| OCR Text |
Show 1886.J CUBITAL COVERTS OF BIRDS. 191 The remarks made in connection with the Pelicans apply also to the Odontoglossae. Passing over the Palamedese for the present, the last group whose style of cubital coverts brings them under notice here is the Anseres. Here, again, we have a group with nearly uniform pterographic Fig. 10. Fig. 11. Nyctieorax. Querquedula. characters; these, as will be seen by reference to figure 11, representing Querquedula crecca, so closely follow the style seen in the Accipitres and the others mentioned as possessing the accessory row of median coverts, or upper wing-coverts (C), that it is difficult to point to any one character that would serve to distinguish them. It will be noticed that the birds characterized by possessing more than two rows of median cubital coverts with proximal overlap, together with a single supplementary row of upper wing-coverts also with proximal overlap, are further characterized by the Desmo-gnathous palate, are Homalogonate, and possess in addition several other deep-seated points of structure is common. Fig. 12. Meleagris. Near to the Accipitrine birds, and perhaps leading away from them somewhere near the Polyborine birds, a kind of transition may be traced in the direction of the Gallinae. In the case of Meleagris (fig. 12) proximal overlap characterizes nearly all the median cubital coverts, as in the Accipitrines, and in this respect these birds stand |
