93 Remarks on Prof. Huxley's 



characters adduced by Prof. Huxley ! They are worthy of the 

 name — the mode of ossification of the sternum, the direction 

 of the axes of the coracoid and scapula, even the presence or 

 absence of their respective processes, though this last point is 

 not quite so satisfactory as might be. I therefore venture to 

 submit that the palatal structure does not sufficiently furnish 

 Ordinal characters. 



Let us now examine the Suborders. That the majority of the 

 forms united by Prof. Huxley under the title Schizognath(B are 

 in reality very nearly allied, will be denied by no ornithologist, 

 I believe, who thinks for himself, disregarding what his prede- 

 cessors have written, and looking only to the facts of the case. 

 No unbiased person who has ever made even a cursory exami- 

 nation of a Sandpiper and a Plover, and is acquainted with the 

 peculiarities attending their mode of reproduction, will doubt 

 that they belong to one and the same indivisible group ; and no 

 one who has ever compared the skeleton of a bird belonging to 

 that group and of a Gull^ will hesitate to declare that there is 

 an intimate relationship between them. So far, then, my own 

 investigations lead me to agree entirely with Prof. Huxley, and 

 I am extremely glad to find that opinions I have long enter- 

 tained now receive the confirmation of his high authority"^. In 

 like manner I see with pleasure that he considers (as I have 

 done) the Bustards to be intermediate between the true Plovers 

 and the Cranes ; and I suspect that his assignment of places 

 between the Cranes and the Rails to Psophia and Rkinochetus is 

 an excellent suggestion. But then the Rails, in my opinion, lead 

 directly to the true Gallince, which he is inclined to consider are 

 more nearly reached from the normal " split jaws " by way of 

 the Plovers and Turnix. However, perhaps this point is imma- 

 terial ; provided we arrive at the true Gallince at last, the exact 

 route we take is a matter of less consequence. That the Pigeons 



* I have not before seen, so far as I can remember, this relationship 

 maintained by any systematist ; and to Prof. Huxley belongs, I imagine, 

 the credit of first placing the fact of its existence on record. As stated 

 above, I have long believed in it, and last year I pointed it out to my 

 audience in an elementary lecture on birds, delivered at Cambridge, 30th 

 November, 186G. 



