OCR Text |
Show 934 PROF. A. H. GARROD ON INDICATOR MAJOR. [Nov. 19, maxillo-palatines, are characters which tend to bring it nearer than either of the others to the Picidae. The pterygoid bones of Indicator are much flattened from above downwards, with thin outer and inner margins, which are curved, a triangular groove on the palatal surface running from end to end. In the Capitonidae and Ramphastidae these bones are much more cylindroid, the superior surface alone being thin-edged, whilst in the Picidae they are thin, as in Indicator, but differ in possessing a large anteriorly directed process springing from the superior surface of each. In Indicator there is a small notch in the middle of the superior margin of the osseous orbit, no trace of which exists in any of the other birds above referred to. In its external osseous nares, also, there is no tendency towards the Ramphastine position of those orifices, such as is so well marked in Tetragonops; the alinasal ossification that tends to divide each of the nares into an anterior and a posterior moiety is likewise fas less considerable than in Megaleema. As is known, and well illustrated in M r . Sclater's figure of the bone (Ibis, 1870, p. 178), the sternum agrees most closely with that of the Capitonidae and Ramphastidae ; and this is especially the case in the imperfect development of the posterior extremity of the median xiphoid process, which in the Picidae continues further onward to reach the level of the ends of the lateral xiphoid processes, at the same time that the manubrial rostrum of the last-named famity only of the group is bifid. As to the posterior sternal notches, the inner is the deeper ; and the same is the case in Gecinus viridis, whilst in Picus, the Capitonidae, and Ramphastidae the outer is the deeper. In its soft parts Indicator agrees with the Capitonidae, Ramphastidae, and Picidae, and differs from the Cuculidae, in the following particulars :-There is only one carotid artery, the left; the ambiens and the accessory femoro-caudal muscles are absent (the latter of these is wanting in the Tree-Cuckoos) ; there are no colic caeca. The femoro-caudal, semitendinosus and accessory semitendinosus are present, as is the large gluteus. The tensor patagii brevis muscle of the wing is inserted into the extensor metacarpi radialis longus exactly as in the Capitonidae, Ramphastidae, and Picidae, and as in no other birds *. As in these three groups also (and in the Galbulidae, but not in the scansorial Cuculidae and Psittaci), the deep plantar tendons are distributed peculiarly-the flexor profundus digitorum supplying the third digit only, whilst the flexor longus hallucis sends slips to digits i. n. and iv., as well as a vinculum to its companion muscle 2. The trachea at its lower end (fig. 3, p. 935) consolidates into a bony box, formed by the fusion of the lowermost rings. To the enlarged uppermost bronchial half-ring (a a) the single slender intrinsic muscle of each side fans out to be attached at its middle. Summing up the results of the above analysis, it may be stated that, among the Piciform birds, pterylosis, osteology, myology, and visceral anatomy place the Picidae, Indicator, the Capitonidae, and 1 Vide P. Z. S. 1876, p. 508, pl. xlviii. fig. 1. 2 Vide F.Z.S. 1875, p. 346. |