OF GALLINACEOUS BIRDS AND TINAMOUS. 185 
processes (hs.) are smaller in Hemipodius than in the Fowls; narrow, however, as 
in them, and not broad as in the Plovers: they do not stand upwards as in Tinamus, 
nor lean forwards as in the Fowls, but are slightly recurved, with a retral process at 
the tip. The single (internal) hyposternum (hys.) bows out from the entosternum, 
and then makes an elegant curve towards it. A bony strap in typical Pigeons (not in 
Goura) connects this internal hyposternal process with the xiphisternum. 
The wings of Hemipodius (Pl. XXXV. fig. 5) are relatively larger and more elegantly 
constructed than in the Quail; they have somewhat of the pluvialine structure in them, 
but the long, gently arcuate, blunt-ended scapula (sca.) is much like that of the common 
Fowl. The coracoids (cr.) are long, as in the Fowl and Quail, and the process outside 
the base of the bone is scarcely more developed. In Vanellus it is very long, outstand- 
ing, and recurved ; in the Pigeon it is less marked. 
The furculum (fr.) is as much V-shaped, and its rami nearly as straight, as in the 
Fowl, the Quail, and Partridge ; but the process at the angle, which is clean gone in the 
Pigeons, and which is very small and recurved in the Lapwing, is, in Hemipodius, larger, 
but still recurved. In the ‘‘ Gallinacez ” it is almost in a line with the rami; still in 
them there is more of this large, flat plate above and behind than in front and below 
the branches. 
The following table shows the length of the wing and shoulder-bones in these birds, 
and their relatives, the figures indicating inches and lines or twelfths. 
Clavicle. Coracoid. Scapula. Humerus. Forearm. Hand. 
in. lin. in. lin. in. lin. in. lin. in. lin. in. lin. 
Hemipodius varius ...... Wea ecd Ty aay ll Ie 6 1 4 1, 5x Lhinde 
Hemipodius (AT erro Ge Le el 0 il 3 ike 10 2 
Vanellus cristatus ...... (he 1 Py 1 7 27, 30 2 74 
Coturnix dactylisonans .. 1 3 geet ee: 1g ey 4 1 3 
Columba livia .......... the ZA ila 2 saris 1s 2a) 2 734 
The Hemipodius agrees with the Pigeons and Fowls in having all the skeleton pneu- 
matic, save the caudal vertebra, the forearm, the carpo-metacarpus, the hinder extre- 
mities entirely, and perhaps also the bones of the shoulder. 
Age makes a great difference in this respect ; nevertheless in adult Pigeons (Columba 
palumbus and livia) I find that the coracoids receive air, whilst the clavicles and sca- 
pul are medullary. The openings that communicate with the thoracic air-cells in the 
Pigeon pierce the coracoids close above the basal articular surface. 
Much has been said and written upon the degree in which air enters the bones of 
birds ; part of the discrepancy in authors arises undoubtedly from the different con- 
ditions of the individual specimens examined. Many years ago I prepared the skeleton 
of a Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), in which all the bones of the limbs, except the humeri, 
contained marrow. A few years afterwards IJ obtained an adult Cuckoo, which had died 
of starvation ; and there was positively no oil in its bones. This specimen is, I believe, 
2832 
