No. 433-] CERTAIN GROUPS OF BIRDS. 



4' 



Struthiones may be applied ; but that term, as well as Struthi- 

 onidse, has been often used in a more general sense by system- 

 atists even to signify the whole Ratitac. 1 The most obvious 

 distinctive character presented by the ostrich is the presence of 

 two toes only, the third and fourth, on each foot, — a character 

 absolutely peculiar to the genus Struthio. 2 " 



Huxley (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1867) placed the genus Struthio 

 alone in his first group, in the order (II) Ratitae, while Garrod 

 included all the ostrich-birds, tinamous, screamers, fowls, bus- 

 tards, flamingoes, Musophagida?, and Cuculidae, in his order 

 (I) Galliformes. Sclater arranges them thus : 

 Subclass II, Ratitae. 



Order XXIV, Apteryges. 

 XXV, Casuarii. 

 XXIV, Struthiones. 

 Reichenow's scheme places them in a 

 Series I, 



Order I, Brevipennes, 



Family I, Struthionidae, 



including the entire assemblage of the once-called struthious 

 birds. 



In a Subclass IV (Eurhipidurse), Stejneger classifies them 

 thus: 



Superorder I, Dromasognathae. 



Superfamily I, S truth ioideae. 



II, Rheoideae. 



Family I, Dromaiidae. 

 II, Casuariidae. 

 Superfamily IV, Dinornithoideae, 



followed by the remainder of his classification. 



1 At one time it was not uncommon to include the bustards among the Stru- 



2 Remains of a true ostrich have been recognized from the Sivalik formauon 

 in India, and the petrified egg of an apparently allied form, StnitM^hia, ha. 



bird may be mentioned: E. D'Alton, Di, -V/.r.V/ ,/Vr St u, "'^"^f^f' 



ton of the Ostrich " (Proc. Zool. Soc, vol.' viii, p. 385) i M. Alix, Essai sur Tappareil 



