138 ON THE ANATOMY OF THE EUEYL^EMID^E. 



P. z. s. 1880, 25. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ANATOMY OF PASSERINE 

 p. 380. BIRDS. PART II. ON THE SYRINX AND OTHER 



POINTS IN THE ANATOMY OP THE EURYLJE- 

 M1DJB* 



THE true position of the Broadbills or Eurylaemid* in the series of 



birds, and particularly the question as to their passerine or non-passerine 



P. Z. S. 1880 affinities, has long been in question amongst systematic ornithologistsf. 



p. 381. That more intimate knowledge of their structure from which alone any 



true answer to this question could be given, has been likewise gradually 



accumulating for many years. 



Nitzsch, in his great work on Pterylography, published posthumously 

 in 1840, showed that the species examined by him possessed a character- 

 istically Passerine pterylosisj. Johannes Miiller, in 1846, in his classical 

 memoir on the vocal organs of Passeres, remarked that in Corydon 

 sumatranus, the only species of this group examined by him, there were 

 "no muscular fibres on the larynx." Blanchard, in 1859||, showed that 

 Eurylcemus javanicus agreed in its sternal characters with other Passeres, 

 and particularly compared it with the Swallows in this respect. 



Mr. Sclatei% in 1872, figured the sternum of Cymbirliynclms macro- 

 rhynchus (under the name of Eurylcemus javanicus ; cf. Lord Walden, I. c. 

 p. 370), and stated that in his opinion these birds were truly Passerine. 



Prof. Grarrod**, in 1877, was enabled, by an examination of dry skins 



* Prnc. Zool. Soc. 1880, pp. 380-386. Eead May 4, 1880. 



t For a succinct resum6 of the opinions of ornithologists on this point, see Mr. 

 Sclater's paper in the ' Ibis,' quoted below. 



J Kay Soc. ed., pp. 76, 77. These were Corydon sumatranus, Calyptomena viridis, Eury- 

 l(gmus javanicus and E. ochromelas, and Cymbirhynchus macrorhynchus. In the three 

 last named Nitzsch describes nine of the remiges as situated " on the hand ;" in all the 

 specimens of this group I have examined, I find there are ten primaries (cf. also Wallace, 

 Ibis, 1874, p. 406, and Sundevall, Tentatnen, p. 61). An examination of the pterylosis 

 in my spirit-specimens has also convinced me of the partial inaccuracy of Nitzseh's 

 figure of that of Cymbirhynchus (pi. iii. fig. 15). The lumbar saddle is here represented 

 as too angular, and the inclosed space, as well as the antero-lateral tracts bounding it, 

 too broad. The postero-lateral tracts also are represented as consisting of but a single 

 row of feathers. In reality, in this species there is a large ephippial space, of an elon- 

 gated oval shape, the whole shape of the saddle being more like that represented by 

 Nitzsch in Cephalopterus (I. c. fig. 10). The tracts behind are two feathers broad. In 

 Calpytomena, judging from skins, there is an acutely -angled rhombic saddle, whilst in 

 Euryl&mus the condition is intermediate. 



I may add that in E. ochromelas and Cymbirhynchus the neck-feathering of the 

 lower surface is uninterrupted till behind the middle, and that the throat is entirely 

 feather-clad, with no naked symphysial space. 



Garrod's edition, p. 27. || Ann. Sci. Nat. (4) Zool. vol. xi. p. JL*. 



t Ibis, 1872, p. 177, &c. ** P. Z. S. 1877, p. 447. 



