162 MR. W. K. PARKER ON STEATORNIS CARIPENSIS. [Apr. 2, 
Genera, and Species are the newest and the most specialized ; this is 
seen best of allin the Passerine order, the ‘ Coracomorphe.”’ On the 
other hand, we have birds that are impoverished up to the very 
edge of extinction, such as the ‘ Ratite ”’—poor, stupid, savage 
tribes, that are fast dying out from among the noble and accom- 
plished modern birds. 
The “Order” to which Steatornis belongs is in great contrast 
with the great Passerine group ; the Coccygomorphe are little more 
than one fourth as numerous as the Coracomorphe, yet are ten 
times as polymorphous. 
Among the more than half-myriad of the Singing-birds, using the 
term in the broadest sense, a very small percentage of the types is 
abnormal; a very few have four notches to their sternum; two or 
three genera have their plantar tendons bound across by a special 
ligament—are Desmodactyle ; just a few have a tracheal, and a few 
have a simple broncho-tracheal syrinx; whilst two genera, Atrichia 
and Menura, have a syrinx that just falls short of the typical per- 
fection of that of the highest form—“ the Oscines.”’ 
But all these types are Aigithognathous, and, what is most re- 
markable is, that that peculiar anticipation of the JZammalian fore- 
palate is only found in one small family outside the Coracomorphe, 
namely, the Swifts (Cypselide). 
So that we have one character which does not fail us throughout 
the Passerine order; the sternum, the syrinx, and the plantar ten- 
dons are variable. One other character, which, however, is shared 
by many other birds, is the great abortion, mostly the complete 
suppression, of the basipterygoids; these are useful and important 
things for the taxonomist, but they fail him in the time of need. 
The time of need is when he would make a good clear distinction 
between the Coracomorphe and the Coccygomorphe: he is bound 
to do this, or to cease to call himself a philosophical ornithologist ; 
and yet can it be done? 
Here, if anywhere, Professor Huxley’s comprehensive terms come 
to be of great value, but of most difficult application. The 
difficulty was felt by himself, and he was thus led in his second 
paper (P. Z. S. 1868, pp. 294-319) to break up and spoil his excellent 
and most natural group of the “ Alectoromorphe,” and a little more 
wavering of mind would have made him break up and destroy his 
excellent group of the Cuculines—the Coccygomorphe. These, 
however, must be kept together at any cost; to enrich that order I 
feel willing to give up the importance of the distinctness of the 
Swifts, the Humming-birds, and the Parrots. 
As for the Picidee and Yungide, none but the most fretful and 
impatient of the Classifying tribe would have quarrelled with the 
present writer for demonstrating the peculiar structure of the palate 
in these birds, or for inventing a morphological term for that 
palate, namely ‘‘ Saurognathous.”’ 
As for the value of the condition of this part of the bird’s structure, 
I have just stated that it is the safest thing we have in the Coraco- 
morphe; but whilst that masterly and invaluable paper on the 
