540 Zoological Society. 



had no hesitation in assigning it a place among the Gallinacese, 

 among v/hich it has a nearer alliance to Cracidce than to any other 

 group ; at all events, it is in no way allied to the Vulturidce, and is 

 equally distant from Menura, with which it has heen classed by 

 some writers. Mr. Gould's paper was illustrated by five skins, an 

 G^^, and also a skeleton of the bird. 



A skeleton of the Talegalla was exhibited, and Prof. Owen drew 

 attention to its peculiarities. 



" On comparing the osteology of the Talegalla with that of other 

 birds," says Prof. Owen, " it exhibits all the essential modifications 

 which characterize the Gallinaceous type, and among the Rasores it 

 most nearly resembles the genera Penelope and Crax. 



" In all the main points the skeletons of these birds agree ; their 

 differences are those of proportion only ; whereas in the Raptores, 

 and especially in the Fulturidce, the following important differences 

 present themselves. The spines of the dorsal vertebrae are detached ; 

 the upper transverse processes of the sacrum are separated by ob- 

 lique elliptical vacuities ; the plough-share bone, which terminates 

 the coccyx, has double the relative vertical extent; the cervical ver- 

 tebrae are shorter and broader ; twice the number of the ribs, as 

 compared with Talegalla, give off vertical processes, and these are 

 longer and stronger : but the most striking and decisive differences 

 occur in the sternum ; this important bone, in the Talegalla, very 

 closel)^ corresponds with that of the two Gallinaceous genera above 

 mentioned ; the chief difference occurs in the greater breadth which 

 separates the costal from the external posterior notch. In the Vul- 

 tures the contiguous margin of the sternum forms part of the same 

 nearly straight line with the rest of the lateral margin of the ster- 

 num behind it. In the Cathartes, which has the least complete ster- 

 num in the tribe of Raptores, to which some Quinarian Zoologists 

 have assigned the Talegalla, there is a shallow notch and a small 

 foramen in each half of the posterior margin of the sternum ; the 

 whole sternum is broader and more convex ; the coracoid grooves, 

 and the corresponding extremities of the bones adapted to them, have 

 twice the breadth of those in the Talegalla. The furculum presents 

 more than six times the thickness of that bone in the Talegalla and 

 allied Gallinacea ; its space is wider, and its superior extremities 

 much more recurved. Equally striking are the differences which the 

 bones of the wing present : in Cathartes Aurea, in which the costal 

 and sacral regions of the vertebral column measure five inches, the 

 length of the humerus is five inches and a half, that of the ulna is 

 six inches eight lines, and the bones of the hand are nearly six inches 

 in length : the strength of all these bones is proportionate to their 

 length. The produced angle of the lower jaw is a character which 

 is most conspicuous in the Gallinaceous birds, in some of the spe- 

 cies of which, as in the Wood-grouse, it is excessive. Now this pro- 

 cess is altogether wanting in the Raptorial birds, and consequently 

 in the Vulturidce ; its presence in the Talegalla (where its form and 

 size closely agree with those in Penelope and Crax) coincides with 



