184 MR. W. K. PARKER ON THE OSTEOLOGY 



are anchylosed (d.), but they are strengthened by osseous tendons as in Vanellus. 

 The bodies of the cervicals are strong, but subcarinate as in Fowls and Plovers ; not 

 broad below, as in the Pigeons. The costal appendages are very large and overlapping, 

 that of the last dorsal small ; but there is none on the sacral rib, the haemapophysis of 

 which is floating. The hsemapophyses ( hm.) are all very slender. 



The sternum of Hemipodius (PI. XXXV. fig. 5) is a step nearer that of the Gallina- 

 ceous birds than that of the Tinamou. It might be thought to be related to that of 

 the Rallinfe ; but it is not. In them the internal hyposternal process is aborted ; in 

 Hemipodius the external spur, so pecuharly sharp, distinct, large, and diverging in Pigeons 

 and Fowls, is not developed (hys.), and the space mesiad of this long internal hypo- 

 sternal piece is as large as in the feeblest Gallinaceous sternum. In the Tinamou all 

 this is caricatured (PI. XLI. fig. 1). The keel of the sternum is relatively as large in 

 Hemipodius (e. s.) as it is in the typical " Gallinse " — its inferior outline being, as in 

 them, unusually straight, whereas in Pigeons and in Plovers it is very arcuate. The 

 anterior margin of the keel is, as is usual in the congeners of this bird, sharply carinate ; 

 it has also a projection just where the great pectoral muscle sets on in front of the 

 divisional line between the outer and middle muscle which passes from this process to 

 the base of the xiphoid end of the body of the sternum. Much more room exists here 

 for the depressors of the wings than in the more struthious Tinamou. 



I must dilate a little upon the characters of the episternum. In Plovers and their 

 allies there is a moderate-sized episternal process, broad and bifid above, carinate below, 

 and imperforate at its base. In " Gallinse " (proper), " CracinEe," " Megapodiinse," and 

 " Tetraoninse " (PI. XLI. figs. 9 & 10, ep.), this process is similarly shaped ; but it is much 

 larger, and is perforated at its base, so that the internal angles of the articular bases of 

 the coracoids touch, or may touch, each other through the episternum. In Hemipodius 

 these corners of the coracoids dint the episternum on each side, but do not pass through. 

 In Vanellus the coracoids nearly meet over the top of the episternum ; in Tinamus they 

 glide beneath it ; for in that bird only the broad upper portion of the process exists. 

 Again, in Pigeons the hole of the Gallinaceous episternum is a wide open cleft ; the 

 coracoids can touch each other (for the facets of synovial cartilage on the sternum are 

 only the fiftieth of an inch apart in the common Columba livia) between the two epi- 

 sternal processes. The upper process in Pigeons is like that of Tinamus, but shorter ; 

 and it is not so pared away beneath ; the lower process, not present in the Tinamou, 

 is small and carinate below. This lower process of the episternum in Pigeons is much 

 aborted in Pterocles and Syrrhaptes ; and in these latter birds the upper process is quite 

 absent. This abortive development of the episternum, which is a strong struthious 

 character, takes place more completely in the ralline Brachypteryx ; in that bird the 

 episternal region is cut away in a semicircular manner as in the Apteryx, but not to 

 the same degree. In the native Hen {Tribonyx mortieri) a small inferior process exists ; 

 in the Weka-Rail {Ocydromus australis) it is somewhat larger. The hyosternal 



