604 MR, F. B, BEDDARD ON SOME POTNTS {May 19, 
ditions obtaining in Dacelo*. Prof. Garrod never carried out the 
intention expressed in the above quotation. I propose in the 
present paper to supply this deficiency and to bring before the 
Society other facts in the anatomy of the group. 
Pterylosis. 
The Kingfishers have for the most part a tufted oil-gland. But 
I find that in Cittwra cyanotis and C. sanghirensis the oil-gland is 
distinctly nude, and I have a note by Mr. Forbes to the effect that 
that is also the case with three species of Tanysiptera. In the 
latter genus, moreover, there are only ten rectrices; in other 
Kingfishers (including Cittwra) twelve. 
According to Dr. Gadow’s table *, the Alcedinide and Cypselide 
are the only families of Picarian birds in which the 5th cubital 
remex may be either absent or present. 
Dacelo, Ceryle, and Sauropatis are aquintocubital ; Cittura, Alcedo, 
and Halcyon are quintocubital. 
The feather-tracts of a few species have been examined by 
Nitzsch. I have studied those of a few others. In the majority of 
Kingfishers the ventral tract branches in the pectoral region on 
each side into a stronger outer and a weaker inner branch, the 
latter being continuous as far as the cloaca. Nitzsch remarks of 
“A. collaris” (=Sauropatis chloris) that it is ‘ strikingly distin- 
guished by having the outer branch of the inferior tract very near 
the main stem.” I find that a broad pectoral tract, barely, if at 
all, distinguishable into two branches, characterizes the following 
species of Sauropatis, viz.: S. sordidus, S. vagans, and S. chloris ; 
it is very possibly a mark of the genus. 
In this genus, as in Dacelo (figured by Nitzsch), in Haleyon and 
in Cittura there is a very long gap sparsely feathered which lies 
between the anterior and posterior closely feathered parts of the 
spinal tract. In Alcedo ispida, on the other hand, the trunk part 
of the spinal tract is closely feathered throughout. I find in 
Ceryle americana an intermediate condition, the dorsal gap being 
but slightly marked. 
It will be observed that these various divergences in the 
arrangement of the pteryle correspond in every case to a missing 
5th remex. 
Tendons of the Wing. 
The tendons of the tensor patagii brevis show three modifica- 
tions among the Kingfishers, which are shown in the accompanying 
drawings (figs. 1-3) by the late Mr. W. A. Forbes. 
In Alcedo ispida, Fiirbringer (Unters. z. Morph. u. Syst. Vogel, 
Taf. xxiii. fig. 17), we have the simplest conditions. The tendon in 
question is perfectly simple, without branch or complication of any 
kind. Alcyone lessoni is precisely the same. 
1 Thid. p. 516. 
2 « Aves” in Bronn’s ‘ Thier-Reich,’ Syst. Theil, p. 82. 
