Mr. W. K. Parker m the Kagu. 887 



Heron, or a Wingless Rail, I will not say ; it has a more distant re- 

 lationshij) with the Stone- Plover (CEdicnemus). 



The Psophia has a very phasianine expression of face, and the 

 structure of its head answers to that look very considerably ; whilst 

 the Eurypyga has stretched just as far out for some of its characters, 

 and is unmistakeably related to the Stilt- Plover (Himantopus). It 

 would be tedious if the details were given ; but I hold myself ready 

 to prove my assertions. Leaving the beautiful and complex skulls 

 of the Kagu, the Eurypyga, and the Psophia (merely remarking 

 that the first is most like that of a Night-IIeron, the second halfway 

 between that of the Kagu and the Himantopus, and that the third is, 

 as it were, the skull of a phasianine Kail), let us turn to the steruum 

 in these birds. 



In each case this bone answers best to that of a newly hatched 

 Crane (e. g. Grus montignesia), whilst it is, as yet, totally uuossified. 

 The breast-bone of the Trumpeter comes nearest that of the Crowned 

 Crane (Balearica) ; the Kagu's sternum is truest to the embryo 

 Crane ; whilst that of the Eurypyga answers in nature both to that 

 of the young Crane and the young Heron. The sternum of the true 

 Crane, in its early condition, is very interesting, as, besides its own 

 proper characters, it shows a dying-out of the pluvialine inner hypo- 

 sternal i)rocesses. The dorsal vertebree are largely anchyloscd toge- 

 ther in these three mixed types — the Kagu, Psophia, and Eurypyga ; 

 and this occurs in all the Cranes more or less, and also in that 

 strange Crane- Goose the Flamingo. 



The furculum of the Kagu is but little stronger, and only a little 

 more U-shaped, than that of the Brachypteryx ; that of the Psophia 

 has its rami more divergent than that of a Crane, and the process at 

 the angle is weaker ; and, lastly, the furculum of the Eurypyga is 

 intermediate between those of the Psophia and the Stilt- Plover. 



That which strikes the eye at once in the pelvis of the Kagu is 

 the great height and steepness of the iliac crests, and the peculiar 

 bend downwards of the hinder part of the sacrum ; this is equally 

 well seen in the peh-is of the Brachypteryx and the Psophia. 



This has a further interest ; for that which gives character to tlic 

 pelvis of the Talegalla, as compared with that of other gallinaceous 

 birds, is this peculiar height of the ihac crests. 



In the Eurypyga this character is not only toned down, as it were, 

 but the posterior part of the pelvis is much broader : and this part of 

 the bird alone would only indicate a specifc difference from that 

 peculiar Ibidine Stork the Vmbretta ; for its pelvis differs but little 

 from that of the Eurypyga, save in being stronger, and it answers to 

 that common broad kind so constantly seen in every modification of 

 an essentiallv pluvialine bird. . ^^ 



My last remark is, that all the outUers of the typical " Ardemse 

 —Balceniceps, Scopus, Eurypyga, Rhinochetus, and the Storks— 

 take hands round the well-defined central group, viz. the Herons, 

 Bitterns, Egrets, Night-Herons, Tiger-Bitterns, and Boat-bill. 



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