STUDIES OF THE MACROCHIRES. 
317 
any perceptible departures from sucli structures as we find them 
in Lanins (see Contrib. Anat. Birds, pi. xiv. figs. 93, 94, 95, and 
100 ). 
The blade of a scapula is sabre-shaped, long and narrow, and 
anteriorly abuts against the laterally compressed and expanded 
end of the furcula of the corresponding side. The shaft of a 
coracoid is long, slender, and subcylindrical in form. Its clavi- 
cular head is tuberous, being boohed forwards and inwards. 
Th e furcula typifies the U-shaped pattern of this bone, and I 
would especially call attention here to the form of its hypo- 
cleidium in Ampelis. This process is a long, suboval , laterally 
compressed lamina of bone, directed upwards and backwards 
towards the manubrium, wdien the girdle is articulated in situ. 
My figures, already referred to above, of Lanius and Otocoris 
show very well this form of the hypocleidium of the furcula. 
Now in Tyr annus verticalis , taken as representing the Clama- 
torial group of birds, this process of the furcula is nearly circular 
in outline, and decidedly smaller. Little points of this kind, 
wdien they are found to be constant, should be borne in mind 
here, for they will surely arise again, when we come to see how 
such characters are exhibited among the Macrochires. 
28. Of the Appendicular Skeleton . — Not only in the case of 
Ampelis , but with the Passerine birds generally, the composi- 
tion, forms, and structure of the skeleton of the limbs are so 
w r ell known, that I will not here attempt to add anything to this 
part of my subject. So far as the bones are concerned, I fail to 
find, even upon close scrutiny, any reliable set of characters 
that one could use with certainty in deciding in any case whether 
the skeleton of a leg or a wing belonged to an Oscinine or a 
Clamatorial bird. 
When we come to deal further on with the skeletal limbs of 
the Macrochires and others, ivhere such characters as are present 
in these parts in the Passeres can be, if ever, usefully compared, 
it wdll then be ample time to bring them forward for comparison, 
and decide whether these structures afford anything helpful in 
determining affinities. To recapitulate here the well-knowm points 
in the skeleton of the limbs in a Passerine bird would, I am 
sure, avail us nothing. 
Suffice it to observe that in its organization Ampelis is by the 
majority of its structural characters an Oscinine bird, though 
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