144 ON THE STRUCTURE OF PHILEPITTA. 



in that they possess the sciatic, instead of the femoral artery*, they differ 

 from the Pipridaa and Cotingidae, with which they have so often been 

 associated. From these, too, they differ, as they do from the Tyrannidaa, 

 Pittidse, and Rupicola, in the details of their syrinx as well as in the 

 simple manubriurn sterni and other points. As has already been stated, 

 they differ from all the other Passeres in the retention of a vinculum in 

 the deep flexor tendons of the foot. To the general bearing of these 

 facts on the classification of the Passeres, I hope to return on some 

 future occasion. 



P. z. s. 1880, 26. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ANATOMY OF PASSERINE 



P . 387. BIRDS. PART III. ON SOME POINTS IN THE 



STRUCTURE OF PHILEPITTA, AND ITS POSITION 



AMONGST THE PASSERES. f 







THE doubt which has hitherto prevailed amongst ornithologists as to the 

 true affinities of the very singular Malagash bird for which Geoff roy 

 founded his genus Philepitta J, makes a knowledge of its anatomy, and 

 particularly of its osteology and syrinx, a desideratum. Its original 

 describer considered this genus most nearly related to Philedon. Bona- 

 parte, in his ' Conspectus ' , referred Philepitta with some doubt to the 

 Starlings (Sturnidae), placing it near Diloplius. The late Mr. Gray, in 

 his Hand-list |1, made it a genus of Pittidse, Pitta being the only other 

 genus of that family recognized by him. 



Mr. Sharpe in 1870 ^[ suggested that it ought to be regarded as an 

 aberrant genus of the Paradiseidse, forming a subfamily which he pro- 

 posed to call Philepittinae. 



That neither this position nor those assigned to it by Geoffroy or by 

 Bonaparte can be accepted is evident from the fact that, as shown by 

 Sundevall **, Philepitta possesses a long 10th (" first " tt) primary, at the 

 same time that the tarsus is not bilaminate. The Swedish naturalist last 

 mentioned made his subfamily Paictinae (he having rechristened Philepitta 

 Paictes) the first in the fifth cohort, " Taxaspidece," of his " Oscines Scu- 

 telliplantares" the others being the Thamnophilinae, Myrmornithinae, 

 Hypsibaemoninae, and Scytalopodinae, in which last Menura was also 



* Cf. Qarrod, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 516. 



t Proc. Zool. Soc. 1880, pp. 387-391. Read May 4, 1880. 



\ Mag. Zool., Ois. pi. 3 (1839). Op. cit. p. 422. 



jj Op. cit. i. p. 297, gen. no. 1094. [ P. Z. S. 1870, p. 397. 



** Tentamen, p. 63. tt See P. Z. 8. 1879, p. 256, note. 



