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Show 116 MR. A. H. GARROD ON THE MUSCLES OF BIRDS. [Feb. 3, structural character or a combination of characters to turn up would give clear indications of the most important divisions of the bird class. M y search has, to my own mind, been fairly satisfactory in its results; for the classification at which I have arrived appears to have a practicability about it which is decidedly promising. The oft-named ambiens muscle is, in my idea, the key to the whole. In some families it is present, in others absent. By combining all those in which it is found into one subclass, to be subsequently termed Homalogonata (typically kneed, because the ambiens runs in the tendon of the knee), and all those in which it is absent into a second, to be subsequently termed Anomalogonata (abnormally kneed), a primary division is the result which the following facts will in great measure justify. It may be stated at once, however, that there are a few undoubtedly homalogonatous birds in which the ambiens muscle is absent; there cannot be any anomalogonatous birds in which it is present. The following table (Table I.) contains the names of the various most important divisions of the Class of Birds, arranged according as they are homalogonatous or anomalogonatous. Those homalogonatous divisions with an asterisk (*) against them do not possess the ambiens muscle in any of their genera; in those with a dagger (f) it is wanting in certain genera only. TABLE I. Class AVES. Subclass H O M A L O G O N A T A Order I. GALLIFORMES. Cohort (a) STRUTHIONES. Family 1. STRUTHIONID^E. Subfamily 1. Struthionina?. „ 2. Rheinee. Family 2. CASUARIID^E (*). „ 3. ApTERYGID^E. ,, 4. TINAMID^E. Cohort (/3) GALLINACEJ:. Family 1. PALAMEDEID^E. „ 2. GALLING. „ 3. RALLIDJE. „ 4. OTIDID^E. Subfamily 1. Otidina. „ 2. Phoenicopterina. Family 5. MUSOPHAGID^E. „ 6. CuCULIDvE. Subfamily 1. Centropodints. „ 2. Cuculince. Cohort (y) P S I T T A C I (f). Order II. ANSERIFORMES. Cohort (a) A N S E R E S. Family 1. ANATID;E. |