GRUES 879 



in Owen's plates/ and showing the inward curvature so often 

 found in the schizorhinal nostril, and quite apparent in Grus 

 (though not in Bhinochetus). A special point of resemblance 

 to Bhinochetus among the crane-like birds seems to me to 

 be in the partial ossification of the nasal septum. The 

 solidity, posteriorly at any rate, of the interorbital septum is 

 like Psophia so far as gruine birds are concerned, while the 

 spout-like process upwards of the palatines is 'quite in 

 harmony with Fuebeingbr's views of the affinities of Ap- 

 tornis. The'junction of the zygoma with the post-frontal 

 process is not crane-like ; it occurs among gallinaceous birds, 

 and there is a near approach to it in Otis. 



In the view given by Owen of the under surface of the 

 skull is a bone described, though not figured, which ap- 

 pears to me to correspond to the desmognathous palate of 

 Cariama. The union of the bones and their divergence 

 posteriorly are precisely like what is to be seen in Cariama. 



Large basipterygoid processes are present, but Owen 

 failed to find upon them, an articular surface. 



So that while the outline of the skull of Aptornis is very 

 like that of some of the large rails its affinities have been 

 probably more correctly diagnosed by Ftjebeingee. 



Besides the Aptornithidae already mentioned other forms 

 referable to the Grues have been obtained from Tertiary 

 strata. Of these Aletornis (with a number of species) is placed 

 among the Gruidse and Geranopsis of Lydekkee. The latter 

 is known only by the coracoid, which differs somewhat from 

 that of Grus. Lydekkee does not admit the genus Palceogrus of 



POETIS. 



The family Mesitidae is represented by the Madagascar 

 Mesites, a genus containing but a single species, which has 

 been investigated anatomically by Milnb-Edwaeds ^ and by 

 FoEBBS.' One of its principal characteristics was originally 



' Loc. cit. pi. xl. figs. 1, 2. 



2 ' Eemarques sur le Genre Mesites,' &c.,Ann. Sci. Nat. (6), vii., and inHist. 

 Nat. de Madagasca/r. 



' ' Description of the Pterylosis of Mesites,' &a., P. Z. S. 1882, p. 267. 



