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Show 506 MR. A. H. GARROD ON T H E ANATOMY [June 6, PUFFINUS NUGAX (Solander). PROCELLARIA CEERULEA, Gm. Both species breed in the mountainous parts of the islands ; and my son obtained a specimen of the former, swimming on the Rewa river. PHAETON ^ETHEREUS, L. PHAETON RUBRICAUDA, Bodd. PHAETON CANDIDUS, Gray. I have positively identified these three Phaetontes as inhabitants of these islands. DIOMEDEA MELANOPHRYS. Baron von Hiigel testifies that he saw this bird within sight of Kandavu ; it may therefore claim a place in our avifauna. 8. On some Anatomical Characters which bear upon the Major Divisions of the Passerine Birds.-Part I. By A. H . G A R R O D , M.A., F.Z.S., Prosector to the Society. [Received May 17, 1876.] (Plates XLVI1I.-LIII.) A special analysis of the peculiarities of structure presented by different Passerine birds can hardly be considered premature. Since the investigations of Nitzsch, Sundevall, Keyserling and Blasius, Johannes Miiller, and Cabanis little of decided importance has been made out with reference to the distinguishing characters of the group or of its primary divisions, if we except the researches of Professors Huxley and Parker on the palate in the class Aves generally. A glance at the history of the Order will be the best introduction which I can offer to the facts which it is m y desire upon the present occasion to bring before the Society. Although the name "Passeres" was coined by Linnaeus, that illustrious naturalist did not appreciate the unity of the group, his classification compelling him to include the Columbee in the order, which was defined as having " rostrum conico-attenuatum," and Paradisea, Corvus, together with Certhia among the " Picae," " rostro superne compresso convexo." Cuvier, in 1798 *, made a great step in advance by forming an order " Passeres " to include all those now so called, together with those non-swimming, non-wading, non-climbing, non-raptorial, non-gallinaceous birds in which there are not two toes of the foot retroverted. Nitzsch f was the first to appreciate the true limits of the order, when in 1829 he grouped together the birds now termed P A S S E R ES in a single section, entirely by themselves. * Tableau Elementaire, p. 199 et seq. t Observationes cle Avium arteria carotide communi. |