The British Guiana Museum. 265 
that it is recognised by the highest authorities as being 
alone the representative of an unique order. The bird is 
thus, without doubt, the most interesting and peculiar of all 
the South American birds ; and indeed it may be considered, 
perhaps, the most interesting of all living birds. The 
formation of several parts of its skeleton is most 
peculiar ; thus the nasals (the bones at the hinder 
part of the nostrils) and the lachrymals (bones at 
the front of the orbit of the eye) form one complete 
bone instead of being separated, and they are free from 
the neighbouring bones of the forehead. The furculum 
or merry-thought or wishing-bone, as it is commonly 
known, a bone that is always otherwise simply jointed 
to the sternum or breast-bone at the one end, and to the 
two chief wing-bones, or coracoids, at the other, is entirely 
fused with these bones at its extremities, so that the 
whole forms one complete piece — a condition approached 
by no other living bird, though the extin6t dodo 
presented an approach in the fusion of the furculum 
with the sternum. The bird possesses a very distinft 
crest, and is thus often known as the crested pheasant. 
The bill is rather short and thick, strongly curved above 
and suddenly bent at the tip ; the legs are rather 
long but weak, and the toes are very long with long 
claws. The plumage is a mixture of white and brown, 
the white predominating in front, and the brown behind, 
although the tail is white-tipped. The flesh is charac- 
terised by a very disagreeable odour which thus unfits 
it for food purposes. 
The order of the Grallse, or wading birds, is repre- 
sented by a large number of forms in South America, 
and many of them belong to genera which are only 
