146 Zoological Society : — 



must be studied in connexion ; such as Psophia, Parra, Cariama, 

 and Palamedea. 



Now the Rail-tribe, to which Palamedea has been supposed to 

 belong, has been for a long time burdened (on paper) with a very 

 false army-list. Everything alive that has had the misfortune to be 

 possessed of large unwieldy feet has been added to this feeble- 

 minded, cowardly group, until it has become a mixed multitude, with 

 discordant voices, and with manners and customs having no conso- 

 nance or relation. In a former paper I had the assurance to disband 

 the Cassowaries and Megapodes ; in the present I shall permit all 

 birds having much of the nature of the Plover (such as Parra), and 

 all those which have in them the nature of a Goose, to depart from 

 the Rail-tribe : I shall retain the Psophia as an outpost, notwith- 

 standing that it is more than half a Crane. 



A very large number of the genera of birds partake of a structure 

 and nature which may very appropriately be called Passerine ; and 

 another very large group, both of genera and families, may also be 

 called Pluvialine, — the common Golden, Grey, and Dotterel Plovers 

 being typical of these groups, which run up through the Sandpipers 

 and Curlews to the Ibises in one direction, through the Lapwing and 

 Stone-Plover to the 3ustards and Cranes in another, and through 

 Chionis and the Pratincole to the Petrels and Gulls, Still this does 

 not exhaust the pluvialine birds ; for the Geese and their allies are 

 related on one hand to the Ibises through the Flamingo, and on the 

 other to the Cranes, although the proper connecting link in this case 

 is doubtful, Palamedea lying obliquely, not directly, between them. 

 The Megapodes, Hemipodes, Sand-Grouse, and Tinamous also 

 have no little proportion of the Plover in their nature. The Jacanad 

 (Parra) are essentially Plovers, although they have something of the 

 Rail in them, especially in their skull ; and they are united to the typi- 

 cal forms by other Spur- winged Plovers {Pluvianus spinosus, Gould). 

 Now, looking at the anatine birds as a great division of specialized 

 forms parallel with, and intimately related to, the pluvialine birds, we 

 begin to see how they can be related to the mixed " Gallinacese," 

 which have so much of the Plover in their essence. But we had much, 

 at starting, in common between the typical and pure Fowls and the 

 Duck and Goose tribe ; add to this the fact that the Mound-makers 

 and Curassows come much nearer to the "Anatinee," and then sup- 

 pose an anatine bird in which the horny denticles are feeble, but abun- 

 dant, and the jaws compressed, stout, and trenchant, the same bird 

 having the occipital region in harmony, not with the Geese, but with 

 the Fowls, — ^put all these things together, and we shall be supposing 

 what really exists in the Palamedea. Then we can calmly look at 

 the fact that those Geese which have spurs in their wings, like those 

 of the Palamedea (viz. Chenalopex and Plectropterus), have their 

 legs longer, more grallatorial, and better under them than the typical 

 forms, and that the Spur-winged Goose (Plectropterus) has a pelvis 

 exactly intermediate between that of a typical Goose and that of a 

 Palamedea. It is worth while to notice the thick down that covers 

 the Palamedea, the height of the bare tract on the tibia, and the reti- 



