1880.] ANATOMY OF PASSERINE BIRDS. 381 



ornithologists^ That more intimate knowledge of their structure 

 from which alone any true answer to this question could be given, 

 has been likewise gradually accumulating for many years. 



Nitzsch, in his great work on Pterylography, published posthu- 

 mously m 1840, showed that the species examined by him possessed 

 a characteristically Passerine pterylosis". Johannes MuUer, in 1846, 

 in his classical memoir on the vocal organs of Passeres'', remarked that 

 in Gory donmmatr anus, the only species of this group examined by him, 

 there were " no muscular fibres on the larynx." Blanchard, in 1859',' 

 showed that Eurylcemus javanicus agreed in its sternal characters 

 with other Passeres, and particularly compared it with the Swallows 

 m this respect. 



Mr. Sclater', in 18/2, figured the sternum of Cymbirhynchus 

 macror/iync/iiis (nnder the name of Eurylcemus javanicus ; c/. Lord 

 Walden, /. c. p. 370), and stated that in his opinion these birds were 

 truly Passerine. 



Prof. Garrod'', in 1877, was enabled, by an examination of dry 

 skuis of Cymbirhynchus, Calyptomena, and Eurylcemus ochromelas, to 

 show that these species differed singularly from all other Passeres 

 yet examined in that in them the tendon of the flexor longus hallucis 

 sends a strong vinculum to the tendon of i\\e flexor digitorum pro- 

 fundus, as in nearly all other non-passerine birds in which a hallux 

 is developed. He also showed at the same time that in these species 

 the palate was truly Passerine, and proposed to divide the order 

 Passeres " into two sections to start with, those with the hallux not 

 free (the^ Eur 7/1 cemidce), and those with the hallux independently 

 movable." The following year he was able to add to this account 

 some facts in the anatomy of two other species, Psarisomus dalhou- 

 sicB and Serilop/ms rubropygius. These facts included the typical 

 Passerine arrangement of the tendon of the tensor patagii 'brevis 

 (P. Z. S. 1876, p. 508), the presence of the left carotid only, the 



1 For a succinct resume of the opinious of ornithologists on this point see 

 Mr. Sclater's paper in the ' Ibis,' quoted below. ' 



- Eay Soc. ed., pp. 76, 77. These were Coryclon sumatraniis, Calyptomena 

 vmdis,Euryl(gmusjavanieiisand E. ochromelas, and Cymhirhynchmmacrorhyn- 

 chus. In the three last named Nitzsch describes nine of the remiges as situated " on 

 the hand ;" in all the specimens of this group I have exammed, I find there are 

 ten primaries {cf. also Wallace, Ibis, 1874, p. 406, and SundevaU, Teutamen, 

 p. 61). An examination of the pterylosis in my spirit-specimens has also con- 

 vinced me of the partial inaccuracy of Nitzsch's figure of that of Cymhirhynchis 

 (pi. m. fig. 15). The lumbar saddle is here represented as tooangidar, and the 

 inclosed space, as well as the antero-lateral tracts bounding it, too broad. The 

 Ijostero-lateral tracts also are represented as consisting of but a single row of 

 feathers. In reaUty, in this species there is a large ephippial space, of an elon- 

 gated oval shape, the whole sliape of the saddle being more like that repre- 

 sented by Nitzsch in Cei)halopicrus {I. c. fig. 10.) The tracts behind txte two 

 feathers broad. In Calyptomena, judging from skins, there is an acutely-ano-led 

 rhombic saddle, whilst in Eurylcemus the condition is intermediate. " 



I may add that in E. ochromelas and Cymbirhynchus the neck-featherin? of 

 the lower surface is uninterrupted till behind the middle, and that the throat 

 is entirely feather-clad, with no naked symphysial space 



\ ^.''^^^^-.^'^^T^' P.- ^'^- * ^™- Sci. Nat. (4) Zool. vol. xi. p. 92. 



' Ibis 1872, p. 177, &c. 6 p. z. S. 1877, p. 447. 



