174 SHOULDER-GIRDLE AND BREAST-BONE. 



Family "ALCEDIN^." 

 Examples. Alcedo ispida, Linn.; Dacelo gigantea, Lath. 



In Alcedo ispida the scapula is ensiforra, sharp-pointed, and much curved outwards ; the 

 acromion is very clearly defined and strongly bifurcate ; the coracoid is rather slender in the 

 shaft; the meso-coracoid is decurrent, confluent with the head of the bone, thus forming a 

 tendon-bridge, and it reappears below, widening the bone towards the base ; there is a rather wide 

 laminar outgrowth behind the base, but no epicoracoid hook. There is a large ear-shaped ossified 

 cartilage the "prae-coracoid," confluent with the front of the clavicle, above; this and the 

 bifurcate acromion are Passerine characters ; the furcula is V-shaped, and the inter-clavicle is 

 the merest rudiment. 



The Sternum is short-oblong; it has high, triangular "costal processes," four pairs of con- 

 dyles, and five pedate xiphoid processes, the middle process being bilobate. The outer xiphoid 

 notches are one third larger than the inner, the processes tied together by ligament, form the arc 

 of a large circle behind. The coracoid grooves nearly meet; the rostrum is inferior and 

 projects very much, but is separated from the still more projecting keel by a very shallow notch ; 

 the keel itself is not deep. In Dacelo gigantea we have a similar state of things ; but the prse- 

 coracoid spur of the furcula is slender, and there is no inter-clavicle on the rounded angle of the 

 more U-shaped bone. The keel is separated more abruptly from the "rostrum," but it is more 

 obtuse at the angle, and thus comes nearer that of the Toucan and Woodpecker. 



Family" GALBULINvE." 



Example. Galbula ? 



Plate XIV, figs. 22, 23, show the Sternum, from below, of a straight-billed Jacamar 

 (Galbula], magnified two diameters. The rostrum (r.) is sharp and projecting, and the cres- 

 centic outline of the front of the ento-sternum is all the separation there is between it and the 

 deepish keel. The costal processes (c. p.) are. sharp, and rather erect ; but the most instrutcive 

 part of this Sternum is the extreme depth of the narrow, angular notches, which almost divide the 

 bone into five parallel bars. The outer notch is deepest, and the outer bar is pedate ; the inner 

 (middle) xiphoid is keeled to the end, and sharpens posteriorly, so as to be like the upper half 

 of a lanceolate leaf. 



Family" MEROPIN^E." 

 Example. Upupa epops, Linn. 



The coracoid and Sternum of a fledgling Hoopoe (Upupa epops) are shown in Plate XIII, 

 figs. 15, 16, magnified two diameters. The scapula (not figured) is straighter than in Alcedo ; 

 the coracoid (fig. 15, cr.) agrees with Corytliaix and Alcedo in having a perfect tendon-bridge 



