1905.] ox THE AXATOMY OF LIMICOLINE BIRDS. 155 



5. On the Anatomy of Limicoline Birds ; with special 

 Reference to the Correlation of Modifications, By 

 P. Chalmers Mitchell, M.A., D.Sc. (Oxon.), 

 Secretary to the Society. 



[Received May 16, 1905.] 



(Text-figures 23-28.) 



In this memoir I use the term Limicolte in the sense of 

 Gadow (3) as a major subdivision of the Order Charadriiformes. 

 I have dissected examples of the following forms, and where, in 

 this paper, I refer to family-characters, I must be understood as 

 limiting my remarks to the birds I have myself dissected, unless I 

 definitely state otherwise : — 



Suborder Limicol.e. 

 Family Charadriidse Charcidrius pluvicdis. 



Himantopus nigricollis. 



Vanellus vulgaris. 



Gallinago ccelestis. 



Rhynchcea caj^ensis. 



Scolopax rusticola. 



Chionidfe Chionis alba. 



Glareolidfe Glareola pratincola. 



Thinocoridas Thinocorus species ? 



(Edicnemida3 CEdicnemus scolopax. 



Parridfe Hydropliasian us chirurgus. 



The greater part of the actual dissection was completed in 

 1902, in continuation of my work on Gruiform Birds (7) ; pressure 

 of other duties has made it impossible to finish it sooner. I am 

 indebted to the facilities afforded by this Society in the prosectorium 

 at the Gardens for the material, and to my friend Mr. F. E. 

 Beddard, F.R.S., the Society's Prosector, for much kindly interest, 



DiASTATAXY I^f THE LiMICOL.E. 



In the arrangement of the feathers on the wing, all Limicoline 

 birds are closely similar. They are diastataxic in the most typical 

 form. The condition in Chionis alba (text-fig. 23, p. 156) may 

 serve as an example. Along the edge of the ulna, from the wrist 

 towards the elbow, the great quills with their associated coverts 

 are arranged in an orderly series, but after four of these rows, each 

 headed by a quill, there is a row from Avhich the quill is missing, 

 forming the diastataxic gap (text-fig. 23, x, p. 156). The carpal 

 remex and covert are present (C.E.., CO.), the covert, in most cases 

 (although not in Chionis), being conspicuovisly larger than the 

 remex. These two feathers lie closer to the most proximal primary- 



