270 ELEMENTS OF ORNITHOLOGY, 
The characters of these groups are as follows :— 
Order VII. RAPTORES. 
Beak raptorial; claws long, strong, much curved, and very 
sharp; young born helpless and either with down or, if naked, 
then soon passing through a downy stage; plantar tendons 
united; maxillo-palatines united in the middle line; palate 
neither egithognathous nor schizognathous ; spinal feather-tract 
forked on upper back; sternum not perforated for coracoids ; 
nasals not schizorhinal; dorsal vertebre not opisthoccelous ; 
cervical vertebree not more than 18; mandible not produced 
backwards beyond the quadrate ; hallux with more than one 
phalanx ; oil-gland present and tufted or nude ; ceca present or 
absent. 
Suborder 1. Fulcones. 
Basipterygoid processes absent; spinal feather-tract well 
defined on the neck; oil-gland with a circlet of feathers ; tarso- 
metatarsus not very elongated; ambiens and femoro-caudal pre- 
sent ; accessory femoro-caudal, semitendinosus, and accessory semi- 
tendinosus absent; basal phalanx of third digit not generally 
shortened; nostrils not perforated through; dorsal vertebra 
heteroceelous; hallux supplied by flewor hallucis; an organ of 
voice present. 
Suborder 2. Serpentarit. 
Palate desmognathous ; basipterygoid processes well deve- 
loped ; spinal feather-tract well defined on the neck; oil-gland 
tufted; tarsi (tarso-metatarsals) very elongated; no femoro- 
caudal, but accessory femoro-caudal, semitendinosus, and accessory 
semitendinosus present ; basal phalanx of third digit not greatly 
shortened ; hallux supplied by flewor hallucis ; an organ of voice 
present ; nostrils not perforated through. 
