STERNA OF THE AGAMI. 



385 



blance than a long neck, which after all is not a crane 

 neck, but one fully as like those of the ostrich family, 

 they partake of the characters and some of the habits of 

 gallinaceous birds, or rather they partake so equally 

 of the characters of many races, and so little of those 

 of any one, that in nature they stand alone and dis- 

 tinct, whatever may be the place assigned to them in 

 any system. It is also not a little remarkable, that 

 the sternum of these birds is as unique as their cha- 

 racter ; and this very clearly shows that no classifi- 

 cation of birds can be either natural or valuable as an 

 index to their history, of which the sternal apparatus 

 does not form a considerable and even the leading part. 



Agam 



This is what we might expect ; because when we 

 carry our analysis as far as it can rationally be carried, 



