ON INDICATOR MAJOR. 459 
where it is in contact with the allantois. o. The non-villous surface of the 
chorion opposite the os uteri. s.s. The smooth non-villous parts of the 
chorion in relation to the Fallopian tubes. 
2. Magnified view of the free surface of the uterine mucous membrane of 
Hyomoschus, showing the crypts in which the villi of the chorion are 
lodged. At a the mouth of one of the uterine glands is shown. 
The drawings have been kindly made for us by Mr. J. D. Dunlop. 
77. NOTES ON THE ANATOMY OF INDICATOR 
MAJOR* 
TsroucH the kindness of Mr. R. B. Sharpe I have had the oppor- Page 930. 
tunity of examining a spirit-preserved specimen of Indicator major, 
from Fantee, which enables me to lay before the Society some fresh 
facts in its anatomy confirmatory of its non-Cuculine affinities. 
In his contributions to Orr’s edition of Cuvier’s “Animal Kingdom” 
(1840), the late Mr. E. Blyth referred the Honey-guides to the Wood- 
peckers as their nearest allies ;+ and this idea was expanded by him 
two years later in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.t 
In “ The Ibis” for 1870,§ Mr. Sclater brought forth fresh facts in 
proof of the non-Cuculine affinities of the genus, and pfoposed to 
place it next to the Capitonide, with which, or with the Coliide, 
Mr. Blanford also in the same year showed it had its nearest relation- 
ships.|| 
The following observations tend to prove the correctness of the 
conclusions arrived at by the two last-mentioned ornithologists, and 
the error of imagining that Indicator is related to the Cuculide. 
Pierylosis—This has been recorded by Nitzsch in his “ Pterylo- Page 931. 
graphy ;” and it seems more than strange that the characteristically 
Picine distribution of its feather-tracts did not lead that able orni- 
thologist to recognize its true relationships. He retained it among 
the Cuculide. 
My study of Pterylography has led me to look upon the nature 
of the dorsal tract as all-important in determining to which great 
group of Birds, the Homalogonate or Anomalogonate,{ any doubtful 
family belongs. When the dorsal tract develops a fork between the 
* “ Proceedings of the Zoological Society,” 1878, pp. 930-5. Read, Nov. 19,1878. 
+ Loe. cit. p. 215. ft Vol. xi. p. 167, 1842. § p. 176. 
|| “Observations on the Geology and Zoology of Abyssinia,” 1870, p. 308. 
| Vide “ Proceedings of the Zoological Society,” 1874, p. 116, for definition of 
these terms. (Supra, p. 213.) 
