392 The American Naturalist. ‘[April, 
reduce the number of rows below the number of somites indicated by 
the other soft and hard parts. 
2. “ The peculiar manner of interdigitation of the muscular somites 
as indicated by the sigmoid outline of the myocommata, as seen from 
their outer faces, and the oblique direction of the membranes separa- 
ting the muscular cones, has developed a mode of insertion of the 
myocommata upon the corium which has thrown the integument into 
rhombic areolæ during muscular contraction. These areole are in 
line in three directions, and the folds separating them, particularly at 
their posterior borders, are inflected in such a manner by muscular 
tensions, due to the arrangement of muscular cones, as to induce the 
condition of imbrication so characteristic of the squamation of many 
fishes.” —( Proceeds. Phila. Acad., Part II, 1892.) 
The Systematic Position of the Kiwi.—In a paper on the 
History of the Kiwi, Professor T. Jeffery Parker gives the following 
conclusion as to the systematic position of this species : 
“On the whole it wil be seen that the study of the development of 
the kiwi tends to lessen the gulf between it and ordinary birds, and 
to show that its ancestors probably possessed many of the more impor- 
tant and distinctive features which characterize the Carinats of to-day. 
The facts clearly indicate that the founder of the Apterygian house 
had interrupted plumage, functional wings, an ordinary avian tail, a 
keeled sternum, a double-headed quadrate, lateral optic lobes, and a 
pecten in the eye; in other words, that the ancestors of the genus were 
typical flying birds and not bird-like reptiles. a 
“Of the eight characters enumerated above as separating the Ra 
titze from the Carinatæ it will be noticed that the first five are directly — 
connected with the power of flight. We should expect to find such 
adaptive characters in purely cursorial birds whether they arose from 
a common stock or sprang separately from early flying birds, and’ as 
a matter of fact they occur to a greater or less extent in such flightless 
birds as the Dodo, Weka, Notornis, etc., which we know have no gen- 
etic connection with one another, but have independently acquired the 
characteristics of flightlessness. I think, therefore, that the possession 
of the characters referred to by the whole of the Ratite is no argu- 
ment for their common origin. 
“The peculiarity of the quadrate has been shown to be a secondary 
matter, and we have left only the characters of the base of the skull. 
These certainly form an excellent diagnostic character by which the — 
whole of the Ratitæ are separated from the majority of the Carinate, 
t 
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