ON THINOCORUS AND ATTAGIS. 415 
of the Bovide. This condition differs from any I have seen in other 
Ruminant animals; and I can find no reference to it by other 
authors. 
I do not think that my account of the organ is at all incompatible 
with that of Pallas, who has laid special stress on the linear nature of 
the cotyledons. Neither in the Cervide nor the Cavicornia have I 
ever found an arrangement which can be compared with it. Ido not 
feel justified in regarding it as indicating a nearer relationship to the 
one than to the other; for the number of the plications is opposed to 
Cervine affinities, whilst their size militates against their polycotyle- 
donary nature. 
When we consider the genus Moschus in its relations to the other 
Ruminants, it seems to me that to call it a Deer is altogether against Page 292. 
the tendency of the facts at our disposal, No known Deer has a gall- 
bladder, or a filiform termination to its urethra. How can we place 
with the Cervide, therefore, an animal which possesses both ? 
66. NOTES ON THE ANATOMY AND SYSTEMATIC 
POSITION OF THE GENERA THINOCORUS AND 
ATTAGIS.* 
THrovcH the kindness of Mr. Edward Gerrard I have become Page 413. 
possessed of an adult specimen of Thinocorus rumicivorus, and of a 
nestling of Attagis gayi, in spirit, from Chili; and I take the present Page 414. 
opportunity of bringing before this Society my notes on their struc- 
ture. Of the former of these species Mr. Eyton has fully described 
the visceral anatomy and the osteology in the ‘“‘ Zoology of the Voyage 
of the ‘ Beagle,’ ”+; and in his “ Osteologia Avium ”f° will be found 
an account of the skeleton, together with a figure of the sternum, of 
the latter. By Mr. Eyton, in his account of Thinocorus, these birds 
are referred to the order Galline ; but in his more recent work they 
are included with Chionis, to constitute the Chionidide, which are by 
him placed after the Otide (comprising the Otinew and Tinaminz), 
and before the Charadriide, as families of his order Littores. By 
Mr. G. R. Gray, in his ‘‘ Hand-list of Birds,” they are separated from 
the Chionidide, between which and the Glareolide they stand as a 
* “ Proceedings of the Zoological Society,” 1877, pp. 413-8. Read, May 1, 
1877. 
+ Part iii. p. 155. : t p. 177, and Plate XXI. fig. 3. 
