Nos. 455-456.] FAMILIES AND HIGHER GROUPS. 837 



while no other existing birds of the class Aves have a similar 

 association of characters and habits. Here then nidiological and 

 oological facts support and emphasize osteological ones in estab- 

 lishing affinities. Again, were we told that we had before us the 



skeletons of two small birds in each of which the osseous mandi- 

 bles were slender and short ; the nasals holorhinal ; the basi- 

 Pterygoid processes absent ; while in the sternum the keel was 



