110 NATURAL HISTORY OF KERGUELEN ISLAND. 



ferentiated at the time of his description) which we regard as clearly 

 the type species of the family. Secondly, the description of the living 

 bird to which he had access related only to individuals observed under 

 the unnatural conditions of confinement on shipboard, which may ac- 

 count for the discrepancies between his and our descriptions of its hab- 

 its, and tends to invalidate the conclusions which he draws therefrom. 

 While he has stated fairly and accurately many of the resemblances to 

 Hcumatopus, or in other words to Grallatores, he seems to us to have 

 failed to give due weight to the many important points of dffierence 

 from that family, some of which we have already discussed, and othera 

 of which will appear in a stronger light as we proceed to examine the 

 internal structure. 



MUSCULAR AND DIGESTIVE SYSTEMS. 



The muscular system affords less important and decisive indications 

 than either the digestive or osseous. According to our dissections, the 

 general disposition of the pectoral muscles which act upon the hume- 

 rus is, as would have been anticipated from the mode of flight, rather 

 gallinaceous than grallatorial. This statement is borne out by the rela- 

 tive development of the several pectorals, the bulk and extensive ori- 

 gin of a " coraco-hracMalis " (see page 94), and a specialization of a sort of 

 platysma myoides with reference to its action upon a large crop. A 

 tolerably minute description of the more important muscles has been 

 given on a preceding page as material for further comparisons than we 

 are at present prepared to undertake. 



In the digestive system we meet at the outset with several gtillinaceous 

 characters. The breadth of the mouth, especially near the base of the 

 bill, shape of the tongue, and general disposition of the several palatal 

 and lingual appendices, are rather those of a gallinaceous than of a 

 grallatorial bird. In the shore-birds, among which Scematopus falls, 

 narrowness of the bill and constriction of the whole buccal cavity is a 

 very distinctive feature. The slender cesophagus of Chionis, much nar- 

 rower than is usual in shell-eating birds, presents the extremely rasorial 

 feature of a large and circumscribed crop. The proventriculus is not a 

 marked dilatation of the oesophagus. Its solvent glands differ widely 

 from those of the GalUnce in their simple structure, approaching, in this 

 respect, to those of various water birds, such as the swan and gannet. 

 But the low taxonomic value of this feature is illustrated by the marked 

 differences exhibited by those of so nearly related birds as the swan 

 and goose, for example. Ko greater value attaches to the disposition 



