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Show 304 PROF. HUXLEY ON THE ALECTOROMORPHCE. [May > his great work "On the Shoulder-girdle and Sternum" (p. -87). Thus the sternum of Hemipodius is strongly Tinamine. 4. The furcula is peculiar, but has been compared by Mr. rarwe to that of the Lapwings. The coracoid has a subclavicular pro-cesss, as in Pteroclomorphce, Peristeromorphce, and Charaanomo ph.ce. This process does not exist in Tinamus. 5. The pelvis in some respects resembles that of Syrrhaptes in others that of the Plovers, but has peculiarities of its own. in no respect is it Alectoromorphic. . ., T>„„I > 6. The tarso-metatarsus is quite Pteroclomorphic. Mr. barker thinks Hemipodius to be intermediate between Pterocles and Syr-rhaptes in this part of its organization. , The same writer has already pointed out the osteological affinities of Hemipodius to the Plovers on the one hand, and to Tinamus on the other. In his memoir on the sternum and shoulder-girdle (p. 185) he goes so far as to say that " the Hemipodine family is interposed bodily between the Tinamous and the true Gallinae. ' I think that this is a very just estimate of the position of the group, if the Pteroclomorphce are included under the head of Gallinee. For it is obvious that the chief relations of Hemipodius are on one side with Tinamus, on another with Syrrhaptes, and on a third with the Plovers, Pedionomus being perhaps the connecting link between the latter and it. ... But it appears to me impossible to include Hemipodius with either the Tinamorphee or the Charadriomorphee, and still less with the Pteroclomorphce; and I see no alternative but to make it the type of an independent group, which may be called the Turnicimorphce. III. The affinities of Opisthocomus. Many of the peculiarities of Opisthocomus have already been described and discussed by L'Herminier*, Deville f, and Gervais % ; and the latter author has given a figure of the skeleton. L'Herminier is of opinion that the sum of the characters of the bird incline it towards the Gallinaceee. He puts it, with Vieillot and Latreille, in the distinct family of the Dysodes, before the Pigeons and Gallinaceous birds. M . Gervais (/. c. p. 72), on the contrary, denies that Opisthocomus has anything to do either with the Gallinaceous birds or with the Pigeons. He considers that it forms part of the great series of "passeriform birds," but is so different from the others that it ought to form a separate order in this series, near the Scansores, and " near the Musophagidee, though its affinities with the group may have been exaggerated." * Recherches Anatomiques sur quelques genres d'Oiseaux rares (Comptes Rendus, v. 1837, p. 433). t Observations faits en Amerique (Revue et Magasin de Zoologie, ser. 2. t. iv. 1852). \ Castelnau, Expedition dans les parties centrales de 1'Amerique du Sud, 7 m e partie, Zoologie. |