40 



ORNITHOLOGY 



may be not unreasonably supposed to have a strong feeling 

 as to its efficacy for systematic ends. It was in favour of 

 an arrangement based upon the muscles of the thigh, and 

 elaborated by him in 1874, that he gave up the arrange- 

 ment he had published barely more than a year before 

 ba ed upon the conformation of the nostrils. Neverthe- 

 less it appears that even the later of the two methods did 

 not eventually content him, and this was only to be 

 expected, though lie is said by Forbes (Ibis, 1881, p. 28) 

 to have remained "satisfied to the last as to the natural- 

 ness of the two main groups into which he there divided 

 birds" — Homalogonatx and Anomalogonatx. The key to 

 this arrangement lay in the presence or absence of the 

 <t iiil.iots muscle, "not because of its own intrinsic import- 

 ance, but because its presence is always associated with 

 peculiarities in other parts never found in any Anomalo- 

 gonatous laid.'' Garrod thought that so great was the 

 improbability of the same combination of three or four 

 different characters (such as an accessory femoro-caudal 

 muscle, a tufted oil-gland, and ca?ca) arising independently 

 iu different Birds that similar combinations of characters 

 could only be due to blood-relationship. The ingenuity 

 with which he found and expressed these combinations of 

 characters is worthy of all praise ; the regret is that time 

 was wanting for him to think out all their consequences, 

 and that he did not take also into account other and 

 especially osteological characters. Every osteologist must 

 recognize that the neglect of these makes Garrod's proposed 

 classification as unnatural as any that had been previously 

 drawn up, and more unnatural than many. So much is 

 this the case that, with the knowledge we have that ere 

 his death he had already seen the need of introducing 

 some modifications into it, its reproduction here, even 

 in the briefest abstract possible, would not be advisable. 

 Two instances, however, of its failure to shew natural 

 affinities or differences may "be cited. The first Order 

 Galliformes of his Subclass Homalogonatx is made to 

 consist of three "Cohorts" — Strvthiones, Gallinacex, and 

 Psittaei — a somewhat astonishing alliance; but even if 

 that be allowed to pass, we find the second " Cohort " 

 composed of the Families Palamedeidx, Gallinx, Eallidx, 

 Otididx (containing two Subfamilies, the Bustards and the 

 Flamingoes), Miisophagidx, and Cuculidx. Again the 

 Subclass Anomalogonatx includes three Orders — Piri- 

 formis, Passeriformes, and Cypseliformes — a preliminary to 

 which at first sight no exception need be taken ; but 

 immediately we look into details we find the Alcedinidx 

 placed in the first Order and the Meropidx in the second, 

 together with the Passeres and a collection of Families 

 almost every feature in the skeleton of which points to a 

 separation. Common sense revolts at the acceptance of 

 any scheme which involves so many manifest incongruities. 

 With far greater pleasure we would leave these investiga- 

 tions, and those on certain other muscles, as well as on the 

 Disposition of the deep plantar Tendons, and dwell upon 

 his researches into the anatomy of the Passerine Birds 

 with the view to their systematic arrangement. Here he 

 was on much safer ground, and it can hardly be doubted 

 that his labours will stand the test of future experience, for, 

 though it may be that all his views will not meet with 

 ultimate approval, he certainly made the greatest advance 

 since the days of Muller, to the English translation of 

 whose classical work he added (as already mentioned) an 

 excellent appendix, besides having already contributed to 

 the Zoological Proceedings between 1876 and 1878 four 

 memoirs replete with observed facts which no one can 

 gainsay. As his labours were continued exactly on the 

 same lines by Forbes, who, between 18S0 and 1882, 

 published in the same journal six more memoirs on the 

 subject, it will be convenient here to state generally, and 



in a combined form, the results arrived at by these two 

 investigators. 



Instead of the divisions of Passerine Birds instituted by 

 Muller, Garrod and Forbes having a wider range of experi- 

 ence consider that they have shewn that the Passeres con- 

 sist of two primary sections, which the latter named 

 respectively Desmodactyli and Eleutherodactyli, from the 

 facts discovered by the former that in the Euryla midx, or 

 Broadbills, a small Family peculiar to some parts of the 

 Indian Region, and consisting of some nine or ten species 

 only, there is a strong band joining the muscles of the 

 hind toe exactly in the same way as in many Families 

 that are not Passerine, and hence the name Desmodactyli, 

 while in all other Passerines the hind toe is free. 

 This point settled, the Eleutherodactyli term two great 

 divisions, according to the structure of their vocal 

 organs ; one of them, roughly agreeing with the Cla- 

 matores of some writers, is called Mesomyodi, and the 

 other, corresponding in the main, if not absolutely, with 

 the Oscines, Polymyodi, or true Passeres of various authors, 

 is named Acromyodi — " an Acromyodian bird being one in 

 which the muscles of the syrinx are attached to the 

 extremities of the bronchial semi-rings, a Mesomyodian 

 bird being one in which the muscles of the syrinx join the 

 semi-rings in their middle." Furthermore, each of these 

 groups is subdivided into two : the Acromyodi into 

 "normal" and "abnormal," of which more presently; the 

 Mesomyodi into Homceomeri and Heteromeri, according as 

 the sciatic or the femoral artery of the thigh is developed 

 — the former being the usual arrangement among Birds 

 and the latter the exceptional. Under the head Hetero- 

 meri come only two Families the Cotingidx (Chatterers) 

 and Pipridse (Manakins, vol. xv. p. 455) of most orni- 

 thologists, but these Garrod was inclined to think should 

 not be considered distinct. The Homceomeri form a larger 

 group, and are at once separable, on account of the struc- 

 ture of their vocal organs, into Tracheophonx (practically 

 equivalent to the Tracheophones of Muller) and Haploo- 

 phonx (as Garrod named them) — the last being those 

 Passeres which were by Muller erroneously included among 

 his Picarii, namely, the Tyrannidx (see King-bird, vol. 

 xiv. p. 80) with Rupicola, the Cocks-* f-the-Rock. To these 

 are now added Families not examined by him, — but 

 subsequently ascertained by Forbes to belong to the same 

 group, — PitHdx, Philepittidx, and Xenicidse (more pro- 

 perly perhaps to be called Acanthisittidx), and it is 

 remarkable that these last three Families are the only 

 members of the Mesomyodi which are not peculiar to 

 the New World — nay more, if we except the Tyrannidx, 

 which in North America occur chiefly as migrants, — 

 not peculiar to the Neotropical Region. The Tracheo- 

 phonx are held to contain five Families — Furnariidx 

 Oven-birds), Pteroptochidx (Tapaculos, q.v.), Dendro- 

 colaptidx (Piculules), Conopophagidx, and Formkariidx 

 (Ant-Thrushes). Returning now to the Acromyodi, 

 which include, it has just been said, a normal and an 

 abnormal section, the latter consists of birds agreeing 

 in the main, though not absolutely, as to the structure of 

 the syrinx with that of the former, yet differing so con- 

 siderably in their osteology as to be most justifiably 

 separated. At present only two types of these abnormal 

 Acromyodi are known — Menura (the Lyre-bird, vol. xv. 

 p. 115) and Atrichia (the Sceub-bied, q.v.), both from 

 Australia, while all the remaining Passeres, that is to say, 

 incomparably the greater number of Birds in general, belong 

 to the normal section. Thus the whole scheme of the 

 Passeres? as worked out by Garrod and Forbes, can be 



1 It is right to observe that this scheme was not a little aided by a 

 consideration of palatal characters, as well as from the disposition of 

 some of the tendons of the wing-muscles. 



