PIOI 



193 



spicuous lateral neck spaces ; behind the scapulae it forks, 

 and the posterior part of the spinal tract is not in continuity 

 with the interior. The former is at first a single tract, but 

 it divides some way in front of the oil gland, which it 

 surrounds, as in the Picidse and Ehamphastidae ; but in the 



Fig. 91. — Feather Tkacts or Megalisma asiatica. The Eiohi-hani) 



FiGDBE SHOWS the VeNTEAL SuBFACE, THE LeFT THE DOBSAL. 



former family there is also a median continuation of the 

 spinal tract, which stops at the base of the oil gland. On 

 each side of the spinal tract is a very narrow lateral tract, 

 which is figured by Nitzsch as existing also in the Eham- 

 phastidae and the Picidae. . Xantholcema rosea shows differ- 

 ences from Megalama ; the spinal tract divides in the usual 

 way, but the tracts rejoin, so as to enclose a diamond-shaped 

 space ; they then again diverge immediately, and end at the 

 sides of the oil gland in the usual way. 



Xantholmma has a faint lateral tract on either side. In 

 spite of Nitzsch's figures I am disposed to think that this 

 tract, so universal in the barbets, is at most feeble in the 

 toucans. In the continuity of the anterior and posterior 







