MESSES. A. AND E. NEWTON ON THE OSTEOLOGY OE THE SOLITAIEE. 341 
furcula in Pezophaps is shorter and broader than in Pidus. There is no trace in any of 
the specimens of an actual anchylosis of the coracoid with the furcula any more than 
with the scapula ; but in many of the larger (male X) ones, there is a considerable bony 
development on the edges of the articular surfaces, as if resulting from the partial ossi- 
fication of the integument, which may perhaps be an approximation to that condition 
of the three bones which seems usually to have existed in Pidus. 
The exact angle formed by the axes of the coracoid and scapula at the point where 
they meet cannot positively be determined. To the best of our judgment, however, it 
cannot have been much less than it is in Pidus* *. 
§ 7. Pones of the Wing. 
Compared with the wing-bones of Pidus those of Pezophaps present, even on the most 
cursory inspection, a more massive aspect with a smoother surface. The humerus 
(Plate XIX. figs. 91, 92), of which the collection contains forty-six specimens, most of 
them in a sufficiently perfect condition f, has the proximal extremity considerably more 
rounded, with the oval convexity of the articular head absolutely (even in the smallest 
specimens) more elongated outwardly, and in front more transversely concave. The pec- 
toral process projects very slightly, and the ulnar tuberosity is less developed. Of the 
pits at its base, the upper one is narrower and more oblique, the lower one much narrower, 
and with a very much larger pneumatic foramen. The longitudinal ridge, so strongly 
developed on the upper portion of the shaft in Pidus , is here generally almost, and 
sometimes quite, obsolete. The muscular ridges of the distal end resemble more closely 
those of Pidus. The cancellous structure of either end is perhaps rather less developed 
in Pezophaps. 
The radius (Plates XIX. figs. 94, 95, XX. figs. 137, 138), of which forty-three speci- 
mens are contained in the collection, is a stout nearly straight sub cylindrical bone in- 
increased development, into a similar but deeper and elongate hollow, of the depression commonly situated 
between the scapular and furcular articulating surfaces ; a depression, however, very variable in its extent in 
other examples. 
* This very marked characteristic of the sternal apparatus in Dklus I had the pleasure of first making pub- 
licly known at the Meeting of the Zoological Society of London on the 12th of December, 1865, when I exhi- 
bited a drawing of the confluent coracoid scapula and furcula of that bird from a specimen sent me by my 
brother, which specimen arrived a few days after the meeting. On learning that Professor Owex was anxious 
to have the task of describing the skeleton of the Dodo (from the remains sent him by Mr. George Clark), I 
suppressed the paper containing the remarks I had made on that occasion (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1865, p. 732). I 
therein stated that (always excepting the Struthiones) I knew of no other bird but Ocydromus in which the angle 
formed by the axes of the coracoid and scapula was greater than a right angle, and I have not in the meantime 
been able to discover any other form presenting this remarkable feature, since recognized by Professor Htjxley 
in his course of Hunterian Lectures for 1867, and again in his proposed scheme for the classification of birds 
(Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 425), as one of the distinguishing characters of the Orders (Subclasses ?) Carinatce 
and Ratitoe. — A. N. 
t The shaft of a left humerus, wanting its extremities, was picked up by me on my visit to Rodriguez in 1864, 
and has been figured (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1865, pi. viii. fig. 3). — E. N. 
