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Show 472 PROF. HUXLEY ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. [Apr. 1 1, the sternum, standing alone among the Coracomorphae in this particular*. So far as their osteology goes, the Polymyodae, Oligomyodae, and Tracheophonae form one great group, in which the Finches and the Scytalopidae alone are distinguishable from the rest by any very important characters. But one genus, Menura, stands apart from all the other Coracomorphae. The vomer in this singular bird is broad and rounded off in front, and deeply cleft behind. The maxillo-palatines are altogether obsolete, or at any rate unossified- a condition which I have not observed in any other Coraco-morph. The sternum has a well-developed and forked manubrium ; hut its posterior edge is strongly convex, and only exhibits a slight notch on each side. It is unlike the corresponding bone in any of the other Coracomorphae, in all of which the posterior edge is straight. The furcula has no median process, and its scapular ends are comparatively little expanded. The tarso-metatarsus has the typical structure; and the penultimate phalanges are much longer than the basal ones in the anterior toes. Thus, with m y present information, I should be disposed to divide the Coracomorphae into two primary groups-one containing Menura, and the other all the other genera which have yet been examined. H o w the latter is to be subdivided is a difficult question, upon the consideration of which I do not at present propose to enter. In concluding this paper, I desire to offer my best thanks to my friends Dr. Gunther, Mr. Parker, and Mr. O. Salvin for their kindness in supplying me with specimens, to the Museum Committee of the Boyal College of Surgeons and to Dr. J. E. Gray of the British Museum for the opportunities of freely employing the collections under their charge which I have enjoyed, and especially to Dr. Sclater for many valuable suggestions upon points of nomenclature. P.S. I find I have omitted to refer to a memoir by Kessler entitled " Osteologie der Vogelfiisse," published in the ' Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou' in 1841, which is full of valuable information and suggestions. This writer was the first to draw attention to the great systematic value of the tarso-metatarsus and to what I have spoken of as the ratio of length of the phalanges. Kessler's views are fully borne out by M . Alphonse Milne-Edwards in the introduction to his great work on Fossil Birds, now in course of publication. * In a specimen of Pteroptochus megapodius from Chili, in the British Museum the two notches extend for fully half the length of the sternum, and the middle and outer processes which bound them are very slender. There is a large bifurcated manubrium ; and the costal process is long and pointed, being directed forwards and outwards. |