542 MR. F. BE. BEDDARD ON THE [Apr. 21, 
bronchial semirings are fairly ossified, but have rather wide mem- 
branous interspaces. we 
In Podicipes cristatus there is the same failure of the intrinsic 
syringeal muscles to reach even the end of the trachea. A box is 
formed by fusion at the end of the trachea, into which it appears 
to me the first bronchial semiring does not enter. The bronchial 
semirings are deeper and closer together, and the whole bronchus 
is more ossified, than in the last genus. The bronchi, too, are longer. 
In Podicipes coronatus the syrinx is much the same, but of course 
smaller. The first free semiring of the bronchus seems to be 
No. 2. There is a wider membranous interval between it and the 
antecedent tracheo-bronchial box than in the last species. 
Tachybaptes fluviatilis (fig. 2, p. 541) has a different syrinx. 
The last three tracheal rings are only fused in front, though they 
are closely united laterally. These rings are much ossified. The 
insertion of the intrinsic muscles is remarkable. They run obliquely 
forward, converging, to be inserted into the last three tracheal 
rings. The first bronchial semiring is arched, and ossified in front 
where it is fused with the tracheal box; otherwise it and the 
succeeding rings are cartilaginous. It is clear, therefore, that the 
syringeal characters justify the generic distinction here adopted. 
§ On the inter-relationships of Podicipedide, Laride, and Alade. 
By some, e.g. by Mr. Sclater, the Grebes and the Auks are 
referred to one order. By others, e.g. by Dr. Gadow, the 
Laridz are placed in the immediate neighbourhood of the Auks, 
both being separated from the Grebes and Loons. In preparing a 
general treatise upon the Anatomy of Birds, upon which I am now 
engaged, I have had to gointo this matter. I propose to give now 
such new facts as I have ascertained for myself, and extracted 
from the note-books of Mr. Garrod and Mr. Forbes, which bear 
upon this question. 
It appears to me to be quite necessary to separate more widely 
the Alcide from the Laride,than the Laride from the Charadriids 
(s. 1.). Dr. Gadow, in the classificatory part of his account of the 
Birds in Bronn’s ‘ Thier-Reich,’ does not define the Lari by one 
single character of importance that distinguishes them from all of 
the remaining Limicole. Nor are any such characters forthcoming 
from the elaborate tables of Prof. Firbringer. In attempting to 
justify the separation of some such group as the Longipennes, I 
have, on the contrary, found additional evidence for a closer union 
between the Gulls and the Ployers. I should regard the former, 
in fact, as merely forming a family of Dr. Gadow’s Limicole, 
equivalent, for instance, to Chionidide, (idicnemide, &e. And this 
family will have to be defined wholly by external characters. 
Timagined for some time that the remarkable condition of the 
biceps brachii in the Gulls would prove a fact of classificatory value. 
In Gulls the biceps is divided into two distinct muscles, corre- 
sponding to the humeral and coracoidal heads of the more normal 
