51G ME. W. K. PARKER OX THE OSTEOLOGY OF THE KAGU. 



Ill curious contrast with the smooth and rounded condition of the Kagu's sternum is 

 the high, ridgy pelvis, the whole structure being scooped, carinate, and in every way 

 forming a fit foundation for most powerful muscles. The high iliac crests (PI. XCI. 

 fig. 1, il) culminate on each side of the third sacro-lumbar ^'ertebra, the spine of which 

 they strongly clamp, like the relation of the suprascapula of the Skate to the cervical 

 and anterior dorsal spines ('Shoulder-girdle and Sternum,' pi. 1. figs. 1 & 2, ssc,v). 

 This junction of the sacro-lumbar spine with the iliac crests keeps unankylosed 

 (PI. XCII. fig. 5. sl,il) as in Eurypyga ; at any rate it is so in this specimen, the age 

 of which I cannot teU, but which is evidently quite adult. In Psophia, as in Grus 

 and Ocydwmus, these parts coalesce. Here let it be remarked that the pehds of Psophia 

 is more like that of Ocydromus than that of the typical Crane. 



The angle formed by the iliac crest as it bends downwards towards the acetabulum 

 is quite a unique condition. There is as distinct a " preacetabular spur " in the 

 Psophia as in TaJegalla; there is scarcely a trace of this process in Grus proper, none 

 in the Kagu and Eurypyga, but in Ocydromus it is as large as in the typical Gallinse. 

 The canals formed by the junction of the iliac crests with the sacro-lumbar spine are 

 equally deep in the Kagu and Ocydromus; they are open in Euryp)yga, where the crests 

 keep wide apart, and are filled in by bony matter in Psophia and Grus. The acetabular 

 fenestrse are very large in all these related Grallse, the articular surface being a mere 

 crescent below ; above, there is an oval, slightly concave facet for the " trochanter major." 

 The overhanging crest of the postfemoral part of the ilium (PI. XCI. fig. 1, il, and 

 PI. XCII. fig. 5) is nearly as strong as in the Psophia. The descending ilio-ischiadic 

 plate (PI. XCI. fig. 1, il.isc) is relatively deeper than it is even in Psophia, but in this 

 latter bird this plate is less notched than it is in Ocydromus : the notch is more definite 

 in Grus ; but in the Kagu, as in Eurypyga, this notch is very deep, and the ilium and 

 ischium both end in long processes. The long " obturator notch " (o. 7i) and the ovoidal 

 ischiadic fenestra (is.f) are quite alike in these two species. The ischiadic fenestra is 

 broad behind alike in Ocydromits, Psophia, the Kagu, and in Eurypyga ; but in Grus the 

 posterior end of this space is narrow. The pubis ( pb), which is nearly straight in Ocy- 

 dromus, Scopus, and Psophia, is much more curved and sigmoid in Grus, and still more 

 so in Eurypyga ; but this curvature is greatest in the Kagu, it becomes almost suddenly 

 bent upwards below the angle of the ischium, and is then deflected inwards in some 

 considerable degree towards its fellow of the opposite side. In its rounded and very 

 feeble condition the pubis of the Kagu comes closest to that of Eurypyga \ for in Psophia 

 it is a stout and even a broad bone, much like that of the Rail ( Ocydromus). The pubis 

 of Grus, making allowance for its great size, is intermediate between that of the Kagu 

 and Psophia. 



With regard to the serial homologies of the pelvis it may be remarked that the 

 whole of the spinal edge of the ilium is the counterpart of the upper edge of the 

 suprascapula; this is best seen by comparing the ilium of the bu-d with the supra- 



