1882. | PROF. OWEN ON TRICHINA SPIRALIS. 571 
of tail-feathers must be considered to be that normal in the present 
family, twelve being that universal, with a few isolated exceptions, 
in all other Passeres. 
In all other points, Xenicus and <Acanthisitta conform to the 
general Passerine type. There is no trace of a plantar vinculum. 
The tensor patagii brevis has the peculiar arrangement charac- 
terizing the Passeres, only slightly masked by the muscular fibres 
somewhat concealing the two superimposed tendons, as is frequently 
the case in the short-and-rounded-winged forms of the group. The 
gluteus primus is well-developed. The tongue is lanceolate and horny, 
with its apex somewhat frayed out and its base spiny. The main 
artery of the leg is the sciatic. The sternum has a single pair of 
posterior notches and a bifid manubrium. In the skull the nostrils 
are holorhinal, the vomer broad and deeply emarginate anteriorly, 
the maxillo-palatines slender and recurved. 
As regards the affinities of the Xenicide, the ‘“ haploophone” 
form of their syrinx, combined with the complete loss of a vinculum, 
shows that it is only with the Pipride (including the Cotingide), 
Tyrannide, Pittide, and Philepittidee that they can be compared. 
From all of these they differ markedly, however, in the number of 
rectrices, the ocreate tarsus, and the nature of the syrinx, the latter 
never having the form of a complete bony box, and never lacking 
a bronchial “intrinsic”? muscle in any of the families just enu- 
merated. The Pittide they approach somewhat in their general 
facies, short tail, and long tarsus, though the tarsal scutellation is 
different in the two forms. 
The Pittidee are also, it is interesting to note, the only other family 
of Mesomyodian Passeres that enters the Australian region, though 
they have not extended their range to New Zealand. I know at 
present of no other Australian Passerines that can be considered allied 
to the Xenicide ; nor are there apparently any other forms than the 
two here described present in New Zealand itself, Certhiparus and 
Miro both being, as well as Clitonyx', Oscines of the normal type. 
4, On Trichina spiralis. By Prof. Owxn, C.B., 
F.R.S., F.G.S., &e. 
[Received June 10, 1882. ] 
The admission, kindly accorded by the Publication Committee, 
of my paper on Trichina spiralis (1835) to the first volume of the 
‘ Transactions of the Zoological Society of London,’ leads me to sub- 
mit a few observations on subsequent references that have appeared 
in print on the subject of that paper. The general impression so 
produced is indicated by the following definition by the late lamented 
* Académicien,” Littré, in his admirable ‘ Dictionnaire de la Langue 
francaise :’—‘“‘ Tricu1ne, s. f. Nom générique d’un_helminthe 
nématoide, le Zrichina spiralis, découverte par Hilton et décrit par 
R. Owen.’ 
1 Vide anted, p. 544. 
