1901.] AXAXOMY OF aKDIb'ORM BJKJJS. 635 



a list of eutaxie forms ; and Seebohm (12) not only places it among 

 eutaxic forms but adds a footnote stating that " having very care- 

 fully examined the \Aangs he found no trace of surplus wing-coverts 

 to indicate the loss of a fifth secondary/' Along with Mr. Pycraft 

 I examined carefully a well-preserved spirit-specimen in the 

 British Museum. The wing was normally diastataxic. The 

 feathering was of the normal type, except that while the carpal 

 covert was large and bound down to the first large secondary quill 

 by a plica, the carpal remex was vestigial, an exception to its usual 

 condition among the diastataxic Gruiformes. I therefore do not 

 hesitate to say that Seebohm was mistaken, and that the 

 Eurypygidse are diastataxic, as stated by Beddard and Gadow and 

 as shown by the specimens 1 examined. It is of course conceivable 

 that individual variations occur ; the Columbidoe and Alcediuidge 

 show closely allied species with both conditions. However, the 

 circumstance that Seebohm was mistaken about the condition in 

 the next group, makes it more probable that he was mistaken here 

 than that Enrypyga presents individual variations. 



Heliornithidcn. — These are eutaxic. It is impossible to mistake 

 the American Tin-foot, as its smaller size and feet with transverse 

 zebra-like black bars distinguish it plainljr from the African forms. 

 1 have examined a number of specimens, well preserved in spirit, 

 both at the British Museum and in Mr. Beddard's collection. 

 The primaries with their distally placed major coverts are as in 

 other Gruiformes ; the carpal covert crosses in normal fasliion a 

 carpal remex, and the latter, as in other eutaxic Gruiform birds 

 except Ehiiiochetus, is vestigial. The secondary quills, crossed by 

 their major coverts, lie in even series with no trace of a diastema. 

 None the less Seebohm (12) wrote as follows : — " Beliornis has 

 always been regarded as the Is^evv World representative of the Old 

 World genus Podica. The theory that the resemblance is only 

 accidental, and that Podica is the Old World representative of the 

 New World Psophite, is supported by several facts. In spite of 

 statements to the contrary, there can be little doubt that Podica is 

 quincubital (eutaxie) and belongs to the Galliformes, whilst Heli- 

 ornis is aquincubital (diastataxic) and belongs to the Ealliformes. 

 Three specimens (two of them in spirit) of Podica senegalensis, and 

 one of Heliornis fidica, have been most carefully examined for me 

 by experts at the British Museum." Podica senegalensis is certainly 

 eutaxic, as Seebohm states, but the same condition exists in Heli- 

 ornis. I can only suggest that in the one specimen examined, the 

 " experts/' fearing to disturb the feathers too much, looked only 

 in the space proximad of the fourth quill, and, seeing there one of 

 the third-series feathers, mistook it for the major covert of a 

 diastataxic form. Especially in the case of a small wing with 

 closely-set feathers, it is necessary to examine the whole series to 

 be certain as to the condition, as the forwardly displaced " third- 

 series" feathers, if only a single interspace be examined, look 

 remarkably like diastataxic additional coverts. 



The Gruiform assemWage, then, like the Columbidae and the 



