414 MR. A. H. GARROD ON THINOCORUS AND ATTAGIS. [MajT 1, 



nestling of Attagis gayi, in spirit, from Chili ; and I take the present 

 opportunity of bringing before this Society my notes on their struc- 

 ture. Of the former of these species Mr. Eyton has fully described 

 the visceral anatomy and the osteology in the 'Zoology of the 

 Voyage of the "Beagle" '^ ; and in his 'Osteologia Avium '° will be 

 found an account of the skeleton, together with a figure of the ster- 

 num, of the latter. By Mr. Eyton, in his account of Thinocorus, 

 these birds are referred to the order Gallinae ; but in his more recent 

 work they are included with Chionis, to constitute the Chionididae, 

 which are by him placed after the Otidse (comprising the Otinre and 

 Tinaminse), and before the Charadriidse, as families of his order Lit- 

 tores. By Mr. G. R. Gray, in his ' Hand-list of Birds,' they are 

 separated from the Chionididae, between which and the Glareolidse 

 they stand as a division of the Grallse. This is much the same 

 position as that in which they are located by Messrs. Sclater and 

 Salvin in their ' Nomenclator Avium Neotropicalium.' Nitzsch, as 

 Burmeister tells us, was disposed to place them in his group of the 

 Alectorides, along with Chamia, Otis, Cariama, Psop/na, and 

 Grus ; whilst Wagler placed them with the Pteroclidae ; but Bur- 

 meister hiinself is of opinion that "this remarakable bird {Thinoco- 

 rus rumicivorus), which Wagler very improperly compares with the 

 Sand-Grouse (^Pf erodes), is in every particular an aberrant Scolopa- 

 cine form, related to Glareola in exactly the same way as Chionis to 

 HcBmatopus, or Dromas to Recurvirostra'''^ . 



As far as pterylography goes, not much of importance with refer- 

 ence to the position of the ThinocorinEe can be learnt. In that they 

 possess a tufted oil-gland they differ from the Pteroclidse and Co- 

 lumbae, in both of which families it is nude. On the whole the 

 pterylosis is typically Limicoline. 



With reference to the alimentary canal, the tongue is simple and 

 triangular, occupying most of the space between the rami of the 

 mandible. The cesophagus is not large, but develops a capacious 

 and well-defined globose crop, situated just above the furcula. The 

 gizzard is muscular, not large, and it possesses simple triturating 

 pads like those in the majority of non-carnivorous birds. 



In the specimens of both Thinocorus and Attagis under consider- 

 ation the intestines are 125 inches in length; but it must be re- 

 membered that the Attagis is a nestling. The colic cseca in the 

 T'hinocorus are 2*25 and 2-5 inches long; in the Attagis they are 

 both 3 inches. 



Myologically, the ambiens muscle is present, although slender. 

 Both the femoro-caudal and its accessory head exist, of equal breadth. 

 The semitendinosus, together with the accessory semitendinosus are 

 of average size, whilst the semimembranosus is peculiarly slender. 

 The myological formula, therefore, in conformity with the nomen- 

 clature adopted in my paper " On the Muscular System of Birds," 

 in the Society's ' Proceedings ' for 1874 (p. Ill), is A B, X Y. 



The vastus externus covers the biceps cruris ; and in the foot the 



1 Part iii. p. 155. ^ P. 177, and plate sxi, fig. 3. 



^ Nitzsch's ' Pterylography,' Eoyal Society's translation, p. 1.39. 



