GRUES 



381 



the one-notched sternum. The dorsal vertebrae with com- 

 plete ribs are ankylosed. The furcula is quite degenerate. 



' Not completely fused, and not always. 



It is clear from the accompanying table that the seven 

 families which I here include with the Grues are a tolerably 

 divergent series of birds. Yet it does not appear to me 

 possible to locate any one of them elsewhere. The bird 

 concerning whose position I am most doubtful is naturally 

 Mesites. It is placed near the hemipodes among the galli- 

 naceous birds by G-adow, and by Fuebbinger near the 

 hemipodes but among the rails. Shabpb takes the view 

 which is urged here, while Foebbs and some other recent 

 writers are impressed by its likenesses to Eurypyga and 

 Bhinochetus, Foebbs, indeed, having associated all three in 

 a separate group. There are, unfortunately, so many lacunae 

 in our knowledge of this form that a strict comparison is as 

 yet hardly possible. Allowing the characters of the deep 

 flexor tendons, not mentioned by Fubbringbe, the agree- 

 ments with the Turnioes do not appear to me to be more 

 numerous than those with Eurypyga, while the powder- 

 down patches are unknown in either rail or gallinaceous 

 bird. 



There are difficulties too with other genera of crane-like 



