208 ON THE LATE PROP. GARROD*S CONTRIBUTIONS 



desmognathous, others, as in Indicator, not. The truncated vomer of 

 Ramphastos is also figured. In conclusion it is suggested that Indicator 

 should form but a subfamily, to be comprised, together with the 

 Bamphastinae and Capitoninse, in a larger group, the Capitonidae. 



15. Opisihocomus* '. Opisihocomus is a true Homalogonatous bird, 

 having both the ambiens and accessory femoro-caudal muscles ; it cannot, 

 therefore, have any thing to do with the Passeres. It is, perhaps, most 

 nearly related to the Gallinae, but, at the same time, can hardly be in- 

 cluded with them ; it is also not far from the CuculidaD and Musophagidse, 

 helping thus to fill up the gap that now exists between these latter 

 families and the Gallinaceous birds. 



Ibis, 1881, 16. Passeres t. To define by anatomical characters supergeneric groups 

 p * 26 ' in the immense mass of Passerine birds was always a favourite object 

 with Prof. Garrod ; and the four papers quoted above J are the published 

 results of his efforts at a solution of the difficulties that have always 

 attended the classification of this group. It was whilst working at Pas- 

 serine birds that the classificatory value of the mode of termination of 

 the tendon of the tensor patagii brevis muscle, already alluded to (supra, 

 p. 200), first attracted his attention. The presence also in certain Pas- 

 serine birds, the Cotingidae and Pipridse, of a femoral instead of a sciatic 

 artery has also been mentioned. A slight exception, too, to Sundevall's 

 generalization about the independent muscular supply of the Jiallux in 

 Passerine birds (suprd, p. 198) was found by him to exist in the Eurylae- 

 midse (P. Z. S. 1877, p. 447). But the most novel fact pointed out by 

 Prof. Garrod as regards these birds is that they may be divided into two 

 main groups, according as to whether the intrinsic muscles of the syrinx are 

 inserted into the ends or into the middle of the bronchial semirings. The 

 former group, called by him Acromyodi, includes all the ordinary singing- 

 birds with four or five pairs of muscles, the Oscines, together with two 

 aberrant Australian groups, formed by the genera Menura and Atrichia. 

 In these the number of intrinsic muscles is reduced to three and two 

 pairs respectively ; but they are still inserted into the tips of the semi- 

 rings . 



* " Notes on Points in the Anatomy of the Hoatzin," P. Z. S. 1879, pp. 100-114. 

 t " On some Anatomical Characters which bear upon the Major Divisions of the 

 Passerine Birds :" Part L, P. Z. S. 1876, pp. 506-519, pis. xlviii.-liii. ; Part II., P. Z. S. 



1877, pp. 447-452; Part III., P.Z. S. 1877, pp. 523-526, pi. liii.; Part IV., P.Z.S. 



1878, p. 143. 



| Together with his appendix to the English edition of Johannes Miiller's ' Stimm- 

 organe der Passerinen.' 



I may here remark that I cannot at all agree with Mr. Sclater's view on the 

 position of these two genera, which form his group " Pseudoscines " (Ibis, 1880, p. 345). 

 By placing Atrichia and Menura away from the other Acromyodian Passeres, and inter- 

 polating the Mesomyodian ones, the important fact is ignored that, in their possession 



