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DR. R. W. SHUFELDr’s MORPHOLOGICAL 
he could procure, and it gave me great pleasure to forward it to 
him along with a few others that I had collected, in response to 
his request for such material. 
The characters of that skeleton have escaped me, hut the 
reader can easily compare such forms as he may have at hand 
with what follows. 
My former memoir (P. Z. S. 1885) contains an extensive 
account of the osteology of Cliordeiles aud Phcdcenopiilus ; so in 
the present connection I may point out what has been already 
ascertained in regard to a comparison of these Caprimulgine 
forms and Geococcyx with the Trogons. Thanks to my friend 
Mr. Sage I have before me a fine alcoholic specimen of our 
American Whip-poor-will ; but I do not intend to dissect that 
until we enter upon the next section of this memoir, wherein 
it will constitute my type for the general anatomy of a Capri- 
mulgine bird. 
A comparison of the skulls of Trogon , Chorcleiles , and Geo 
coccyx need not detain us long, for they have but very few 
characters in common. With respect to the skulls of Trogon 
and Geococcyx they may be dismissed by stating that they differ 
from each other in every essential particular, beyond the fact 
that they are both skulls of birds. 
This difference is quite as great when we come to compare the 
skulls of Cliordeiles and Geococcyx , for here, too, it would be 
very difficult, if not quite impossible, to pick out a single feature 
in the one that would in any way be comparable to the corre- 
sponding one in the other. 
Except for the fact, as stated, that they are both skulls of birds, 
they are totally unlike. 
Not nearly so much so is this the case with Trogon and 
Cliordeiles ; for, different as the skulls of these two forms really 
are, I think I can see a certain resemblance between them, 
slight as it is. 
Still even here, at the best, it is little more than a superficial 
likeness ; they have, however, in common the basipterygoidal 
processes, if nothing beyond that. Their mandibles, as we know, 
are entirely dissimilar. Notwithstanding this, it would be far 
easier for us to conceive that a Trogon’s skull was a very much 
modified Caprimulgine one than it would be to picture any 
relation between it and the skull of Geococcyx. 
With these facts before us we are not surprised to find, what 
