1877. j ON THE ANATOMY OF PASSERINE BIRDS. 447 



4. Notes on the Anatomy of Passerine Birds. — Part II. By 

 A. H. Garrod, M.A., F.R.S., Prosector to the Society. 



[Keceived April 30, 1877.] 



In my former communication on the anatomy of the Passeres' I 

 adopted a definition of the group in which was included the important 

 character made known by C. J. Sundevall in 1831, and expressed 

 in the 1872 edition of bis valuable ' Methodi naturalis Avium dis- 



ponendarum Tentamen ' in the following words : — " Hallux 



per se mobilis. Musculus enim^exor hallucis longus articulum ejus 

 ultimum flectens, a flexore digitorum commuui perfecte solutus. (In 

 avibus reliquis, omnibus, tendo hujus musculi cum tendinibus alterius 

 conjungitur. Hallux igitur simul cum reliquis digitis semper flec- 

 titur.)" U/?!//3a e/30j95, agreeing with the Passeres in this respect, 

 is by the author included with them. As mentioned in my paper 

 on the deep plantar tendons of birds =, I have so frequently been able 

 to verify this statement of the Swedish naturalist, that I felt justified 

 in making the fact part of my definition of the group. Recently, 

 however, from skins which have been placed at my disposal by 

 Mr. Salvin, I have found reason for overthrowing the character, 

 because in the Eurylsemidae there is a strong vinculum which joins 

 the two muscles exactly in the same manner as in many of the non- 

 passerine families. 



Euryl(Bmus ochromelas, Cymbii-hynchus macrorhynchus, and Calyp- 

 tomena viridis are the species which I have examined (more than 

 one specimen of each) ; and in all of them there is a narrow but 

 strong vinculum, situated just above the metatarso-phalangeal arti- 

 culations, and running from the tendon of the flexor hallucis longus 

 downwards to the tendon of the flexor digitorum profundus. No 

 other passerine bird which I have dissected possesses this vinculum, 

 not even Rupicola crocea, which has been thought by some to be 

 intimately related to the Eurylaeminse. Such being the case, either 

 Sundevall's character no longer holds, or the Eurylsemidae are not 

 Passeres. 



In his invaluable memoir on the voice-organs of Passerine birds ^ 

 a translation of which, by my friend Mr. F. J. Bell, will shortly be 

 published at Oxford (by the Clarendon Press), J. Miiller was so 

 overcome by the flood of facts which he had discovered, that he 

 remarks " It is, then, now thoroughly proved that the singing birds 

 cannot be separated, as an order, from the rest of the Passeres 

 (of Cuvier). There is only a large division of Insessores or Passer- 

 ines which must also include the Scansores. This order of In- 

 sessores will contain birds with the most varied supply of vocal 

 muscles, as well as birds which do not possess these muscles, every 

 intermediate condition being found." The fact that an important 

 generahzation, such as that of Sundevall above considered, breaks 



' P. Z. S. 1876, p. .508. = P. Z. S. 1875, p. 348. 



' Abb. k. Akademie d. Wiss. zu Berlin, 1847. 



