46 MR. A. D. BARTLKTT ON WOLVES, [Feb. 4, 



keel of the sternum in Opistlioeomus being on the hinder third of the 

 bone, the leg of the Y-shaped merrythought (or furcula) lies close 

 to the flat under surface of the bone and is strongly strapped to 

 it. I showed, long ago, that the leg of the merrythought is de- 

 veloped as a distinct bone, the homologue of the long dagger- shaped 

 interclavicle of the Lizards and the Monotrematous Mammals. 

 Whether I was believed, or not, by those who had not worked these 

 parts out, did not signify anything to me. Here, in the Hoatzin, 

 this median bone is larger than in any other bird, and is more Lacer- 

 tian in its attachments, as my figures show. 



This bird has a " supra-scapular " segment ; that is an Amphibian 

 character. 



Its hind limbs are quite normal, they are similar to those of the 

 Pigeon-footed fowls (Peristeropodes), viz. the Cracidse and Megapo- 

 didce, the more archaic kinds of Gallinaceous birds. 



The vertebrse, as in fowls, the Ratitae, and the toothed Hesperornis, 

 are cylindroidal up to the sacrum. Many birds, now living, have 

 their dorsal vertebrae " opisthoccelous." As to the skull, it is in many 

 respects that of a normal Carinate bird ; but the palatal bones have a 

 Struthious simplicity, and the basipterygoids, which are aborted in 

 the adult, are developed in the embryo ; they articulate with the 

 pterygoid bones at their Jiind part, just as in the Ratitae and the 

 Tinamous ; in Gallinaceous birds this articulation is at the front 

 third of the pterygoids. That character, alone, is diagnostic as to 

 the position of Opistlioeomus in this class ; added to others, nothing 

 can be clearer than that this bird is one of a nearly extinct type, 

 and that its nearest living relations are birds of an old sort ; it might 

 be called a " Struthious Curassow." 



Professor Huxley, in Iiis second paper (P. Z. S.1868, pp. 294-319), 

 makes this single, lonely bird the representative of his suborder 

 " Heteromorphas " ; an equivalent suborder, the " Coracomorphae," 

 contains more than six thousand living species. I agree with him in 

 this daring classificaticn. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. Observations on Wolves, Jackals, Dogs, and Foxes. By 

 A, D. Bartlett, Superintendent of the Society's 

 Gardens. 



[Received December 6, 1889.] 



Wolves, jackals, dogs, and foxes are found spread nearly all over 

 the world. So much has been written and published on these 

 animals that at the first sight it would appear that little can be 

 added to the knowledge we already possess. It is, however, agreed 

 by all writers who are entitled worthy of notice, that all the varieties 

 of domestic dogs have descended from wolves and jackals, or from 

 the admixture of animals of these kinds, as no other animals are 

 known to which we can in any reasonable way ascribe their origin. 



