32 Sclater on the Systcma Avium. 



under the title of Prionopidae. I fail to see that it has an}' con- 

 nexion at all with the other genera placed in that group. 



5. Falculia, also a laminiplantar Oscine, has been hitherto 

 usually associated with the Hoopoes, to which it has no sort of 

 relationship (cf. Murie, Ibis, 1873, p. 201). It is certainly either 

 a Sturnine or a Corvine form : M. Milne-Edwards will probably 

 soon tell us which. 



The limits of the Passeres being now ascertained with tolerable 

 certainty, the still more difficult question of the sub-division of 

 the Order presents itself. On this subject Garrod's first memoir 

 on the anatomy of the Passerine birds* gives us a summary of 

 the latest information, not only as regards the lamented author's 

 own elaborate investigations, but also as concerns the labours of 

 previous authors. Garrod's proposed system for the arrange- 

 ment of the Passeres is as follows : — 



f Normales. 



Acromvodi 



(Oscincs). j AbnormaIes _ I Menum. 



Passeres ! ' itnchta. 



i (Heteromeri. | «*"«: 



I Cotragldae. 



I Mesomyodi. 1 , , f '] racheophonae. 



Horn* 1 Mm. -i 1 . . . ' 



I Haploophonae. 



In this scheme it will be observed that the Oligomyodae, as, 

 in accordance with Prof. Huxley's suggestion (P. Z. S. 1867, 

 p. 471), the great American group of Passeres with only three 

 pairs of singing-muscles was denominated in our ■ Nomenclator,' 

 are divided into two sections, and the Tracheophonae are inter- 

 posed between them. In consequence of the development of a 

 femoral in the place of a sciatic artery, the Pipridae and Cotingi- 

 dae (with the exception of Rupicola) are placed by themselves 

 in a second primary division (Heteromeri) of non-Oscinine Pas- 

 seres. But it seems to me that this arterial character, although 

 no doubt of importance, is not as yet sufficiently understood and 

 investigated to allow it to rank before the well-ascertained struc- 

 ture of the lower larynx. Again it is quite obvious that the 

 Acromyodi abnormales (i.e. Menura and Atrichia), although 

 they approach the true Oscines in their syringeal structure, are 

 divergent from the rest of the Passeres by much more important 

 osteological characters. For the present, therefore, 1 am dis- 

 posed to uphold the system of the division of the Passeres em- 



* P. Z. S. 1876, p. 506. 



