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Show 466 MR. W. A. FORBES ON L E P T O S O M A DISCOLOR. [June 15, in it of powder-down patches, as well as other of its peculiarities. Since then I am unaware of any thing more having been done to elucidate its structure till 1878. In M . Grandidier's magnificent work on Madagascar1, in the plates of the Atlas devoted to the birds, M . A. Milne-Edwards has figured the entire skeleton, together with separate views of the bones, as well as the tongue and alimentary canal, and has likewise given pictures of the bird when plucked, showing the external nares, the position and shape of the powder-down patches, and its naked oil-gland, In reply to m y inquiries on the subject, M. Milne-Edwards kindly replied that he intended to describe in full the osteology of Leptosoma, together with that of Atelornis, Fig. 1. ^XfJ'ISo&cl^' rer,1 fr0m bef°re' t0 s h™ the disP^tion ite position.) ( 1S S l l g h % r e m ° V e d o u t™rds, to better show Brachypterarias, &c., of which figures are given also in the above-named work in the text, but that, as regards other points, only an explanation of the plates was to be given. I have therefore thought it would be of interest to bring before the Society some additional notes on its p erylosis and soft parts, derived from m y examination of Jrrof. JMewton s specimen. Bt^n!J^r?n?-fU?her'lBh0Uldlike t0 Ca" attenti0n t0 the structure of the feet in Leptosoma, which has already been accurately described by Mr. Sclater (I. c. p. 688). They are in no way " zygo-dactyle, in the sense in which that term is applied to the ielt of Inch 1 Hist. Phys. nat. et pol. Madag., Zool, Ois. pis. 85-88. |
