Ml 



STROMBODES. 



STRUTHION1D.E. 



PL- 



a very fin* specimen, u far as the beak i concerned, now in the British 

 Unseam, that usually mutilated part u much longer and better pre- 

 ferred than it U generally seen, and from its recurvature the name of 

 rerorrirorfru would be more apt Indeed it U by no meant clear 

 that there are not two species of this long-beaked kind of Jlottdlaria, 

 one much darker than the other, and not so slender. 



STROMBO'DES. [PoLTriMBA.] 



STROM EYERITE, a Mineral consisting of Sulphuret of Silver and 



"sTRONGYLUS. [EtrrozoA.] 



STROXTIA, the namo of an Earth, composed of Oxygen and the 

 metal Strontium. Neither strontium nor its oxide is found pure in 

 nature. The Salts of Strontia have a high specific gravity, varying 

 from 8-6 to 4-0. In this respect they resemble Baryta. Two are 

 found in the form of minerals. 



Gelatine Sulphate of Strontia occurs in modified rhombic prisms. 

 Crystal* sometimes flattened, often long and slender. Massive 

 varieties : Columnar or fibrous, forming layers half an inch or more 

 thick, with a pearly luitre; rarely granular. Colour generally a 

 tinge of blue, but sometimes clear white. Lustre vitreous, or a little 

 pearly ; transparent to translucent. Hardness 3 - to 3'5. Specific 

 gravity 8"9 to 40. Very brittle. It contains Sulphuric Acid, 

 43-6 ; Strontia, 56'4. Decrepitates before the blow-pipe, and on 

 charcoal fusee rather easily to a milk-white alkaline globule, tinging 

 the flame red. Phosphoresces when heated. 



It resemblei heavy spar, but is distinguished by its specific 

 characters and behaviour under the blow-pipe. It is distinguished 

 from the carbonate by not effervescing with acids. It is found in 

 the United States of America. Sicily aflbrds very splendid crystallisa- 

 tions associated with sulphur. 



The pale sky-blue tint so common with the mineral, gave origin to 

 the name Celentine. 



Celestine is used in the arts for making the nitrate of Strontia, 

 which is employed for producing a red colour in fire-works. Celestine 

 is changed to sulphuret of strontium by heating with charcoal, and 

 then by means of nitric acid the nitrate is obtained. 



Mrontianite Carbonate of Strontia occurs in modified rhombic 

 prisms. It occurs also fibrous and granular, and sometimes in 

 globular shapes with a radiated structure withiu. 



The colour is usually a light tinge of green ; also white, gray, nnd 

 yellowish-brown. Lustre vitreous, or somewhat resinous. Trans- 

 parent to translucent Hardness 3'5 to 4. Specific gravity 3-6 to 

 3-72. The analysis gives Strontia, 7<H ; Carbonic Acid, 29-9. It fuses 

 before the blow-pipe on thin edges, tinging the flame red ; becomes 

 alkaline in a strong heat; effervesces with the acids. 



Its effervescence with acids distinguishes it from minerals that are 

 not carbonates ; the colour of the flame before the blow-pipe, from 

 witherite; and this character and the fusibility, although difficult, 

 from calcupar. Calcspar sometimes reddens the flame, but not so 

 deeply. 



Strontianite occur* in limestone at Seoliarie, New York, in crystals, 

 and also fibrous and musive. Stroutian in Argyleshire was thu first 

 locality known, and gave the name to the mineral and tho earth 

 i-trontia. It occurs there with galena in stellated and fibrous groups 

 and in crystal*. It is also used for making nitrate of strontia. 



(Dana, Manual of Mineralogy.) 



.STKoTllonrs, a genui of Fossil Fishes. [Fisn.] 



STKOPHO'MENA. [BiiACHIOTODA.1 



STROI'HO'STOMA. [HBLICIDJL] 



STUL'THIOLA'RIA. [SirHoxosTOMATA.] 



STKUTHICXN1D., a natural family of Terrestrial Birds, in which 

 the locomotive energy is thrown into tlie lower extremities, the 

 wings being in no case adequate to raising the body into the air, nnd 

 in the majority of instances merely rudimentary. In thi respect 

 the genera which compose it are the very reverse of the Humming- 

 I'.ircl.*, Swallow*, Albatrosses, Tropic-Birds, nnd Man-of-\Var Bird ; for 

 in the latter the moving power resides in the highly-developed wings, 

 whilst the feet, especially in the Man-of-War Bird, are feeble. 



The Slrutktonida: consist of the Ostrich, American Ostrich (Rhea), 

 Caaowary, Australian Cassowary, or Emu, and that extraordinary bi^d 

 lh- Kivi-Kivi, or Aptcrys, of New Zealand. 



The anatomy of these animals is referred to in great detail by 



i; of A-iatlc Cutowarjr (ronng). 



Professor Owen in bis paper on the ' Anatomy of the Apteryx,' in 

 ,n Transactions of the Zoological Society, London. The most 



remarkable modifications of the skull in this family occur in the 

 Asiatic Cassowary and the A pteryx. In the former the bony crest 



Skull of Aiittlc Cassowary (dull). 



which is so highly developed in the adult, U hardly perceptible in 

 the young bird, but increases with age, as in the Hornbill and the 

 Guinea-Hen. [PAVONID.E.] 



In Apteryx, according to Professor Owen, the skull is chiefly 'remark- 

 able for its smooth expanded elevated pyriform cranial portion, the 

 tot il absence of supra-orbital ridges, the completeness and the thick- 

 ness of the inter-orbital septum, the great development of the ethmoid, 

 the small size of the lachrymal bones, and the expansion of the nasal 

 cavity behind these bones. The tolerably semicircular occipital region 

 differs from that of other Struthionida in the greater relative extent 

 of its base, and in the comparatively slight lateral sinuosities due to 

 the temporal depressions. There U no vertical notch at the upper 

 part of the single hemispherical tubercle in the basi-occipital for 

 articulation with the atlas, as in the Ostrich and Emu, but it is entire, 

 as in Rhea, ; the plane of the occipital foramen also has the same aspect 

 as in that bird, in which it is more nearly horizontal than in the 

 Ostrich. The supra-occipital plate forms a somewhat angular pro- 

 jection, corresponding with the small cerebellum, and is bounded on 

 each side by a vertical vascular groove terminated by a foramen above 

 and below ; the ex-occipitals extend outwards and downwards external 

 to these grooves in the form of obtuse processes compressed in the 

 antero-posterior direction, and are slightly convex behind and concave 

 in front, where they form the back part of the wide meatus auditorius 

 externus. The occipital bones, and also the surrounding bones, are 

 onchyloeed together. The angle between the posterior and superior 

 regions of the cranium can hardly be said to be produced into a ridge. 

 The superior region is smooth, convex, and separated from the tem- 

 poral depressions by a narrow ridge, rather more marked than the 

 occipital ridge. The sagittal suture crosses a little behind the middle 

 of the upper part of the cranium. In one cranium Professor Owen 

 found the left half of this suture persistent ; but in another, that of 

 a male, all the sutures were obliterated. The persistent sutures were 

 more denticulated than those in the tkull of a young ostrich. The 

 superior region is continued into the lateral regions by a continuous 

 curvature, so that the upper part of tho small orbital cavity is convex, 

 and ita limits undcfinable, there being no trace of supra-orbital ridge, 

 nor of antorbital, or postorbitil processes. This structure, Professor 

 Owen observes, is quite peculiar to the Apleryx among birds, but 

 affords a very interesting resemblance between it and the monotreme 

 Echidna. 



The base of the skull of Apleryx exhibits all the peculiarities 

 characteristic of the Struthious Birds. The body of tho sphenoid 

 sends out two processes on each side externally ; the posterior of 

 these abuts against the tympanic bone, and the anterior one by a 

 flattened oval articular surface against the pterygoid bone. Professor 

 Owen points out that the hitter processes exist, but are much more 

 feebly developed in the Ibis, and that in most other birds, including 

 they Gratia, they are wanting, whilst they are well developed in the 

 Lnccrtine .Saurto. 



The usual ornithic character*, with the Struthious modifications 

 traceable in the individual peculiarities, are presented in the lower 

 jaw of Apteryx, " The transversely expanded angular and articular 

 extremities offer the inwardly extended process for the attachment of 

 the pterygoidci muscles ; the superior transverse plate, behind the 

 articular surfaces, is thin and concave towards the meatus auditorius 

 externus, and is lined by the mucous membrane of that passage, of 

 which it forms part of the bony parietes. There are two distinct 

 narrow oblique articular surfaces, concave in the longitudinal, and 

 convex in the transverse directions ; the internal one is the largest, 

 and behind this there is a small excavation, into which a smalt 

 process of the air-sac lining the tympanum is continued; and this 

 is the only part of the skeleton not immediately concerned in the 

 formation of the organs of hearing or smelling into which air in 

 admitted. The entry to the air-cell.--, in the lower jaw of the Ostrich, 



