596 MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON THE [Dec. 3, 



Sternum and Shoulder- Girdle. 



Tie sternum among Limicoline birds shows some variability as 

 to the number of notches present. We find sterna of closely 

 allied forms which have respectively two and four notches. It is 

 not therefore of great importance to note that in Bhynchcea, as in 

 GaUinago ccelestis and ScoJopax, the sternum is but two- notched. 

 It seems to be rather narrower than is often the case ; but in spite 

 of this the two coracoids do not overlap, or even come into contact 

 at their articulation with its anterior border. The spina externa 

 is small and, as in other limicolous birds, the spina interna is not 

 present. Of some systematic importance is the fact that the 

 clavicles articulate with the acrocoracoid and the acromion only, 

 and not with the procoracoid. The typical Limicoline birds possess 

 all three articulations ; it is only some of the aberrant groups, such 

 as the Thinocoridae and the Parridae, which agree with Ehynchcea in 

 this fact of structure. 



But neither in the sternum, pelvis, or appendicular skeleton 

 are there such wide differences from Scolopax and GaUinago as are 

 shown in the skull. 



5. On some Anatomical Differences between the Common 

 Snipe (GaUinago ccelestis) and the Jack Snipe (Galli- 

 nayo gallinula). By Frank E. Beddard, M.A., F.R.S., 

 Vice- Secretary and Prosector to the Society. 



[Received December 3, 1901.] 

 (Text-figures 64-69.) 



As is well known, the Jack Snipe differs from the Common 

 Snipe of this country in the fact that it lias only twelve rect rices 

 and a double-notched sternum ; whereas G. ccelestis has fourteen 

 rectrices and a sternum with only a single pair of notches. The 

 sterna have been figured by Seebohm l , and the facts have been 

 noted by many previous observers, such as Macgillivray, Tarrell, 

 Newton, and others. 



Prof. Garrod, who dissected examples of both species, found such 

 characters as he examined to be identical, excepting of course the 

 two features already mentioned. 



With regard to the, sternum, I may observe that one side (the 

 left) of that bone in a skeleton of G. ccelestis that 1 examined had a 

 small oval foramen, in addition, of course, to the lateral notch. It 

 is, however, to the skull and the windpipe that I wish to direct 

 attention in the present communication. Both of these portions 

 of the body offer easily recognizable differences in the two birds 

 under consideration. 



In the skull the much greater length of the beak-region in the 



! 'The Geographical Distribution of the Family Cbaradriidae' (London, 1887), 

 pp. 481 & 485. 



