Mr. W. K. Parker on the Kagu. 385 



short way up the centre of the nape. The front claws are short and 

 acute. 



It differs from the Zorilla Faillantii, Loche (Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 

 1856, viii. 497, t. 22), in the crown of the head being entirely white, 

 and the streak on the back narrower and well-defined. 



On the Osteology of the Kagu (Rhinochetus jubatus). 

 By W. K. Parker. 



If we take the terrestrial, amphibious, and aquatic birds as a prac- 

 tical half of the whole class, we shall find that the minor groups into 

 which they break up all fuse into each other at their margins. 



If it were not for the fact that the Pigeons, Ardeine birds (e. g. 

 Ibises, Storks, and Herons), and the " Pelecaniure " hare tender 

 young, then a straight line might be drawn through the class, 

 leaving on one side the plunderers, songsters, and other famihes of 

 the " Aves altrices," and on the other the walking, running, wading, 

 swimming, and diving birds. As it is, however, this interdigitation 

 of the two main halves does not take away the great naturalness of 

 Buch a subdivision ; and the land- and water-birds may be considered 

 as together forming a very natural group. 



Certainly these birds have very much in common ; and inosculant 

 forms so completely connect together the minor subdivbions as to 

 make one seandess web of these apparently incongruous materials. 



This slow but sure meltmg of family into family, and genus into 

 genus, this mixing of single types so as to form double, triple, and 

 multiple types, makes the ancestral hypothesis very hard to digest, 

 whilst yet it seems to be the only one at hand having any scientific 

 value. It may be an ignis fatuus, but, to one perplexed with tracing 

 the mazy labyrinth of types, it looks like a light shining in a dark 

 place. 



The Palamedea and the Kagu have turned up to me very oppor- 

 tunely just now ; they have made me rethink my thoughts, and re- 

 peat and vary my observations, on the relationships of the land- and 

 water-groups'of birds. Tiie former of these birds— the Palamedea — 

 by bringing an essentially Anserine bird so near those outlying " Gal- 

 liuffi" the Curassow and the Brush-Turkey, shows how it is that 

 there exists so much in common in the skull and face of the Fowl 

 and the Goose ; whilst the Kajgu, by tying closely together the 

 Trumpeter and the Eurypyga, in some degree opens the eyes to 

 understand why the relationship of the Cranes to the Herons, and 

 of both to the 'Rails, should be so close and intimate. 



I have also been brought to re-analyze the families so as to elimi- 

 nate, if possible, the single or pure from the mixed types, whether 

 merely double or multiple. 



Tentatively and cautiously let us separate the true Ralhnc birds, 

 from the Notornis to the Coot ; this group may stand as one of the 

 simple-type families. • n- 



Parallel with these birds— in some respects more mtelligent, in 

 others coming nearer to the reptile— we place the Plovers, not 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser.3. Fb/.xiv. 25 



