OF GALLINACEOUS BIRDS AND TINAMOUS. 199 



the Syrrhaptes. Both in Lagopus and Syrrhaptes the pelvis has greatly fallen off from 

 its typical strength, to say nothing of its ultratypical condition in the Talegalla and 

 the Peacock ; but, as compared with that of the Pigeons, the pelvis of the Syrrhaptes 

 and Grouse is in both cases truly Gallinaceous. 



That which at once strikes the eye in the pelvis of the Pigeon is its almost square 

 contour, the shortness, breadth, and horizontality of the anterior part of the iliac bones, 

 the great size and evenly tumid condition of the posterior part, the ultimately complete 

 obliteration of the ilio-sacral sutures, combined with a very perfect filling-up of all the in- 

 terspaces, and, lastly, the exquisite polish and delicately cellular condition of the whole 

 sheet of bone. There is much that is Pigeon-like in the pelvis of the Grouse and the 

 Syrrhaptes (PI. XXXVIII. il., isc, & PI. XLI. fig. 5) — more in the latter than in the 

 former ; but the anterior part of the ilium (il.) is longer and narrower, and the posterior 

 part relatively shorter, and its surface sinking more suddenly near the posterior margin. 

 Then, in both, the ilio-sacral suture is not so apt to be lost; and, especially in the 

 Syrrhaptes, the interspaces are badly filled up, particularly between the acetabula. The 

 preacetabular spur is obsolete in Columba ; it is present, but enfeebled, in Lagopus and 

 Syrrhaptes (PI. XLI. fig. 5, ac). The ischiadic /oramew is larger in these birds than in 

 the Pigeon ; and in both, especially Syrrhaptes, the pubis is a feebler bar of bone than 

 in the Pigeon. The Pigeon and the Grouse agree in having the ischium continued 

 backwards in a long triangular piece ; in Syrrhaptes it is obliquely and rather suddenly 

 truncated (PI. XXXVIII. isc). In both the Grouse and the Syrrhaptes the caudal ver- 

 tebrae are considerably weaker than in the Pigeon ; but they have much in common. 



The sudden sinking-in of the ilium near the end, and the deficient sacral roof, are both 

 manifestly Plover-characters ; and I have no doubt that if some one would follow the 

 osteologist and give us a perfect comparison of the muscular system in these groups, then 

 we should see that all these pits, and hills, and jutting crags of bone are full of meaning, 

 and answer precisely to the life of the bird. 



The sword-shaped scapula of birds, simple as it is in form, is yet subject to endless 

 modifications. In Fowls generally, e. g. Gallus, Crax, Talegalla, it is very roughly 

 ensiform, thick at the beginning, broad at the middle, and then tapering gradually to 

 an obliquely truncated point. In the Grouse (Lagopus) it is feebler and more truncated 

 at the end. In the Syrrhaptes (PI. XXXVIII. sc.) the truncation of the end is at its 

 greatest degree, and the upper margin of the bone is longer than the lower ; so that 

 the bone looks like the radix pramorsa [morsus diaboli) of botanists, where, according to 

 the fanciful notion of the old ecclesiastical herbalists, the great enemy has enviously 

 bitten off much of the precious root. This premorse scapula tapers gently towards the 

 end, as in Vanellus, but in that bird the " sword" is well shaped. In the Pigeon the 

 bone becomes very broad in its last third, but ends in a somewhat hooked point. The 

 scapula of Syrrhaptes is not typical, but mixed'; its most marked character also is 



' The scapula of Syrrhaptes is a very close counterpart of that of the Argus-like Archeopteryx (Professor 

 VOL. V. — PART III. 2 D 



