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Show 1880.] ANATOMY OF PASSERINE BIRDS. 387 4. Contributions to the Anatomy of Passerine Birds.- Part III. O n some Points in the Structure of Philepitta, and its Position amongst the Passeres. By W . A. F O R B E S , B.A., F.L.S., Prosector to the Society. [Eeceived April 15, 1880.] The doubt which has hitherto prevailed amongst ornithologists as to the true affinities of the very singular Malagash bird for which Geoffroy founded his genus Philepitta 1, makes a knowledge of its anatomy, and particularly of its osteology and syrinx, a desideratum. Its original describer considered this genus most nearly related to Philedon. Bonaparte, in his Conspectus2, referred Philepitta with some doubt to the Starlings (Sturnidce), placing it near Dilophus. The late Mr. Gray, in his Hand-list3, made it a genus of Pittidee, Pitta being the only other genus of that family recognized by him. Mr. Sharpe in 1870 ' suggested that it ought to be regarded as an aberrant genus of the Paradiseidce, forming a subfamily which he proposed to call Philepittinee. That neither this position nor those assigned to it by Geoffroy or by Bonaparte can be accepted is evident from the fact that, as shown by Sundevall5, Philepitta possesses a long 10th (" first "6) primary, at the same time that the tarsus is not bilaminate. The Swedish naturalist last mentioned made his subfamily Paictinee (he having rechristened Philepitta Paictes) the first in the fifth cohort, " Taxa-spidece," of his "Oscines Scutelliplantares," the others being the Thamnophilinee, Myrmornithinee, Hpysibeemoninee, and Scytalopo-dince, in which last Menura was also included-a striking illustration of the unsatisfactory results that a classification founded on external characters only always leads to. More recently, M . Alphonse Milne-Edwards has figured the two known species of Philepitta, as well as the tongue and osteology of P. castanea, in Grandidier's magnificent work on Madagascar7. In this work (the plates only of the part in question having been issued) he places it next to the Nectariniidee, apparently on account of the eye-wattle of the male and the bifid tongue approximating it to such a form of that group as Neodrepanis. Having written to M. Milne-Edwards to ask if he had examined the syrinx or other soft parts of the bird under discussion, he was kind enough to reply by sending m e the viscera, including the trachea &c, of a specimen (in all probability P. castanea), and by generously granting me permission to make any use of them I liked. He also informs me that in the text to the plates he has fully described the osteology. 1 Mag. Zool., Ois., pl. 3, 1839. 2 Op. cit. p. 422. 3 Op. cit. i. p. 297, gen. no. 1094. * P. Z. S. 1870, p. 397. « Tentamen, p. 63. 6 See P. Z. S. 1879, p. 256, note. 7 Hist. Phys. Nat. et Polit. de Madagascar, tome iii. Oiseaux, Atlas ii. lre partie, pis. 109-112. PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1880, No. XXVI. 26 |
