ON LEPTOSOMA DISCOLOR. 149 



Till more material has been examined, it is impossible to say whether 

 or not some of the points in the above classification fairly express the 

 affinities of the various groups treated of. This appears to me parti- 

 cularly the case as regards the primary division of the Mesornyodi into 

 Hetero- and Hoinoeomeri, depending as it does on the presence of the 

 femoral or the sciatic artery respectively. 



The pseudo-schizorhinal character of the skull also in some of the 

 Tracheophonse * may necessitate an ultimate arrangement of that group 

 different from that here adopted (taken from Messrs. Sclater and Salvin's 

 ' Nomenclator '). 



As regards the Passeres whose anatomy still remains unknown, the 

 forms that most require examination are Phyiotoma t and OocyrJiamphus 

 of the New, and Orihonyx and Melampitta of the Old World. The last 

 may be, as suggested by Mr. Gould J, a link between Pitta and PUlepitta ; 

 Count Salvadori, on the other hand, is inclined to regard it as a 

 Timeliine and therefore a normal (Oscinine) Acroinyodian form. It is 

 also highly desirable to obtain some knowledge of the soft parts of some 

 of the larger forms usually placed amongst the Cotingidae, especially 

 PtilocJiloris and Phcenicocercus (placed by Sundevall with Rupicola), as 

 well as of Gymnoderus, Querula, Ceplialopterus, &c. 



27. ON THE ANATOMY OF LEPTOSOMA DISCOLOR.\\ p.z.s.1880 



p. 465. 



IT is to the liberality of my friend Prof. A. Newton that I am indebted 

 for the opportunity of dissecting a female example of this bird, the most 

 peculiar, perhaps, with the exception of Mesites, of all the anomalous 

 forms that Madagascar produces. Till the past year or two our know- 

 ledge of the structure of Leptosoma was almost confined to its skin and 

 certain parts of its skeleton. 



Mr. Sclater, in this Society's ' Proceedings ' (1865, pp. 682-689 ; also 

 in Nitzsch's ' Pterylography,' Eay Soc. ed. App. ii. p. 158), has already 

 given us an account of the different views that have at various times 

 been held by ornithologists as to the position of this peculiar form ; and 

 he was also the first to point out the existence in it of powder-down P. s. Z. 1880, 

 patches, as well as other of its peculiarities. Since then I am unaware P- 466< 



* Cf. Garrod, P. Z. S. 1877, p. 452, &o. 



t Very imperfectly described by Eyton and Eydoux and Souleyet, of. Job. Miiller, 

 Stimmorgane, &c., p. 8. 



| B. New Guinea, pt. ii. (1876). Ann. Mus. Oiv. Gen. x. p. 147. 



j| Proc. Zool. Soc. 1880, pp. 464-475. Bead June 15, 1880. 



