64 NATURAL llL-iTORY OF LIIiDS. 



Sri'r.i:-()i:i)i:i: 111. — KlOIiM IHES. 



Witli the above name I have designated tlie rest of the existing liirds. Tiiis super- 

 order, therefore, embraces all living birds exce])t tlie Dromajognathio and the ])enguins. 

 After these two gri)u])s are removed, tiiere remains a vast nmnl)er of very differently 

 organized forms wliieh, however, by intermediate links and connections on all sides, 

 show greater relationshi]>s inter se than with any of those treated of on the foregoing 

 pages. 



Tlie characters of tliis assemblage, as a whole, are rather of negative nature, though 

 tliis statement may be little more than a play of words, since the absence of a certain 

 feature is just as 'positive' a character in one grou]) as is its presence in anotlier. The 

 j)hrase only means tliat, while we are familiar with the general characters of the bird- 

 class, and while, from the i)revious accoinit, we have learned the chief characters of 

 the grou]is removed, we consequently now should know the peculiarities of the last 

 groujj without any further characterization. A brief summary may nevertheless be 

 useful. 



The Euornithes are not dromajognathous, and, I need not say, their jaws are not 

 possessed of teeth ; the two mandibular halves are firmly united in a racilian sym- 

 j)hysis ; the head of the ipiadrate bone has two facets; the sutures of tlie skull disa])- 

 pear entirely in the adult ; the dorsal vertebrie are sa<ldle-sha])ed, and more or less 

 firmly united ; the sacral vertebrie are anchylosed with the pelvic bones, of which the 

 ilia anil isdiia are ancliylosed behind, thus forming ati ilio-sciatic foranien ; the tail is 

 short, and the last vertebra; fused iiitt) a pygostyle; the wings, when in rest, are folded 

 u]), the bones lying more or less parallel to the main axis of the body; the scapula 

 forms an angle with the coracoid, and not an arch; the hand has a free ]Pollex; three 

 metatarsal elements are never separately distinguisiiable ; the feathers are distrii)uted 

 over certain pterylfc with interlying apteria. 



The exact relationship of the jtrescnt superorder to the two foregoing ones is by no 

 means obvious, since it may well be disputed whether the so-called seliizognathous 

 "Natatores," on the one hand, arc nearer related to the ])enguins than are the gallina- 

 ceous birds to the ostriches, on the other. All the evidence tends to show, however, 

 that the three grou)>s separated very early, but our present materi.al is too defective to 

 .allow any trustworthy s])eculations as to the ])robable process. Fossil Euornithes are 

 by no means rare, however ; but they are mostly from more recent strata, and nearly 

 all belong to still existing types, in some instances of more generalized features, but 

 the 'connecting links' are still missing. The search for fo.ssil birds has, especially in 

 France, iinearthed mrniy interesting facts concerning the geological history of the 

 Euornithes and tlnir I'oniur distribution, and the discovery, in deposits near Paris, of 

 several tropical .'ukI jiarticuhirly African forms, for instance, Trof/oii iwul J^eptosoiiiiis, 

 are extremely interesting as coni])ared with the later arctic and sub-arctic faunas of 

 the same latitudes during the glacial periods. But though the Euornithic forms origi- 

 nated during an earlier geological ejioch, the present day is era]ihatically the era of 

 the Euornithes. 



Okder VI. — CECOMORPITvE. 



It is particularly among the 'swimmers' and 'waders,' the Natatores and Gral- 

 latores of the old systems, that the modern investigations into the structure and the 

 attinities of birds have made a sad havoc, entirely revolutionizing our ideas as to the 



