32 
Scjlater on the Sy sterna Avium. 
under the title of Prionopidae. I fail to see that it has any con- 
nexion at all with the other genera placed in that group. 
5. Falculia , also a laminiplantar Oscine, has been hitherto 
usually associated with the Hoopoes, to which it has no sort of 
relationship (c/*. Murie, Ibis, 1873, p. 201). It is certainly either 
a Sturnine or a Corvine form ; M. Milne-Edwards will probably 
soon tell us which. 
The limits of the Passeres being now ascertained with tolerable 
certainty, the still more difficult question of the sub-division of 
the Order presents itself. On this subject Garrod’s first memoir 
on the anatomy of the Passerine birds* gives us a summary of 
the latest information, not only as regards the lamented author’s 
own elaborate investigations, but also as concerns the labours of 
previous authors. Garrod’s proposed system for the arrange- 
ment of the Passeres is as follows : — 
Acromyodi 
(Oscines). 
Passeres. 
Mesomyodi. 
In this scheme it will be observed that the Oligomvodse. as, 
in accordance with Prof^ Huxley’s suggestion (P. Z. S. 1867, 
p. 471), the great American group of Passeres with only three 
pairs of singing-muscles was denominated in our 4 Nomenclator,’ 
are divided into two sections, and the Tracheophonas are inter- 
posed between them. In consequence of the development of a 
femoral in the place of a sciatic artery, the Pipridae and Cotingi- 
dae (with the exception of Rupicola ) are j:>laced by themselves 
in a second primary division ( Heteromeri ) of 11011-Oscinine Pas- 
seres. But it seems to me that this arterial character, although 
no doubt of importance, is not as yet sufficiently understood and 
investigated to allow it to rank before the well-ascertained struc- 
ture of the lower larynx. Again it is quite obvious that the 
Acromyodi abnormales (i. e. Menura and Atrichia ), although 
they approach the true Oscines in their syringeal structure, are 
divergent from the rest of the Passeres by much more important 
osteological characters. For the present, therefore, I am dis- 
posed to uphold the system of the division of the Passeres em- 
* P. Z. S. 1876, p. 506. 
