1901.] AS A TO MY OF ltHYNCH/EA. 595 



Among the characteristic features of Limicoline birds, which 

 distinguish them from their nearest allies, is the ring of bone formed 

 at the anterior end of the orbit by the junction of the descending 

 process of the lachrymal with the rather massive ectethmoid 

 (" pars plana "). The relative proportions of these two bones and 

 their mode of junction offer distinctive points of difference between 

 different genera. 



In Rhynchcea the descending process of the lachrymal is rather 

 massive, and is attached to the also rather massive ectethmoid on 

 the front side of that bone and some little way beyond the actual 

 outer termination of that bone. The arrangement and proportions 

 of these two bones are more like those which obtain in Hydro- 

 phasianus than in any other genus with which I have compared 

 Rhynchcea. 



Rhynchcea is particularly unlike Scolopax and Gallinago in this 

 region of the skull : for in those two genera the much more com- 

 pletely fused lachrymal and ectethmoids form a massive plate of 

 bone which extends downwards to join the posterior wall of the 

 orbit at the squamosal. 



This wall of bone bounding the orbit below is thicker in 

 Scolopax than in Gallinago. This junction of the ectethmoids 

 with the posterior wall of the orbit may perhaps be correlated with 

 the fact that in the Snipe and Woodcock the organ of hearing, as 

 is well known, and duly referred to by Dr. Blanford in character- 

 izing the groups and subfamilies of the Limicolae 1 , has come to lie 

 directly beneath the orbit. This is a further difference between 

 the true Snipes and the wrongly called Painted " Snipe " ; for in 

 Rhynchcea the auditory cavity is quite normal in its position. A 

 shortening of the quadrato-jugal arch also follows this shifting of 

 the auditory organ ; in Rhynchcea this bone is much longer than in 

 its erroneously supposed allies Scolopax and Gallinago. I may 

 finally remark that the interorbital septum is much more fenes- 

 trate in Rhynchcea than in Gallinago or Scolopax ; in the latter 

 genus, indeed, it is almost complete. 



Vertebral Column and Ribs. 



The cervical vertebra of Rhynehaa are exceptionally lew for a 

 Limicoline bird. There are only fourteen, instead of the usual 

 fifteen. But in this feature RhyncTuea agrees with Scolopax and 



Gallinago. Of these, the last two bear movable incomplete ribs, 

 that borne by the last of the series being, as is usual, much larger 

 than that which precedes. Then follow six free dorsal vertebrae, 

 all of which are provided with complete ribs reaching the sternum. 

 Of these the first five pairs are provided with uncinate processes. 

 The first of the lumbar vertebra- possesses an incomplete pair of ribs. 

 which, as well ai 1b<- pair in front, an- overlapped by the ilia 



There are seven free caudal vertebra in addition to the pygoetyle. 



Patina ol British India: Birds, vol. i\. p. 383. 



