CHIONIS MINOR. 115 



Such distinctive characteristics, amounting almost to anomalies, cer- 

 tainly appear to us to be of a super-family value ; equivalent in taxo- 

 nomic importance to those upon which the groups which Professor 

 Huxley has characterized by the termination '•'■ -morphm''^ are founded. 

 Much of the discussion which (JMonis has occasioned has grown out of 

 the tacit assumption that it was merely a genus or family, which must 

 go somewhere in a pre-established system ; the fact being simply, that it 

 is a member of no recognized group, and must consequently alone con- 

 stitute one of super-family grade. 



Such a group, therefore, we propose to establish, upon the following 

 combination of characters: 



CHIONOMORPH^. 



Palate scMzognaihous ; no has ipteri/goid facets; divergence of the ptery- 

 goids greater than 90°; maxillo-palatines inflated or spongy, not laminar ; 

 angle of mandible not hoolced ; nasals schizorhinal ; marlied supraorbital 

 fossce. ^ 



Furculum without a spine / its apex nearer mamibrium sterni than the 

 point of the keel; a small bony pr, cess over its symphysis, facing manubrium. 

 Osseous system thoroughly Larine. 



A definitely circumscribed crop ; a strongly muscular gizzard^ the muscu- 

 lar masses being antero-posterior instead of lateral; very long ccecal append- 

 ages. Digestive system generally resembling that of the OalUnce. 



Contour feathers ivith well-developed after-shafts ; abundant gray down- 

 feathers; tibice nalced below; rectrices 12; inner remiges equaling the 

 longest primaries; outline of frontal feathers convex. 



Beak corvine, peculiarly sheathed. 



Feet not palmate ; digits, 4: ; hallux short and elevated. 



There being but a single family and genus recognized in this group, 

 it is difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish those characters which are 

 of family value from those which may prove to be only generic. Indeed, 

 it is rather upon the extraordinary combination here presented, of very 

 diverse characters, than upon the importance attaching to those of any 

 single "system" of the birds' anatomy that we base the suborder hereby 

 proposed. We regard the Chionomorphs as constituting exactly the 

 heretofore unrecognized link between the Charadriomorphs and Ceco- 

 morphs, nearer the latter than the former, and still nearer the common 

 ancestral stock of both. 



Mr. A. E. Wallace (Remarks on the value of osteological characters in 



