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Show 1877.] ON THE ANATOMY OF PASSERINE BIRDS. 447 4. Notes on the Anatomy of Passerine Birds.-Part II. By A. H. GARROD, M.A., F.R.S., Prosector to the Society. [Received April 30, 1877.] In my former communication on the anatomy of the Passeres1 I adopted a definition of the group in which was included the important character made known by C. J. Sundevall in 1831, and expressed in the 1872 edition of his valuable ' Methodi naturalis Avium dis-ponendarum Tentamen' in the following words : - " Hallux per se mobilis. Musculus emm flexor hallucis longus articulum ejus ultimum flectens, a flexore digitorum communi perfecte solutus. (In avibus reliquis, omnibus, tendo hujus musculi cum tendinibus alterius conjungitur. Hallux igitur simul cum reliquis digitis semper flec-titur.)" Upupa epops, agreeing with the Passeres in this respect, is by the author included with them. As mentioned in my paper on the deep plantar tendons of birds2, I have so frequently been able to verify this statement of the Swedish naturalist, that I felt justified in making the fact part of m y definition of the group. Recently, however, from skins which have been placed at m y disposal by Mr. Salvin, I have found reason for overthrowing the character, because in the Eurylsemidse there is a strong vinculum which joins the two muscles exactly in the same manner as in many of the non-passerine families. Euryleemus ochromelas, Cymbirhynchus macrorhynchus, and Calyptomena viridis are tbe species which I have examined (more than one specimen of each) ; and in all of them there is a narrow but strong vinculum, situated just above the metatarso-phalangeal articulations, and running from the tendon of the flexor hallucis longus downwards to the tendon of the flexor digitorum profundus. No other passerine bird which I have dissected possesses this vinculum, not even Rupicola crocea, which has been thought by some to be intimately related to the Eurylseminse. Such being the case, either Sundevall's character no longer holds, or the Eurylaemidae are not Passeres. In his invaluable memoir on the voice-organs of Passerine birdss, a translation of which, by m y friend Mr. F. J. Bell, will shortly be published at Oxford (by the Clarendon Press), J. Miiller was so overcome by the flood of facts which he had discovered, that he remarks " It is, then, now thoroughly proved that the singing birds cannot be separated, as an order, from the rest of the Passeres (of Cuvier). There is only a large division of Insessores or Passerines which must also include the Scansores. This order of Insessores will contain birds with the most varied supply of vocal muscles, as well as birds which do not possess these muscles, every intermediate condition being found." The fact that an important generalization, such as that of Sundevall above considered, breaks 1 P. Z. S. 1876, p. 508. 2 P- Z. S. 1875, p. 348. 3 Abh. k. Akademie d. Wiss. zu Berlin, 1847- |