146 Zoological Society :— 
must be studied in connexion; such as Psophia, Parra, Cariama, 
and Palamedea. 
Now the Rail-tribe, to which Palamedea has been supposed to 
belong, has been for a long time burdened (on paper) with a very 
false army-list. Everything alive that has had the misfortune to be 
possessed of large unwieldy feet has been added to this feeble- 
minded, cowardly group, until it has become a mixed multitude, with 
discordant voices, and with manners and customs having no conso- 
nance or relation. In a former paper I had the assurance to disband 
the Cassowaries and Megapodes; in the present I shall permit all 
birds having much of the nature of the Plover (such as Parra), and 
all those which have in them the nature of a Goose, to depart from 
the Rail-tribe: I shall retain the Psophia as an outpost, notwith- 
standing that it is more than half a Crane. 
A very large number of the genera of birds partake of a structure 
and nature which may very appropriately be called Passerine ; and 
another very large group, both of genera and families, may also be 
called Pluvialine,—the common Golden, Grey, and Dotterel Plovers 
being typical of these groups, which run up through the Sandpipers 
and Curlews to the Ibises in one direction, through the Lapwing and 
Stone-Plover to the Bustards and Cranes in another, and through 
Chionis and the Pratincole to the Petrels and Gulls. Still this does 
not exhaust the pluvialine birds; for the Geese and their allies are 
related on one hand to the Ibises through the Flamingo, and on the 
other to the Cranes, although the proper connecting link in this case 
is doubtful, Palamedea lying obliquely, not directly, between them. ~ 
The Megapodes, Hemipodes, Sand-Grouse, and Tinamous also 
have no little proportion of the Plover in their nature. The Jacanas 
(Parra) are essentially Plovers, although they have something of the 
Rail in them, especially in their skull ; and they are united to the typi- 
cal forms by other Spur-winged Plovers (Pluvianus spinosus, Gould). 
Now, looking at the anatine birds as a great division of specialized 
forms parallel with, and intimately related to, the pluvialine birds, we 
begin to see how they can be related to the mixed ‘“ Gallinacez,” 
which have so much of the Plover in their essence. But we had much, 
at starting, in common between the typical and pure Fowls and the 
Duck and Goose tribe; add to this the fact that the Mound-makers 
and Curassows come much nearer to the “Anatine,” and then sup- 
pose an anatine bird in which the horny denticles are feeble, but abun- 
dant, and the jaws compressed, stout, and trenchant, the same bird 
having the occipital region in harmony, not with the Geese, but with 
the Fowls,—put all these things together, and we shall be supposing 
what really exists in the Palamedea. Then we can calmly look at 
the fact that those Geese which have spurs in their wings, like those 
of the Palamedea (viz. Chenalopex and Plectropterus), have their 
legs longer, more grallatorial, and better under them than the typical 
forms, and that the Spur-winged Goose (Plectropterus) has a pelvis 
exactly intermediate between that of a typical Goose and that of a 
Palamedea. It is worth while to notice the thick down that covers 
the Palamedea, the height of the bare tract on the tibia, and the reti- 
