254 MU. W. K. PARKER ON THE OSTEOLOGY [NoV. 25, 



nevertheless creatures of great interest, and of no little beauty, 

 whether we consider their form or their mode of colouring. 



" In this outer circle we place the Guans {Penelope), the Curas- 

 sows {Crax), the genera Ortalida, Opisthocomus, and others. 



"The mode in which the Cvacidee differ from their terrestrial 

 typical congeners is highly interesting ; but as the present paper is 

 only intended to be an introductory outline, I shall not ' bestoAV all 

 my tediousness ' upon the Society by going into details now : suffice 

 it to say that they appear to me to connect the Gallinace<s quite as 

 much with the Plantain-eaters {MusophagidcB) as with the Pigeons. 



"The habit, which has given the family-name Rasores to the 

 Fowl tribe, curiously enough, does not attain its highest degree in 

 the typical species, but is developed in certain subtypical genera 

 which are found ranging from the Philippines through the islands of 

 the Indian Archipelago to Australia : these birds are the Megapodes*. 



" In the ' Mound-maker ' we have a bird which, whilst marvel- 

 lously like the Common Hen in gentleness of expression and neatness 

 of contour, has also a most striking isomorphic resemblance to certain 

 members of a very distantly related family, viz. the Gallinules. 



" My acquaintance with the structure of Talegalla was made six- 

 teen or seventeen years ago ; for at that time I met with and made 

 drawings of a precious skeleton of this bird in one of the drawers of 

 the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons ; it has not, however, 

 been noticed in the Catalogue, 



" Being therefore well and safely possessed of the fact that the 

 Brush Turkey (^Talegalla) does not, in any essential point of struc- 

 ture, differ from the Common and Ocellated Turkeys (Meleagris 

 gallo-pavo and M. ocellata), I was indeed surprised to find that, as 

 late as last spring. Professor Owen had classed them with Cuvier's 

 Macrodactyli. 



" In the report in the ' Medical Times and Gazette ' of the fourth 

 of Professor Owen's Jermyn Street Lectures for this year, delivered 

 on the 23rd of May, I find the classification which he has adopted, 

 and in which the mound-making birds are placed between the Rail 

 and the Screamer. 



" As there are in the same system of classification several other 

 instances of what appear to me, to say the least, very odd and con- 

 fusing misplacements, I shall crave the liberty to point them out, 

 and to make my own remarks upon them, especially as the position 

 in nature of these birds is exactly what I have set myself to try and 

 find out. It is in Professor Owen's Second, Third, and Fourth 

 Orders, viz. the ' Grallatores,' ' Cursores,' and ' Rasores,' that I find 

 most to surprise and confuse me. 



" The family Macrodactyli, of the Second Order, ' Grallatores,' 

 according to this eminent author contains the ' Coot, Crane, Rail, 

 Megapode, Screamer,' and ' Jacana.' 



" The next family, or the ' Cultrirostres,' contains, we are told, 

 the ' Boat-bill, Adjutant, Heron, Ibis, Stork, Tantalus,' and ' Spoon- 

 bill.' 



* Gould (see Penny Cyclop., art. " Talegalla"). 



