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Show 436 MR. W. A. FORBES ON THE GENUS CONOPOPHAGA. [Mar. 15, University Museum, the sternum presented four notches along its posterior margin, a very unusual condition in Passerine birds. This again drew m y attention to the genus; and being fortunately the possessor of a specimen in spirit of Conopophaga lineata from Pernambuco, I have been enabled to confirm Mr. Salvin's discovery, as well as to make some other notes on the structure of this genus. As regards the sternum, it will be seen, from the drawing I now exhibit of that of Conopophaga lineata, to possess, as already stated, four Sternum of Conopophaga lineata, of the natural size ; viewed, slightly obliquely, from the side. notches, two on each side, on its posterior margin. Both are quite distinct; but the outer one is considerably the larger of the two, running up to near the base of the " costal process." The outer xiphoid process diverges considerably, so that there is a wide space between its termination and that of the internal one. This latter is terminally expanded and closely approximated, internally, to the body of the sternum, with only a very narrow cleft separating the ossified parts there. In other respects the sternum and its appendages are characteristically Passerine, there being a large bifurcated manubrium sterni, and a long, forwardly directed, costal process. The clavicles are well developed, with a large hypocleidium and strongly expanded scapular ends. The carina sterni is well developed. The only other Passerine birds in which the sternum is four-notched are, so far as is yet known, sundry species of Pteroptochidse {Pteroptochus alBi-collis, the species of Hylactes, and Scytalopus indigoticus). In Pteroptochus alBicollis the two notches of each side are more nearly equal in size, and the internal xiphoid process is separated by a considerable interval from the body of the bone. As regards the skull, Conopophaga is typically Passerine, not being in the slightest degree schizorhinal, as already stated by Garrod (I. c). The vomer is broad and bifurcated. The maxillo-palatine processes are fairly long, spongy at the base, and recurved and dilated slightly apically, and do not articulate with the vomer, as is the case (e. g.) in Thamnophilus1. The " transpalatine " processes are well developed. In the macerated skull the external nares are divided into an anterior and a posterior opening, by the ossification of the alinasal cartilages. The same is the case in the species of Thamnophilus and in many other Passeres. I do not, however, attach much systematic importance to this character, as it occurs in CymBirhynchus, and not 1 Cf. Parker, Trans. Zool. Soc. ix. p. 313, pi. lvii. fig. 9. |