542. -DR. R. W. SHUFELDY’ ON THE COMPARATIVE OSTEOLOGY [ Apr. 27, 
here under examination possess a well-developed osseous patella. 
As we would naturally expect, it varies in size for the species, but 
very little with respect to form. In Arachnothera magna it is of 
a cordate outline, with the much rounded apex below, convex 
anteriorly, and decidedly concave on its upper and _ posterior 
aspects. Posteriorly, the concavity is double, the surface between 
being intended to accommodate itself to the femoral condyles. In 
Prosthemadera nove-hollandie the patella has a transverse 
diameter of half a centimetre, and is two millimetres deep at the 
centre. 
Tibio-tarsus supports the usual pro- and ectocnemial processes, 
and these have their common passerine form, varying but slightly 
for any of the species here being examined. In all cases they rise 
but slightly above the summit of the bone; they extend only a 
very short distance down the shaft, and both are always turned 
slightly fibulawards. Their antero-inferior angles may be sharp- 
pointed (Arachnothera, Cereba, and Diglossa) or they may be rounded 
off as in the Meliphagide. They are very conspicuous and far 
apart, and produced almost directly to the front in Climacteris 
scandens. Always feebly developed, the fibula is but rarely pro- 
duced beyond, or much beyond, the fibular ridge on the tibio-tarsus 
in articulation. It is a weak bone, of but slight importance in all 
small passerine forms. 
Tarso-metatarsus presents nothing of marked departure from 
the ordinary form of the bone among all small passerine birds. 
Its hypotarsus is always reduced to a small subeubical apophysis 
vertically pierced for the passage of tendons. The shaft is 
always more or less flat anteriorly, and longitudinally grooved 
behind. The three distal trochlear processes are found in nearly 
the same transverse plane, with a large, free accessory meta- 
tarsal directed backward. 
As to the skeleton of the pes it is purely passerine in its mor- 
phology, with the joints of the toes on the usual plan. All of 
these species have the ungual joints large and much curved, 
especially is this the case with respect to the ungual phalanx 
of the hallua: in the larger species of the Meliphagide. 
Ossification in these birds, and probably in others, may 
normally extend to some of the tendons of the muscles at the 
back of the tarso-metatarsus between the hypotarsus and the 
accessory metatarsal of the hallux, which is markedly the case in 
Entomyza. 
CoNCLUSIONS. 
It is clear from what has been brought out in this paper that 
none of the species of birds here osteologically passed in review, 
employing Arachnothera magna as the type, has any especial 
affinity with the Trochili, Even the morphology of the tongue in 
quite a number of the forms has no significance when taken in 
