1872.] DR. J. MURIE ON THE SKELETON OF TODUS. 673 



I did not detect anv special feature in the radius, ulna, and carpo- 

 phalangeal bones, except as regards their relative lengths to each 

 other. 



Before speaking of the leg-bones themselves I shall advert to the 

 limb as clothed with tegument. 



There is a certain delicateness and tenuity in the foot; but the sole 

 nevertheless manifests true syndactylism, inasmuch as two of the 

 anterior toes, third and fourth digits* are closely united to about the 

 proximal ends of their tertiary phalanges. On the dorsum of the 

 foot a sulcus runs a little way further back, but is narrow and not 

 deeply cleft. The fission between the second and third toes is greater, 

 their union reaching to the near end of their second phalanges. The 

 hind toe in its ordinary position appears to be set obliquely inwards 

 and backwards from the root of the second— its natural inclination, 

 as far as I could make out, being fully as much in the former as 

 the latter direction. This fact is hardly so forcibly pronounced in 

 Plate LV. fig. 7 as it ought to be, in consequence of my desiring to 

 show the papillary padding. 



In this specimen the respective sizes of the free portions of the toes, 

 including claws, were, in decimal parts of an inch: — hallux 0-28, 

 second toe 0-17, third 0"2, fourth 016 ; from the base of the hallux 

 to the fork between second and third toes (M3, and from the former 

 point to the next cleft 22 inch, the latter therefore giving the ex- 

 treme area of syndactylism. 



As regards the tarsus, it is smooth and naked, a tendency to trans- 

 verse wrinkling existing quite at the lower end and in front. The 

 toes superiorly are clothed with subequal-sized quadriform scales, there 

 being thirteen or fourteen on the middle anterior digit. A similar 

 kind of tegument covers the sole ; only the scales there are more 

 circular and of a papillary character. The claws are laterally com- 

 pressed with only moderate curvature. 



I may pass over the femur with a mere word as to its very mode- 

 rate strength and size. Regarding the tibia, its absolute length rather 

 than stoutness is noteworthy ; and this applies still more to the tarso- 

 metatarse. There does not appear to be an osseous bridge connect- 

 ing the inferior condyles of the tibia posteriorly, as in Dacelo, the 

 tendons being confined by transverse ligamentous structure. The 

 fibula, as usual, is short and spicular, but with a well-defined knobby 



head. 



The grand limb-distinction between Todus and the whole of the 

 Alcedinidse consists in the former possessing a long tarsal segment— 

 a feature which excludes it from the latter group, and retains it 

 rather with the Muscicapidae. In T. viridis it is of nearly equal 

 dimensions with the tibia. 



There is a slight grooving of the shaft anteriorly and superiorly ; 

 hut posteriorly the scooping for tendons &c. is much deeper. The 

 articular heads together present an oval surface with an absence of 

 the flank process which obtains in the Daceloninae : the central 

 elevation is also feebly marked. The postero-calcaneal ridge, or 

 hypotarsus, stands feebly out behind, is narrow, with a shallow dent 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1872, No. XL11I. 



