1886. | CUBITAL COVERTS OF BIRDS. 191 
The remarks made in connection with the Pelicans apply also to 
the Odontoglossz. 
Passing over the Palamedez for the present, the last group whose 
style of cubital coverts brings them under notice here is the Anseres. 
Here, again, we have a group with nearly uniform pterographic 
Nyctieorax. Querquedula. 
eharacters ; these, as will be seen by reference to figure 11, repre- 
senting Querquedula crecea, so closely follow the style seen in the 
Accipitres and the others mentioned as possessing the accessory row 
of median coverts, or upper wing-coverts (C), that it is difficult to 
point to any one charaeter that would serve to distinguish them. 
It will be notieed that the birds characterized by possessing more 
than two rows of median cubital coverts with proximal overlap, 
together with a single supplementary row of upper wing-coverts also 
with proximal overlap, are further characterized by the Desmo- 
gnathous palate, are Homalogonate, and possess in addition several 
other deep-seated points of structure is common. 
Near to the Accipitrine birds, and perhaps leading away from 
them somewhere near the Polyborine birds, a kind of transition may 
be traced in the direction of the Gallinze. In the case of Meleagris 
(fig. 12) proximal overlap characterizes nearly all the median cubital 
coverts, as in the Accipitrines, and in this respect these birds stand 
