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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXXVII. 



best marked in C. cabanisi. An evident feebleness stamps the 

 bones of the leg, that is when we came to compare them in size 

 with other long bones of the skeleton. Kingfishers having weak 

 pelvic limbs, we naturally rind the skeleton of the parts likewise 

 weak. Nowhere is this better seen in the limb of this bird, or 

 birds of this group, than in the tarso-metatarsus and foot-skeleton. 

 At the distal extremity of the tibio-tarsus of C. alcyon we find 



to be situated very low on the shaft, indeed, it occurs immedi- 

 ately above the rather prominent condyles. 



The fibula has but a slender spine of bone below the fibular 

 ridge of the tibio-tarsus. and in some specimens I find even this 

 missing. When this latter condition exists, C. alcyon has as 



acquainted. 



The tarso-metatarsus is less than a third as long as the shaft 

 of the tibia (Fig. 6), the rather large free metatarsal for hallux 



drical perforation for the same purpose. 1 Distally, the tarso- 

 metatarsus, has three well-developed trochlear, either of the 

 lateral ones being larger than the bigger one in the middle. The 

 foramen tor the anterior tibial artery is present, while at the 



for the insertion of the tibialis anticus muscle, as well as two 

 small antero-posterior perforating foramina, placed close to each 

 other side by side. 



The digits of the foot possess the normal number of phalanges 

 (2, 3, 4, 5), as they occur in the class. The basal joint of hal- 

 lux is somewhat laterally expanded at its proximal end. W ith 

 respect to the joints of the other toes, the three anterior ones, 



