282 ON THE STEUCTUEE OF 



, It is to be regretted that M. Milne-Edwards has not in any way 

 touched upon the pterylosis of Mesites ; and as yet I have been unable 

 to obtain any skin of that form to supplement this deficiency. From a 

 skin of Eupetes macrocercus I have, however, been able to ascertain a 

 Sufficient number of points to show that, unlike Mesites, this form is 

 certainly Passerine. 



The pterylosis is quite Passerine, there being a nude oil-gland, twelve 

 rectrices, and nineteen remiges, of which ten are primaries. Of these 

 last the tenth (or so-called " first") is half as long as the ninth. The 

 saddle of the dorsal tract is covered by very long feathers, some being as 

 much as 3 inches in length. The aftershaft is apparently quite absent, 

 as is the case in some other Passeres (e. g. Artamus and Eurylcemus) 

 according to Nitzsch. There are no traces of any powder-down patches. 

 , In the leg there is no plantar vinculum, as in all the Eleuthero- 

 dactylous Passeres*, and as in them only, if we except Upupa and 

 certain Ardeidae. 



The arrangement of the terminal tendon of the tensor patagii brevis is 

 also Passerine, as described by Garrod t, with the slight difference that, 

 as in Menura and Atrichia J, the recurrent tendon is more or less 

 intimately blended with that of the extensor metacarpi subjacent to it. 



The skull, extracted from the skin, is also typically Passerine, with 

 the characteristically truncated vomer of those birds. The maxillo- 

 palatines are long and thin, and recurved apically ; the transpalatines 

 well developed. Like all other known Old-World Passeres, Eupetes is 

 holorhinal. 



The exact place iu the Passerine series of Eupetes has yet to be 

 determined ; judging, however, from the bilaminate tarsal planta, it is a 

 truly Oscinine form, and therefore very probably to be included in the 

 " Tiineliidae." 



P.z.s.1881, 45. NOTE ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE PALATE IN 



THE TROGONS (TROGONID^). 



IT is my desire in the present communication to correct an error which, 

 though it has been before the ornithological world some years, has 

 hitherto apparently escaped attention the more so, as it has some bear- 

 ing upon the general question of the classification of birds. 



* P. Z. S. 1880, p. 391. t ' Scientific Papers,' pp. 356, 357. 



J L. c. p. 358, pi. xxiv. fig. 2. 



Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, pp. 836, 837. Bead Nov. 15, 1881. 



