1889.] MR. W. K., PARKER ON STEATORNIS CARIPENSIS, 185 
such as Lurystomus and Podargus; not the inhabitants of its own 
region. 
The same thing is to be seen in several other types: Dicholophus, a 
Crane-like bird of prey, represents the Ethiopian Secretary-bird ; the 
Boatbill (Cancroma), the great Baliniceps of the Soudan ; and even 
the Tinamous, which are so closely related to the Ratitz, look more 
towards Apteryx than towards Rhea. These, however, are a few facts 
which are mere samples of a very large number, and the organic 
types generally that lie beyond ‘‘ Wallace’s Line” in the East, are 
to be compared with those that are from beyond the Isthmus of 
Panama in the West. 
As to the group to which Steatornis belongs, I think that at 
present the best thing to do is to drop some of Professor Huxley’s 
smaller group-terms, and to retain these for larger gatherings of 
birds. 
If his ‘‘ Cypselomorphe,” for instance, are allowed to fall back 
into the great and most important group of the Coceygomorphz we 
shall get over many difficulties and have a suborder comparable to 
the Coracomorphe. 
These two groups, so constituted as to take in, in the latter, all 
the Aigithognathe except the Swifts, and the former be made to 
hold within one ideal boundary-line all the non-passerine arboreal 
* Altrices”’ (except the Pigeons and Raptorial birds), all the “ Tenui- 
rostres,”” ‘ Fissirostres,”’ ‘‘ Syndactyli,” and ‘* Zygodactyli” of Cu- 
vier,—then the likeness or the unlikeness of the two groups will shine 
out clearly. 
In the Coracomorphe we have 6000 species, that, by their most 
amazing uniformity, suggest to the Evolutionist one common parent- 
age, and in that group ouly a small percentage of types is abnormal. 
In some characters, both of the skeleton and of the soft parts, there 
isan absolute uniformity. I know of no case in which the cxea coli 
are absent ; and from the Corvide proper to the Pteroptochidae, 
the most variable part of the skeleton—the manus and pes—the 
distal part of both fore and hind limbs, are uniform throughout. 
The carpo-metacarpus has, in every skeleton I have seen, a bony 
bridge over the proximal part of the interosseous space formed by 
ankylosis of an ossified cartilaginous plate, which is in reality an 
intercalary metacarpal. Also in none, except the Bank-Swallow, 
have I found a developed ungual phalane to the lst or 2nd digits; 
they almost always abort or suppress the 2nd phalanx of the Ist, 
and the 3rd phalanx of the 2nd digit. 
In the leg, the tarso-metatarsus always, so far as I have seen, has 
five tendon-canals behind its head. There is no finished canal here 
either in Steatornis or in Cypselus ; in the Common Fowl! there is 
one passage—a common state of things. 
Then, as I have said, in the skull there is always that peculiar 
modification of the Schizognathous palate which Professor Huxley 
calls the A®githognathous type. 
Also, except in rare cases, the basipterygoids are nearly sup- 
pressed ; only in a few cases are they seen even as thin prickles, in 
