Osteology of Aramus scolopaceus. 35 
I have already referred to Prof. Furl^ringer^ in whose general 
work upon Birds are a number of osteological details. I have 
myself* subsequently referred to a few osteological facts 
in considering the affinities of Psophia to other Crane- 
like birds_, and the genus is not passed over in the general 
works of Dr. Gadowf and myself J. An account of the 
alimentary tract has been communicated by Dr. P. Chalmers 
Mitchell to the Lirmean Society of London, and will pro- 
bably be published before the present observations appear 
in print. 
The skeleton, with which alone I am concerned in the 
present communication, has been described and figured to 
some extent by Eyton in the ^Osteologia Avium ^H, by 
Garrod in his memoir quoted below, and by Fiirbringer and 
myself. While these authors have made known the general 
facts which bear upon the systematic position of the bird, a 
number of details have not been discussed, some of which 
have a bearing upon the relationship of Aramus to the 
Cranes. 
§ Skull. 
I shall not give any elaborate description of the skull, 
which has been depicted from two points of view by Garrod, 
and also in the general figure of the entire skeleton by Eyton. 
In being schizognathous and schizorhinal, in having large 
free lacrymals not united to the prefrontal processes of the 
ethmoid, in having but slight furrows for the nasal glands, 
and, finally, in the possession of occipital foramina, the 
genus Aramus agrees with the Gruidse alone among its 
possible allies ; both the Rallidse and the Limicolse differ 
in one or more of the above-stated characters, which are only 
combined in the Gruidse. It seems to be unnecessary to 
take any other group of birds into consideration. Besides 
these general points of resemblance to Grus and the Gruidse 
in general, the skull of Aramus shows a few minutiae of 
* " On the Structure of PsopJiia;' &c., P Z. S. 1890, p. 329. 
t "Ares" in Bronn's 'Klassen und Ordnungen des Thierreichs.' 
t 'The Structure and Classification of Birds' (London, 1898). 
W Plate xiv. K and pi. xxvii. fig. 2. 
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