162 MR. W, K. PARKER ON STEATORNIS CARIPENSIS. [Apr. 2, 



Genera, and Species are the newest and the most specialized ; this is 

 seen best of all in the Passerine order, the " Coracomorphae." On the 

 other hand, we have birds that are impoverished up to the very 

 edge of extinction, such as the "Ratitse" — poor, stupid, savage 

 tribes, that are fast dying out from among the noble and accom- 

 plished modern birds. 



The "Order" to v/hich St eator7iis belongs is in great contrast 

 with the great Passerine group ; the Coccygomorphse are little more 

 than one fourth as numerous as the Coracomorphse, yet are ten 

 times as polymorphous. 



Among the more than half-myriad of the Singing-birds, using the 

 term in the broadest sense, a very small percentage of the types is 

 abnormal ; a verv few have four notches to their sternum ; two or 

 three genera have their plantar tendons bound across by a special 

 ligament — are Desmodactyle ; just a few have a tracheal, and a few 

 have a simple broncho-tracheal syrinx ; whilst two genera, Atrichia 

 and Menura, have a syrinx that just falls short of the typical per- 

 fection of that of the highest form — " the Oscines." 



But all these types are ^githognathous, and, what is most re- 

 markable is, that that peculiar anticipation of the Mammalian fore- 

 palate is only found in one small family outside the Coracomorphse, 

 namely, the Swifts (Cypselidse). 



So that we have one character which does not fail us throughout 

 the Passerine order ; the sternum, the syrinx, and the plantar ten- 

 dons are variable. One other character, which, however, is shared 

 by many other birds, is the great abortion, mostly the complete 

 suppression, of the basipterygoids ; these are useful and important 

 things for the taxonomist, but they fail him in the time of need. 



The time of need is when he would make a good clear distinction 

 between the Coracomorphse and the Coccygonjorphse : he is bound 

 to do this, or to cease to call himself a philosophical ornithologist ; 

 and yet can it be done ? 



Here, if anywhere, Professor Huxley's comprehensive terms come 

 to be of great value, but of most difficult application. The 

 difficulty was felt by himself, and he was thus led in his second 

 paper (P. Z. S. 1868, pp. 294-319) to break up and spoil his excellent 

 and most natural group of the " Alectoromorphse," and a little more 

 wavering of mind would have made him break up and destroy his 

 excellent group of the Cuculines- — the Coccygomorphse. These, 

 however, must be kept together at any cost ; to enrich that order I 

 feel willing to give up the importance of the distinctness of the 

 Swifts, the Humming-birds, and the Parrots. 



As for the Picidse and Yungidse, none but the most fretful and 

 impatient of the Classifying tribe would have quarrelled with the 

 present writer for demonstrating the peculiar structure of the palate 

 in these birds, or for inventing a morphological term for that 

 palate, namely " Saurognathous." 



As for the value of the condition of this part of the bird's structure, 

 I have just stated that it is the safest thing we have in the Coraco- 

 morphse ; but whilst that masterly and invaluable paper on the 



