132 ON THE STRUCTURE OP NASITERNA, 



Turin Academy of Sciences *, nothing very definite has resulted from 

 them tending to elucidate this doubtful point. Mr. Sclater was inclined 

 to regard it (1. c. p. 622) as " an aberrant form of the Psittacinae .... 

 unless it can be allowed to stand as the type of a distinct subfamily, 

 which would probably be more correct." 



At my request, some fifteen months ago, M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards 

 was kind enough to forward to the late Prof. Garrod a specimen (in 

 spirit) of a Nasiterna, probably N. pygmcea, for dissection ; and I now 

 place before the Society a few statements on its structure as recorded 

 in his MS. notes. 



As in all other Parrots, except in certain species of Oacatua and in 

 Licmetis tenuirostris, there are two carotid arteries in Nasiterna (a fact 

 previously recorded by Camerano), both of which run in the normal 

 manner in the bypapophysial canal. As in all Parrots with the carotids 

 so disposed (except some individuals of Stringops), the ambiens muscle 

 is absent. The furcula is represented only by a rudiment at the upper 

 end ; and the orbital ring is incomplete. As the oil-gland is present, 

 the formula for Nasiterna, adopting the system used by Prof. Garrod in 

 his paper on the anatomy of the Parrots f, will be 2, ,,+, as in 

 Agapornis, String ops, Geopsittacus, and their allies. 



Pterylographically, I have been able to ascertain that Nasiterna pygmcea 

 agrees generally in the form and disposition of the tracts with such 

 genera as Cyclopsitta, Psittinus, &c., and differs from the Cacatuinaa in 

 the absence of the crest and naked head-space (cf. Sclater, 1. c. p. 622) 

 P. Z. S. 1880, universally present, as far as I have yet seen, in that group, as also in 

 P- 77< the absence of powder-down feathers, very frequently, though not in- 



variably, present in those birds, though absent in the other Psittaci with 

 "normal" carotids. In the Cockatoos, too, the orbit is completely 

 encircled by bone J, and, as a rule, doubly so (vide P. Z. S. 1874, pi Ixxi.). 

 In Nasiterna, as already stated, it is not so. Of the other " Palseorni- 

 thidae," as defined by Prof. Garrod, the TrichoglossinaB form a well- 

 marked group, characterized by numerous features to which there is no 

 approach in Nasiterna. 



Its nearest allies must therefore be in the remaining forms of that 

 family, which I propose to call Eclectinse, including all those not either 

 Cacatuine or Trichoglossine, with the exception, perhaps, of the ground- 

 frequenting forms, Stringops, Pezoporus, &c. The spiny tail-feathers of 

 Nasiterna. are, no doubt, very peculiar, and with its curious beak and 



* Atti Reale Accad. Torin. xiii. 1878, p. 301. 

 t P. Z. S. 1874, p. 595. 



J This was not t.he case, however, in a specimen of Calyptorhynchus funereus, lately 

 examined by me. 



