BIRDS. 155 



The xiphoid region soon widens behind the condyles ; each process is somewhat expanded, 

 or pedate, and is often soft at its edge. The middle process is the largest ; the outer next, and 

 the intermediate bar is very narrow : the outer notches reach more than a third of the distance 

 from the end of the Sternum to the last costal condyle. In Thalasseus poliocercus (see Plate X, 

 fig. 11; and ' Osteol. Catal. Hunt. Mus.,' vol. i, p. 232, No. 1238), the anteriorly produced part 

 of the sternal keel is partly separated by a kidney-shaped fenestra (e. s. f.) from the rest of the 

 keel; to this half-severed segment the three furcular bones are attached (fr.). Plate XVI, fig. 24, 

 shows one ramus and part of another of the furcula of LOTUS argentatus from the egg, at the 

 middle of incubation ; it is magnified ten diameters. The meso-scapular and proximal prse- 

 coracoid segments (m. sc. s., and p. p. cr.) form one rod of soft cartilage, constricted at its middle, 

 and undergoing ossification from the clavicle (cl.), which is penetrating it like a roughly pointed 

 nail. The inter-clavicle (i. cl.) is seen below, it is very small, and is imbedded in a mass of soft 

 fibro-cartilage (see fig. 25, magnified thirty diameters) ; whilst the clavicles themselves are 

 uniting, in a sinuous manner, above it. The soft tissue (d. p. cr.) in which the inter-clavicle lies, 

 is the distal prse-coracoid of both sides ; it is in a very rudimentary condition, and is soon lost by 

 being converted into the substance of the inter-clavicle. 



The Pluvialinse may be arranged as follows, viz. 



Family." PLUVIALINE." 



1st Sub-fam. " PLUVIALINE proper." 



Examples. (Edicnemus crepilans, Temm. ; Vanellus cristatus, Temtn. ; Charadrius hiaticula, 

 Linn. ; Haematopus ostralegws, Linn. 



2nd Sub-fam. " TRINGINJE." 



Examples. Tringa cinclus, Linn. ; Recurvirostra avocetta, Linn. ; Himantopus melanopterus, 

 Temm. ; Numenius arquata, Lath. 



rd Sub-fam. " SCOLOP AC [M." 

 Examples. Scolopax gallinago, Linn.; Scolopax gattinula, Linn. 



Wt Sub-fam. " PARKING." 

 Example. Parrajacana, Linn. 



I have purposely included in the Pluvialine Family a very large number of Grallatorial 

 genera ; some with long and others with short bills ; and also the long-toed Jacanas, which are 

 manifestly Pluvialine, having much less relationship to the Rails than to the Plovers. I have 

 already spoken of the Pluvialine characters to be seen in the Gulls and Petrels ; these are to be 

 found, although more masked, in the Alcinse ; and as we ascend to many of the nobler Land- 

 tribes, we shall still find that the Plover has to be our starting-point. 



In the list of examples given above, (Edicnemus is aberrant, having begun to take on 

 characters belonging both to Otis and to Grus ; Himantopus also has the completely open 

 inter-orbital space of Eurypyga ; and the Jacanas look towards the Rails on one band, and to the 



