274 



sternum is very deep. One free vertebra intervenes between the sacrum and four coalesced 

 dorsals, from the anterior of which are developed long hypapophyses united together at their 

 extremities. The furculum is more slender, and the pelvis shorter and broader than in the 

 male. There is no trace of a back-toe. In many of its osteological characters the Pterocles 

 resembles the Bustards (Otis) more than the Partridges or Grouse. 



Purchased. 



Genus Hemipodius. 



1423. The skeleton of the Tasmanian Hemipode (Hemipodius varitts). 



The deep angular posterior notches, of which there are only two in the present genus, have 

 converted the sides of the sternum into long styliform processes. The furculum forms a long 

 slender arch ; the bones of the wing are short. The metatarsus is short and strong. The 

 toes, three in number, are very powerful, with curved ungual phalanges. There are 18 ver- 

 tebrse between the skull and sacrum, the last six of which bear moveable ribs : of these the 

 last four pairs are articulated to the sternum by heemapophyses ; a seventh pair of ribs is 

 attached to the sacrum. There are b' caudal vertebra. Not any of the dorsal vertebrae are 

 anchylosed together. 



Mm. Gould. 



Family Columbidee (Pigeons). 

 Genus Lopliyns (Crown Pigeons). 



1424. The skeleton of the Molucca Crown Pigeon (Lophyrm coronatw). 



Of the 18 vertebrae between the skull and sacrum, the five posterior bear moveable ribs, 

 the last two pairs of which are united to the sternum by hsemapophyses. The first sacral ver- 

 tebra bears a pair of ribs which articulate with the sacrum. There is a superoccipital foramen. 

 The mastoid is obsolete, and the postfrontal is very feebly developed. The prefrontal sends 

 out an antorbital process, but this does not reach the lacrymal, which forms the rest of the 

 anterior boundary of the orbit. The bones of the upper beak coalesce with the broad ante- 

 rior border of the frontals at five points, by the nasal process of the premaxillary in the 

 middle, by the nasals, and by the frontal processes of the maxillary most external to and 

 separated from the nasals by the backward extension of the bony nostrils, which are con- 

 tinued forwards to within a short distance of the apex of the beak. A single free dorsal ver- 

 tebra intervenes between the two coalesced dorsals and the sacrum. The keel of the sternum 

 is of great depth ; the body of the sternum narrow, and excavated by two wide external 

 notches and two small median ones : the episternum is a simple tubercle : the costal pro- 

 cesses are strong and truncate. A lamellifonn process extends from the mesial side of the 

 proximal end of the coracoid and curves forwards. The deltoid process of the humerus pre- 

 sents a thick obtuse angular form : a small tubercle represents the ectocondyloid process. 

 The proximal end of the metatarsus sends backwards a strong, vertically perforated, calcaneal 



