FROM THE ZEBBUG CAVE, MALTA. 123 



longer in proportion than in the recent kinds, we shall see that the great extinct Swan 

 was rather generalized in character, being somewhat of a Goose, possessing, as he did, 

 longer legs and shorter toes than the typical Swans. 



It would appear, however, that, like the gigantic Adjutant among the Storks, this bird 

 had its wings of the full relative size : the immense ulna shows this (see PI. XXX. figs. 1, 

 4&5). 



As the feet were shorter, it is probable that the extinct bird was not so expert at 

 rowing as the smaller but more elegant kinds ; on land he may have shown better ; and 

 perhaps he was altogether more terrestrial. 



It is worthy of remark, that the most generalized type of all the " Lamellirostres," 

 viz. the Palamedea — that in which the lamellae of the beak are arrested in their gi-owth, 

 and which has no webs to connect the toes — has the digits longer even than the Swans. 

 This bird, however, is not unrelated to the Grallatorial " Macrodactyli." 



Cygnus musicus (i). 



The most important bone of those belonging to the smaller Swan, which, as the fore- 

 going list shows, are very numerous, is the front part of the sternum. This fine frag- 

 ment is well shown in PL XXX. figs. 1, 2, 3 ; and, besides exhibiting the separated 

 coracoid grooves, anterior part of keel, costal process, condyles for sternal ribs, ridge for 

 middle pectoral, &c., is especially interesting because of the well-displayed anterior part 

 of the cavity for the wind-pipe. Fig. 3 shows the smooth, rounded canity; fig. 2 part of 

 its left wall ; and fig. 1 the eminence caused by it on the midline of the sternum : the 

 two rows of wind-passages are also well seen. 



This, then, is the sternum of one of the Wild Swans, perhaps the greater species 

 (C. musicus), perhaps C. bewickii, or, it may be, some species nearly allied to these. At any 

 rate it is interestmg to find that C. musicus is still to be found in lands bordering the 

 Mediterranean, the Eev. H. B. Tristram having, in his last travels, received it from 

 Solomon's Pool, near Jerusalem (see Proc. Zool. Soc, 1864, p. 453). 



The similarity of the bones in the species of Swans is so great that I feel it to be 

 unnecessary to describe the rest of the bones of the smaller kind ; they are nearly all 

 fragmentary, like those of C.falconeri, and the fragments are in the same good condition. 

 The birds which owned these bones varied in size from that of a small female tame 

 Swan to that of a medium-sized Black Swan ; yet the difference is scarcely more than 

 varietal and sexual. There may have been more than two species buried in the Zebbug 

 Cave ; but we lack positive evidence. 



The smallest " lamellirostral " bones are intermediate in size between those of the 

 Wild Goose [Anser cinereus) and those of the Mallard {Anas hoschas) ; so that they may 

 have belonged to a small female Bernicle, such as the black-faced kind [Sernicla 

 brent a). 



But, few as these are, they probably belonged to two kinds ; for the femur and tibia 



