34 Mr. H. Seebohm on the 



They have only one notcli on each side of the posterior 

 margin of the sternum, but their manubrium is not forked. 

 Neither of these characters is, however, exclusively Pas- 

 serine, or universally so. They are syndactyle, by no means 

 a Passerine character. They are very easily diagnosed. 



1. They are segithognathous. 



2. They have Galline plantars. 



3. The oil-gland is nude. 



It is necessary to add the last character in order to exclude 

 the Turnicidse and the Thinocoridse, which possess the first 

 two characters. 



Upupce. 

 The Upupse (including the Irrisoridse) differ from all exist- 

 ing birds in combining two characters. 



1. The hind plantar is free from the front plantar. 



This character excludes, so far as is known, all birds except 

 a few of the Herodioncs and most of the Passeres. 



2. The feet of the coracoids are bridged over by the union 

 of an outer with an inner episternal process. 



This character excludes, so far as is known, all birds except 

 the Meropida?, the Bucerotidse, the Gallinse, and a genus of 

 Cuculidse. 



The question is, which of these two characters is the oldest 

 in the Upupse ? It seems to me to be most probable that the 

 Passeres and the Herodiones have independently lost the 

 vinculum which connected the front plantar with the hind 

 plantar in the feet of their common ancestors, and that the 

 Upupse, like the Gallinse, have acquired an episternal bridge, 

 independently of the Meropidse and the Bucerotidse ; whilst 

 the extremely exceptional arrangement of the plantars in 

 the synpelmous Picarise has been inherited from a common 

 ancestor. These conclusions, if sound, make it necessary to 

 remove the Upupse from the Picarise to the Pico-Passeres, 

 and to transfer the Cathartse from the Raptores to the 

 synpelmous Picarise. 



The Upupse are Passerine in having the hallux very large 

 and in having only one notch (or fenestra, as the case may 



