OCR Text |
Show 268 MR. W. A. FORBES O N T H E [Feb. 21, genus Mesites should be arranged in the Natural System next Eurypyqa and its near ally Rhinochetus." The nostrils of Mesites are long, linear concave-upward slits, extending for more than half the length of the beak, and covered above by a well-marked membranous valvular operculum, bemg in this respect very unlike the ordinary form of nostril in the Kails. The tarsi have about 10 or 11 distinct transverse scutella? anteriorly, best developed internally, and there nearly meeting, along the lateral surface, a similar but somewhat more numerous series of smaller scutellae, which are developed along the posterior aspect of the leg, but become obsolete about | inch above the metatarsophalangeal joint. Externally the two series of scutellae are separated by a distinct space covered by smooth, non-scutellated skin. This tarsal scutellation extends upwards above the " knee " for about | inch, for which extent therefore the tibia is bare of feathers. The digits are all free from their bases; the hallux is considerably the smallest of them l. The number of remiges cannot be counted with certainty ; but there are certainly 10 primaries ; the wing is much rounded. There are 16 rectrices, a very non-passerine character2; and both the upper and under tail-coverts are very long, with the last feathers rectriciform and extending along the tail for quite three fourths of its length both above and below. There is apparently no claw on the pollex; and the contour-feathers have no aftershaft-in both these respects differing from the Rallida. The tail in my specimen has unfortunately been so cut that I have been unable to ascertain for certain whether the oil-gland is present or not. I can find no tuft, however; and as we know that the gland, though present, is nude both in Rhinochetus and Eurypyga, such is probably its condition in Mesites too 3. The continuous head-feathering extends about halfway down the neck, and then gives off the dorsal and ventral tracts of each side, which are separated by well-marked spaces, of which the dorsal one is considerably the biggest. The feathering of the lower part of the neck is thus quadriserial, separated by as many apteria. In the lower part of the neck the two dorsal tracts, which are narrow but strongly feathered, are widely separated, and somewhat divergent, including between them the anterior pair of dorsal powder-down patches, but converge again in the interscapular region. Here they suddenly become much feebler, and are then continued on as the much more weakly-feathered posterior part of the dorsal tract, this 1 By soaking out the plantar tendons, I have been enabled to ascertain that there is a good vinculum between the flexores longus hallucis and profundus digitorum, tbe tendons of which are ossified near the bottom of the leg. In all ordinary Passeres, it will be remembered, this vinculum is quite absent. 9 According to Nitzsch, however, this is the number met with in the male of Menura superba. 3 In answer to an inquiry on this subject, M . A. Milne-Edwards has been kind enough to inform m e that his spirit-specimen of Mesites is also unfortunately damaged at tbe root of the tail, but tbat on an examination of a skin be finds apparently an oil-gland present with no tuft. |