542 ITR. F. B. BEDDAItD ON THE [Apr. 21, 



bronchial semirings are fairly ossified, but have rather wide mem- 

 branous interspaces. 



In Podicijies cnstatus 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. 



Tucliyhaptes Jluviaiilis (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 Podicipedidce, Laridce, and Alcidce. 



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 

 LaridsB 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 go into 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. Porbes, which bear 

 upon this question. 



It appears to me to be quite necessary to separ.ate more widely 

 the Alcidae from the LaridaB,than the Laridie from the CharadriidsE 

 (s. 1.). Dr. Gadow, in the classificatory part of his account of the 

 Birds in Bronn's ' Thier-Eeich,' does not define the Lari by one 

 single character of importance that distinguishes them from all of 

 the remaining Limicolse. Nor are any such characters forthcoming 

 from the elaborate tables of Prof. Piirbringer. 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 Plovers. I should regard the former, 

 in fact, as merely forming a family of Dr. Gadow's Limicolae, 

 equivalent, for instance, to Chionidida3, (Edicnemidie, &c. And this 

 family will have to be defined wholly by external characters. 



I imagined 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 coracoidnl heads of the more normal 



