OCR Text |
Show 416 MR. A. H. GARROD ON THINOCORUS AND ATTAGIS. [May I, (part ii., read before this Society in February 1876, and not yet published), Prof. Parker has fully described and beautifully figured the skull of Thinocorus rumicivorus, and has drawn special attention to the spuriously iEgithognathous nature of the palate, with its peculiarly broad vomer, rounded in front, and there intimately connected with the nasal cartilages in a manner which much resembles the arrangement in Passerine birds. In the accompanying figure (p. 415) the palate of Attagis gayi is represented from a specimen most kindly lent me by Mr. T. C. Eyton, the sternum of which is that referred to above as figured in the 'Osteologia Avium.' By comparing it with Mr. Parker's figure of Thinocorus rumicivorus, the almost exact identity of the two is rendered certain. In the same memoir Mr. Parker also directs attention to the nature of the anterior osseous nares, which, as he remarks, are much the same as in the Turnicidae. Both these genera agree with the birds termed Schizorhinal by me in a previous paper1, resembling the Limicolae, Pteroclidse, Columbae, and their allies in this respect-although, on account of the shortness of the face, as in the Pteroclidae, their schizorhinal nature is not quite so conspicuous as in such genera as Grus, Ibis, and Scolopax. The superior aspect of the skull of Attagis gayi is also represented supra (p. 415). In more than one peculiarity the skulls of Thinocorus and of Attagis differ from those of Turnix and Hemipodius*'. The maxillo-palatines, instead of being slender throughout and simply squared off at their free ends, which are situated considerably nearer the middle line than are the inner margins of the palatine bones at the parts which they oppose, are broad, short, and swollen apically, where they scarcely project beyond the median borders of the palatines. The Turnicidse also possess an extensive articulation between the middle of each pterygoid bone and the basisphenoid rostrum-no traces even of processes for such an articulation being present in the Thinocorinae, in which latter subfamily also the supraorbital glands, although not largely developed, leave a small crescentic depression on the superior surface of the upper margin of the bony orbit, not present in the former group. Continuing the comparison with the Turnicidse, it may be mentioned that in them the left carotid artery is alone developed (in Hemipodius tachydromus and Turnix lepurana at least), whilst the accessory femoro-caudal muscle, as well as the slip to the patagium from the biceps of the arm, are wanting, at the same time that the obturator internus is large and fan-shaped, not oval and small3. The colic caeca, also, never exceed 1 \ inch in length, in which, as well as all the above-mentioned characters, they differ from the Thinocorinae. That Turnix and Thinocorus are not intimately related may be 1 P. Z. S. 1873, p. 33 et seqq. a For most instructive figures and descriptions of the skulls of Turnix and Hemipodius see Prof. Parker's paper "On j-Egithognathous Birds," part i., Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. ix. pl. liv. and p. 294. 3 Vide P.Z. S. 1870, p. 195. |