72 MR. W. K. PARKER ON THE KAGU. [Feb. 23, 
The Psophia has a very phasianine expression of face, and the 
structure of its head answers to that look very considerably ; whilst 
the Zurypyga has stretched just as far out for some of its characters, 
and is unmistakeably related to the Stilt-Plover (Himantopus). It 
would be tedious if the details were given; but I hold myself ready 
to prove my assertions. Leaving the beautiful and complex skulls 
of the Kagu, the Hurypyga, and the Psophia (merely remarking 
that the first is most like that of a Night-Heron, the second halfway 
between that of the Kagu and the Himantopus, and that the third is, 
as it were, the skull of a phasianine Rail), let us turn to the sternum 
in these birds. 
In each case this bone answers best to that of a newly hatched 
Crane (e. g. Grus montignesia), whilst it is, as yet, totally unossified. 
The breast-bone of the Trumpeter comes nearest that of the Crowned 
Crane (Balearica) ; the Kagu’s sternum is truest to the embryo 
Crane ; whilst that of the Hurypyga answers in nature both to that 
of the young Crane and the young Heron. The sternum of the true 
Crane, in its early condition, is very interesting, as, besides its own 
proper characters, it shows a dying-out of the pluvialine inner hypo- 
sternal processes. The dorsal vertebree are largely anchylosed toge- 
ther in these three mixed types—the Kagu, Psophia, and Eurypyga ; 
and this occurs in all the Cranes more or less, and also in that 
strange Crane-Goose the Flamingo. 
The furculum of the Kagu is but little stronger, and only a little 
more U-shaped, than that of the Brachypteryzx ; that of the Psophia 
has its rami more divergent than that of a Crane, and the process at 
the angle is weaker ; and, lastly, the furculum of the Hurypyga is 
intermediate between those of the Psophia and the Stilt-Plover. 
That which strikes the eye at once in the pelvis of the Kagu is 
the great height and steepness of the iliac crests, and the peculiar 
bend downwards of the hinder part of the sacrum; this is equally 
well seen in the pelvis of the Brachypteryx and the Psophia. 
This has a further interest ; for that which gives character to the 
pelvis of the Talegalla, as compared with that of other gallinaceous 
birds, is this peculiar height of the iliac crests. . 
In the Lurypyga this character is not only toned down, as it were, 
but the posterior part of the pelvis is much broader: and this part of 
the bird alone would only indicate a specific difference from that 
peculiar Ibidine Stork the Uméretta ; for its pelvis differs but little 
from that of the Lurypyga, save in being stronger, and it answers to 
that common broad kind so constantly seen in every modification of 
an essentially pluvialine bird. 
My last remark is, that all the outliers of the typical “ Ardeinze” 
—Baleniceps, Scopus, Eurypyga, Rhinochetus, and the Storks— 
take hands round the well-defined central group, viz. the Herons, 
Bitterns, Egrets, Night-Herons, Tiger-Bitterns, and Boat-bill. 
