OCR Text |
Show 1886.] GEOCOCCYX CALIFORNIANUS. 4t»7 Cuculus canorus, Cacomantis sepulcralis, Chrysococcyx sp./j Centropus senegalensis, Guira piririgua, Phcenicophaes sp. authority finds the accessory femoro-caudal muscle Centropus senegalensis, Centropus phasianus, Guira piririgua, Phcenicophaes sp., and absent in the following species :- Cuculus canorus, Chrysococcyx sp., Cacomantis sepulcralis. Of this latter peculiarity Mr. Garrod said, " Amongst the Cuculidae, the Ground-Cuckoos (Centropus, Guira, Phoznicophaes) differ from Cuculus and its allies in having the accessory femoro-caudal developed, whilst it is absent in the latter, their respective formulae being AB. XY., and A. X Y . This peculiarity, when added to those in the pterylosis, justifies the division of the family into two subfamilies, which may be termed the Centropodinae and the Cuculinae " (loc. cit. p. 210). According to this author, the ambiens muscle also being present in the Cuculidae it throws this group into the subclass named by him the Homalogonatae ; and Mr. Garrod brings forward his very interesting researches upon the plantar tendons in birds to still further support his classification of this particular group. The arrangement of these tendons I will again refer to further on. Cuculidae have the caeca also present and possess a nude oil-gland. To briefly recapitulate, then, the above and a few other structural characters of this group brought to light by this talented investigator, we find that the Cuculidae are homalogonatous birds with two carotids; with the sciatic artery the main one in the leg (except Centropus) ; Ciconine, as regards the presence of the expansor secundariorum muscle (see Garrod's Coll. Scientif. Papers, pp. 323- 29); and finally, as I say, have a nude oil-gland and the caeca. Forbes examined specimens of Geococcyx ajfinis, and showed some interesting points in regard to the bursa Fabricii, which in the Cuculidae he says "presents a very characteristic shape, the peduncle being long and thin, and the extremity club-shaped, giving the whole somewhat the appearance of a shortened and clumsy antenna of a butterfly. It disappears completely in adult birds" (Forbes's Coll. Scientif. Papers, p. 11). This author, on the page of the work quoted, presents us with a figure of the cloaca and bursa of Geococcyx affinis. M 31* The same present in :- |