172 



MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON THE CUCKOOS. [Feb. IT, 



Eurlynamis taitensis. — The syrinx is on the whole similar to that 

 of Curulus. The last tracheal ring and the first three bronchial 

 semirings are completely ossified ; there is a strong bony pessulus 

 present ; the syringeal muscles are attached to the third bronchial 

 semiring ; the succeeding bronchial semirings are slight and carti- 

 laginous ; from the first of these an oval thick ossified piece projects 

 into the substance of the membrana tympaniformis. 



Phoenicophaes, as far as could be made out from a single 

 damaged syrinx, presents no important differences from Eudynamis. 



In Pyrrhocentor celebensis the syrinx is bronchial ; on the dorsal 

 side the last tracheal rings are incomplete and pass gradually without 

 any break into the bronchial semirings ; there is a slender pessulus 

 attached to tlie last tracheal ring ventrally ; ventrally the tracheal 

 rings are complete ; the bronchial semirings increase gradually in 

 breadth up to the 16th ; the 16th and 17th rings are considerably 

 stouter than the rest ; the remaining rings of the bronchi are very 



Fig. 2. 



a. Frnnt. h. Back. 



Syrinx of Cenfropws aferalhus. 



slight ; the inner ends of the bronchial semirings are connected by 

 a continuous membrane, which is extremely narrow until about the 

 13th ring, when it widens out and forms tlie membrana tympani- 

 formis ; this region of the bronchus forms the vocal organ. 



There is a single pair of syringeal muscles which form a flat thin 

 layer nearly completely covering the ventral surface of the bronchi 

 and attached below to the 16th bronchial semiring. 



In Centropus ateralLus (fig. 2) the syrinx is much like that of 

 Geococcyx and Pyrrhocentor, and, as might be expected, is more 

 particularly similar to that of the last genus. The bronchial rings 



