1909. | OF THE PASSERINE BIRD ARACHNODIMERA MAGNA, HAI 
Arachnothera magna, fewer distinctive characters than do the 
humeri for the species examined. All are essentially passerine 
and more or less typically so. Radius and ulna of the fore- 
arm are invariably straight, and present the characters common 
to the group. On the shaft of the ulna the papille for the quill- 
butts of the secondary feathers of the wing may be very well 
pronounced (Hntomyza) or entirely absent (Arachnothera, Pro- 
sthemadera, and most others). 
The middle metacarpal is always produced beyond the main 
bone of the metacarpus—the index metacarpal,—and I have never 
met with any claws on any of the terminal phalanges. There is 
always present a triangular, flattened process at the proximal end, 
ulnar side, outer aspect of the index metacarpal which is directed 
backward and rests flat against the proximal end of mid- 
metacarpal. 
Radiale and ulnari of the wrist are invariably well-developed 
and present the usual passerine characters. 
THe Petvic Lims.—Upon comparing the bones entering into 
this extremity in Arachnothera magna with the corresponding 
ones as we find them in the legs of the cerebidine, certhidine, and 
meliphagidine species at hand, it is to be observed that the 
characters upon the whole are more uniform than they are for 
the bones of the pectoral limb. Osteologically, the limb is of a 
strictly passerine type throughout, and when compared, bone for 
bone, with the limb in any of the non-passerine suborders, presents 
more or fewer differences. As a rule, in the former the long 
bones of the thigh, leg, and metatarsus are quite straight, and in 
the case of the femur and tibio-tarsus have cylindrical shafts. 
Entomyza cyanotis offers an exception in the case of the latter 
bone, for instead of its shaft being entirely straight it is seen to 
curve away from the fibula above the fibular ridge and approach 
it again proximally to articulate with the latter and the 
femoral condyles. This condition is not usually seen or is much 
less marked among other meliphagidine species. As in the case 
of the bones of the antibrachium and manus, all the bones of 
the pelvic limb are non-pneumatic, and the nutrient foramina 
that enter them are very minute. 
In the femur the semi-globular head is sessile, and the pit for 
the ligamentum teres generally very feebly marked. Distally, the 
summit of the bone includes a part of the head, the great trochanter, 
and the valley between the two, thus forming one surface, which 
is articular, and lies in a plane to which the longitudinal axis of 
the shaft of the bone is perpendicular. Distally, the condylar end 
of the femur is well-developed and presents the usual passerine 
characters. The depth of the rotular channel varies in different 
species and families, being rather deep in Arachnothera and 
generally shallower in the Meliphagidee. 
As in the majority, if not in all, oscine passeres, the species 
