OAT-FOWL—ODONTORNITHES 649 
O 
OAT-FOWL, a local name for the Snow-BunTING ; OATSEED- 
BIRD for the Yellow WacrTait. 
OCCIPUT, properly the hinder part of a bird’s head, from the 
crown backward, as opposed to Sincrput, but often used vaguely 
for the whole cap. 
OCTOBER BIRD, in the Antilles used for the BoBoLtiNK, from its 
arriving there in that month (B. Edwards, His?. W. Ind. i. p. 99, note). 
OCYDROME, see WEKA. 
ODONTOGLOSS 4H, Nitzsch’s name in 1840 (Pterylographie, p. 
191) for a group consisting of the genus Phenicopterus (FLAMINGO). 
ODONTOLC., see ODONTORNITHES. 
ODONTOPHORIN 4, the supposed subfamily containing the 
American QUAILS (¢f. COLIN), upon the distinctness of which from 
those of the Old World some systematists have laid unnecessary 
importance. Dr. Coues (Key N.-Am, Birds, ed. 1884, p. 594) says 
that he knows no characters to distinguish the true Quails from the 
so-called Odontophorine. 
ODONTORNITHES; a term proposed in 1873 by Prof. 
Marsh (4m. Journ. Sci. ser. 3, v. pp. 161, 162) to designate a 
so-called Subclass of birds, consisting of the genera Hesperornis 
and Ichthyornis (both of which had been named in the previous 
year) from the cretaceous deposits of Kansas, and characterized 
by the presence of teeth (Fig. 1). Its founder after- 
wards subdivided this group (op. cit. x. pp. 403-408) . 
into the two Orders ODONTOLC® and ODONTOTORM ; 
the former, represented by Hesperornis and characterized 
by having the teeth (Fig. 2) placed in grooves, hetero- 
ccelous vertebra, and the abortion of the carina sterni ( 
with a generally Ratite conformation of the scapular pig 4, 
arch (Fig. 3); while the latter, typified by Ichthyornis, Toorn or 
was distinguished by the presence of distinct sockets MPStPROnsIS. 
for the teeth (Fig. 5), amphiccelous vertebre (Fig. 6), ieee ee 
and the Carinate modification of the sternal apparatus. — Lydekker's 
Subsequent writers have disputed the expediency of Palwontolovy, 
: 2 Sy foie x 1 i after Marsh.) 
this proposal, for Prof. Cope in 1875 (Vert. Cretac. 
Form. of the West, pt. iii. p. 245) and Prof. Seeley in 1876 (Q. Journ. 
1 Again indebted to Mr. Lydekker’s kindness for an article worthy of the 
closest attention, I wish to guard myself against its being taken as the expres- 
sion of my own views on one of the hardest subjects that the ornithologist has 
to consider, and one still open to various interpretations. —A. N. 
