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Show 1882.] PROF. OWEN ON TRICHINA SPIRALIS. 571 of tail-feathers must be considered to be that normal in the present family, twelve being that universal, with a few isolated exceptions, in all other Passeres. In all other points, Xenicus and Acanthisitta conform to the general Passerine type. There is no trace of a plantar vinculum. The tensor patagii brevis has the peculiar arrangement characterizing the Passeres, only slightly masked by the muscular fibres somewhat concealing the two superimposed tendons, as is frequently the case in the short-and-rounded-winged forms of the group. The gluteus primus is well-developed. The tongue is lanceolate and horny, with its apex somewhat frayed out and its base spiny. The main artery of the leg is the sciatic. The sternum has a single pair of posterior notches and a bifid manubrium. In the skull the nostrils are holorhinal, the vomer broad and deeply emarginate anteriorly, the maxillo-palatines slender and recurved. As regards the affinities of the Xenicidae, the " haploophone " form of their syrinx, combined with the complete loss of a vinculum, shows that it is only with the Pipridae (including the Cotingidae), Tyrannidse, Pittidae, and Philepittidae that they can be compared. From all of these they differ markedly, however, in the number of rectrices, the ocreate tarsus, and the nature of the syrinx, the latter never having the form of a complete bony box, and never lacking a bronchial "intrinsic" muscle in any of the families just enumerated. The Pittidae they approach somewhat in their general fades, short tail, and long tarsus, though the tarsal scutellation is different in the two forms. The Pittidae are also, it is interesting to note, the only other family of Mesomyodian Passeres that enters the Australian region, though they have not extended their range to New Zealand. I know at present of no other Australian Passerines that can be considered allied to the Xenicidae ; nor are there apparently any other forms than the two here described present in New Zealand itself, Certhiparus and Miro both being, as well as Clitonyx \ Oscines of the normal type. 4. On Trichina spiralis. By Prof. OWEN, C.B., F.R.S., F.G.S., &c. [Received June 10, 1882.] The admission, kindly accorded by the Publication Committee, of m y paper on Trichina spiralis (1835) to the first volume of the • Transactions of the Zoological Society of London,' leads me to submit a few observations on subsequent references that have appeared in print on the subject of that paper. The general impression so produced is indicated by the following definition by the late lamented " Academicien," Littre, in his admirable ' Dictionnaire de la Langue franchise:'-"TRICHINE, S. f. N o m gene'rique d'un helminthe nematoide, le Trichina spiralis, decouverte par Hilton et decrit par R. Owen." 1 Vide cmteh, p. 544. |
