OF GALLINACEOUS BIRDS AND TINAMOUS. 165 



whilst the length of the toes and the physiognomy of the bird deceived Professor Owen, 

 and made him call the bird a Rail. All the toes are on the same level in Talegalla. 

 There are sixteen strong, short cervical vertebrae, the last two bearing rather long ribs, 

 those of the last being stout, and having each an appendage. The last is anchylosed to 

 the first dorsal, and it to the next two, whilst the last dorsal is free. Only the two first 

 dorsal ribs have appendages, and these very stunted'. The first sacral (of which series 

 there are about seventeen) has ribs that meet a large double hsemapophysis, the latter half 

 of which belongs to the second sacral rib. The second sacral rib is small and styloid, and 

 has coalesced with the sacrum ; and a small flap, articulated with the hinder half of the 

 double heemapophysis, belongs to the third sacral. The last sacral vertebra has not 

 coalesced with the rest, and, like the six strong caudal bones, is nearly solid ; all the 

 rest of the sacrum, all the dorsal and cervical vertebrae, the ribs and the haemapophyses 

 are pneumatic, but the numerous air-passages are small. This is similar to what 

 we meet with in the Fowl, only in it the ribs are solid, and all the other back and 

 trunk-bones are very devoid of diploe. The Talegalla agrees best, in the very cellular 

 condition of its trunk-bones, with the large culminating forms of the typical " Gallinae," 

 and with the great arboreal Curassows, rather than with the medium-sized Pheasants 

 and Fowls. The scapula and furculum are solid in Talegalla ; but the coracoids contain 

 air. We have the same thing in the Fowl ; but in Craw globicera the thick spongy 

 scapulae are pneumatic. 



Of the shoulder-bones, only the furculum has diverged from the type : its angular 

 process is smaller and turns up more than in the Fowl and the Curassow ; the whole 

 bone is more U-shaped than is usual in the Fowl tribe ; but little change either way 

 would convert such a furculum into that either of a Plover or a Crow. The sternum 

 is pneumatic, but the passages are few and small. It is excessively strong ; but difiers 

 little from that of a Curassow or of a Peafowl, very much from that of a Fowl, Phea- 

 sant, Quail, or Grouse. In the latter birds the processes are all very long, narrow, 

 elegant, and thin ; but the Talegalla, a medium-sized bird, rivals the gigantic forms in 

 the coarse strength of its sternum. 



Hence the spaces between the forks of the hyposternum and between the hypo- and 

 xiphisternums are relatively much smaller, and the external process of the hyposternum 

 is twice as broad as in the common Cock. As in the Curassow, the sternal keel is 

 deeper than in the type, and is very thick. Altogether, the sternum comes very near 

 that of Crax globicera, the hyosternal processes being thick and short. The episternum 

 is perforated, but it is feebly carinate below, whilst in the Curassow the carination is 

 much developed. The " ossa innominata" are essentially Gallinaceous ; but the pre- 

 femoral parts of the ilia, with the anterior third of the sacral crest, are very much more 



' These appendages are Tery abortive in the Cariama (Dicholophus), and are totally absent in the Screamer 

 {Chauna chavaria). In the Apteryx and Penguin they are very large, and fix the chest- bones almost as com- 

 pletely as the rib-sutures do in the Chelonia. 



