AND PTERYLOSIS OF EURYNORHYNCHUS PYGMLEUS. 217 



tongue is longitudinally grooved, and fringed at its extremity in the same way as in 

 Tringa ; but it is nearly thrice as broad as in that genus. It rapidly diminishes in 

 breadth towards its extremity, and contracts to a sharp point. 



Pterylosis. — There are 12 rectrices and 24 remiges, of which the first two are the 

 longest and of equal length, the pinion adhering to the Tringa type in having ten 

 remiges. The wing, however, is more deeply bifid than in Tringa mvnuta or T. salina ; 

 this is owing to the greater length of the posterior secondaries, and to the slightly shorter 

 character of the feathers intervening between them and the first primaries, the 23rd and 

 the 24th feathers of the wing being of nearly equal length. 



The spinal tract follows the Limicoline type. The interhumeral clefts are much more 

 strongly marked than in T. salina ; and the posterior part is feeble at its commencement, 

 and its two halves meet at the tail. The spinal space is thus long and lanceolate. In 

 the anterior portions of the posterior clefts the feathers are arranged obliquely from 

 before backwards and outwards, in rows of from 3 to 4 feathers, which become more 

 and more longitudinal in their course, till at last, in the undivided extremity of the 

 spinal tract the feathers are in transverse rows of generally 5 feathers — the rows 

 being slightly backwardly convex, and the feathers diminishing in numbers as the tract 

 is traced backwards. 



The oil-gland is pyriform and bare, with the exception of a circlet of feathers around 

 its orifice. The ventral tract is divided by the ventral space immediately before the 

 sternal keel; but in Tringa salina the division occurs slightly anterior to that. Its 

 branch, or pterylosis lateralis, is broad and strong, as in T. salina, and is prolonged 

 along nearly two thirds of the chest. The truncal branches are rather feeble at first, 

 but are stronger and broader on the abdomen, as in T. salina. The humeral tract is 

 strong, and at its origin unites with the last mentioned. The femoral or lumbar tract 

 originates from the posterior extremity of the spinal tract, as in Tringa, and has the 

 same general character. The lateral neck-space extends two thirds up the neck ; and the 

 other spaces are the same as in Tr'mga and its allies. 



Concluding Remark. — The foregoing examination of the osteological and other cha- 

 racters of Eurynorhynchus reveals only one important feature wherein this bird struc- 

 turally differs from the genus Tringa, namely the singular expansion of the bill, the 

 structural equivalent of a similar modification in Platalea leucorodia. Indeed this 

 species, as pointed out by Mr. Harting (I. c), was originally placed in the genus Platalea 

 by Linnaeus *. 



* Mus. Ad. Frid. ii. Prodr. p. 26 (1764). 



