 
brae does not, as far as is known, exceed thirteen, of which the 
last five or six combine together to form a pygostyle, except in 
the Hesperornithes, Ratitae, and Tinamidae, where such is seldom 
the case.” The centra of the vertebrae also are concave on one 
side only, except in Lehthyornis, and perhaps in Hnaliornis. The 
possession of teeth is, of course, exceptional, as 1s the remarkable 
loss of the keel of the sternum in the Ratitae. 
It is now generally, if not universally, agreed that Flightless 
dsirds were developed from those that could fly. It does not, 
however, necessarily follow that the Neornithes are direct 
‘A doubtful genus, Laopteryx, has been described from the Jurassic by Marsh, 
Ann. Nat. Hist. (5) vii. 1881, p. 488. 
* H. Gadow, Bronn’s Thier-Reich, Aves, Syst. Theil. 1893, p. 90. 
