152 ON LEPTOSOMA DISCOLOK, 



about 6, and on the abdomen only 2. About the middle of the sternum 

 the outer pectoral tract, which is about 4 feathers wide and slightly 

 P. Z. S. 1880, stronger than the main tract, is given off ; it is not very divergent, but is 

 dilated terminally, and develops a recurrent hook, which, however, is not 

 very distinct. There is a circlet of feathers round the vent, and a short 

 tract of feathers behind it, on each side of the fleshy part of the tail, 

 continuing the direction of, though quite separate from, the main inferior 

 tract of its side. 



The feathering of the head is continuous, and from it the anterior 

 moiety of the dorsal tract runs, being anteriorly continuous at the sides, 

 as already noted, with the inferior tracts, along the dorsal median line 

 of the neck, as a rather broad, thickly feathered band, which forms a 

 strong interscapular fork, just as in Coracias and the Parrots, the ends 

 of the fork lying about j inch anterior to the posterior extremities of the 

 two scapulae. The posterior moiety has also a forked form, the two 

 arms enclosing a fairly broad naked median space, and only uniting about 

 1 inch in front of the oil-gland, the united tract ao formed ceasing 

 altogether about J inch in front of that organ. This posterior fork is 

 very narrow anteriorly, not more than two feathers wide ; indeed, for the 

 first two or three rows each arm consists of only one feather in each row, 

 and the two arms run in between the forks of the anterior moiety, just 

 as in the Parrots, Coracias, and some other birds. Posteriorly the fork 

 widens, and becomes connected closely with the scattered contour- 

 feathers which are found outside it, over the space between the dorsal 

 tract proper and the lumbar powder-down patches, so that on the rump 

 the dorsal tract appears to consist of five or six rows of feathers on each 

 side of the median line. There is a very strongly feathered and broad 

 band of feathers over the knee, being the anterior end of the lumbar 

 tract of its side; this tract is quite distinct from all others but the 

 crural, which are much weaker and clothe the leg as far as the " ankle." 

 The powder-down patches, one on each side, lie between the posterior 

 portion of the dorsal tract and the lumbar tracts. They form elongated 

 patches, extending forwards over the femur as far as the sartorius 

 muscle, and backwards to within inch of the vent ; their dorsal border 

 is parallel to the dorsal tract, the ventral to the lumbar ones. On the 

 inside of the skin they are conspicuous as dark grey patches, formed by 

 the closely aggregated insertion of the feathers of which they are com- 

 posed, these lying at a less angle with the skin than the contour-feathers. 

 Nitzsch* has described the pterylosis in Coracias garrula and C. indica, 

 with figures of that of the former, and in Eurystomus gularis. I have 

 examined the first-named species in the flesh, and also a skin of Atelornis 

 crossleyi. In all essential respects, as will be seen by a comparison of 



* Pterylogr. (Kay Soc. ed. p. 89). 



