Mr. W. K. Parker on Palamedea Chavaria. 145 



"ornithic" height above the Ostriches, and in a very similar contiguitv 

 to the Lizards: these are the true "Gallinse" and the true "Ana- 

 tinse." In the latter family we have all the birds from the Spur- 

 winged Goose {Plectroptents) to the Goosander, inclusive; in the 

 former, the " Phasianina;'' and the "Tetraoninae"— the typical and 

 Bubtypical Fowls. The Flamingo is truly lamellirottral ; but its 

 anatine characters are confused and mixed up with those that are 

 derived from the Ibis and the Crane. Again, in the Fowls, we have 

 carefully to keep the " Cracinae," the " Uemipodiinse," the " Mega- 

 podiinse," and the "Pteroclinae" in separate circles, because the 

 ipoo/of their nature is one thing, and the icarp another; they are not 

 zoologically pure, not wholly Gallinaceous. The parts first formed 

 in the embryonic skull — those which are most central, and least and 

 most slowly affected by the causes that fit each creature for its place 

 and work in nature — these are strangely alike in both the " Sifters " 

 and the "Scrapers"; and for a long while this fact has been a 

 mystery and almost a ))aradox to me. I care verj' little for the weUi 

 between the toes ; their absence or presence may suffice to separate 

 between ffnius and ffenus, but not between family and family^ still 

 less between onler and order. 



The water-birds may, however, be divided. very easily into two 

 groups by the presence or absence of two very curious membranous 

 spaces appearing in the occipital plane. Thene /omtaneliet separate 

 the auditory from the superoccipital cartilage, — and are scarcely open 

 at all in the true "Ardeince," the " Rallinae," the " Podicipinie," 

 and the " Pclecaninae "; nor do they appear in the Land and Tree 

 groups of birds. 



In the " Ibidinw," the " Lamellirostret," the Gruine, Pluvialine, 

 and Tringinc groups, they are large and persistent ; in the " Larina;" 

 they soon fill up with bone, and so they do in CEdicnemv9, and ap- 

 parently in the Bustards. Now the great embryological distinctions 

 between the skull and face of the Geese and Fowls are, first, that in 

 the latter the space between the periotic mass and the superoccipital 

 cartilage is a mere chink, in the latter a persistent oval space ; and 

 secondly that the anterior parts of the face, viz. the prtemaxillae, pre- 

 vomers, and dentaries are small and compressed in the Fowls, large 

 and outspread in the sifting birds. The body of the tongue par- 

 takes of the general expansion of the face in the Geese ; the descend- 

 ing part of the lachrymal suffers from the general contraction of the 

 parts in the face of the Fowl. Moreover the true Fowls (" Phasia- 

 nince " and " Tetraoninai ") have the head of the os quadratum less 

 bifid at its joint with the skull, and therefore nearer the Ostriches 

 and reptiles in its structure than the same bone in the Goose-tribe. 

 It is highly worthy of remark, however, that the Sand-Grouse, He- 

 mipodii, Megapodes, and Curassows all agree with the Geese and 

 their allies in having a subomithic condition of this famous bone ; 

 and its upper articular crura begin to be quite distinct representatives 

 of the legs of the mammalian " incus." This, be it noticed, makes 

 the four groups of mixed "Gallinae" correspond, not only with the 

 LameUirostres, but also with all those puzzling border-birds which 



Ann. ^ Mag. N, Hist. Ser. 3. Vol, xiv. 10 



