258 MR. W. K. PARKER ON THE OSTEOLOGY [NoV. 25, 



fessor Owen, 'Osteol. Catal.' p. 274, points out) is only part of their 

 general relationship to the Pluvialine type. 



" It is in those parts of the skull and face which are first mapped 

 out in thickened blastema, and then differentiated into clear cartilage, 

 at some considerable period of the early embryonic life anterior to 

 the deposit of bone, that we find the most instructive modifications 

 of structure. 



" I allude especially to the basis cranii and to the upper part of 

 the first facial arch, that is, to the occipital and sphenoidal regions, 

 and to the pterygoids, palatine bones, and vomer. Not only do these 

 bones (with the exception of the vomer, which is absent as in the 

 Pigeons) show a marked ' struthious ' inferiority in the Syrrhaptes 

 (the culmination of the Pterocline type of structure), but the ster- 

 num, which literally unites that of the Ptarmigan with its counter- 

 part in the Pigeon, is inferior in one important point, not only to 

 this, but also to that of the whole Pluviahne group. 



" The heel, which is a mere rudiment in Pterocles proper, is ab- 

 sent in the Syrrhaptes ; and the whole pelvic extremity is almost the 

 counterpart of that of the Swifts {Cypselus) in deficient growth. I 

 believe that it would take a very clever anatomist to detect any differ- 

 ence between the wing-bones of the ' Fteroclinc^ and those of a 

 typical Pigeon. 



" The elongated feathers of the tail and wings of Syrrhaptes give 

 it one of its peculiarities of character : the two middle tail-feathers 

 have already become elongated in Pterocles setarius (the Pin-tailed 

 Sand-Grouse of Temminck), its nearest ally. 



" I cannot conclude this rough outline of what I wish to say about 

 the Sand-Grouse, without referring to what Dr. Andrew Smith tells 

 us of Pterocles gutturalis, Sm., in his 'Illustrations of the Zoology 

 of South Africa,' 



" First, what must be considered a ' Pluvialine ' character, the eggs 

 are of a ' dirty< white or cream-colour, marked with irregular streaks 

 and blotches of a pale-rusty and pale-grey or ash-colour ; ' and the 

 second point is the careless habit of laying them upon the bare 

 ground*. This habit, so untypical ornithically, so unlike the almost 

 human family tenderness of their relatives, the Pigeons, is, however, 

 much like the conduct of the unthinking ' giants ' that come next 

 below them in the zoological scale. 



" So that not only the Ostrich, but also the Sand-Grouse 'leaveth 

 her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in the dust, and forgetteth 

 that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break 

 them.' 



" If birds were intelligent in the human sense of the word, their 

 relationship to the reptiles would be as humiliating as our affinity to 

 the SimicB ; but the fact is certain that these low types not merely 

 have in themselves obscure anatomical resemblances, but their instincts 

 and habits are plain, out-spoken evidences of their nearness in nature 

 to ' the creeping things after their kind.' 



*' I now leave Syrrhaptes (which, at first sight, seems to run in 

 * Penny Cyclop., art. Tetraonidce. 



