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Show 1891.] ANATOMY OF THE KAGU. 19 Gadow, 16, plate xxiii. A. fig. 7), arises from the deep flexors in Nycticorax the muscle was attached to the tendons of both flexors. It would be worth while to inquire into the relations between the muscle and the vinculum, since there are cases of the conversion of muscles into ligaments among birds \ among which I may mention the ligament in the Hornbills representing the glutseus maximus of other birds 2. In Ardetta exilis and A. involucris there is no vinculum (Forbes, MS.). (15) The attachment of the flexor tendons to the phalanges varies slightly in different birds. In the third toe the tendons of the flexor perforatus and the flexor perforans et perforatus are joined by a short ligament not far in front of the insertion of the first on to the digit; there is no such connection in the case of the same tendons supplying digit n. Digit iv. has of course, like all other birds, no flexor perforans et perforatus. The branches of the flexor profundus run to the last phalanx of each digit to which they are attached ; but during their course they also give off branches to other phalanges; in the second toe the tendon is attached not only to the last but to the penultimate phalanx. The same additional insertion is present in digits in. and iv., but the lvth digit has a third attachment close to where the tendon perforates the tendon of the flexor perforatus ; in digits in. and iv. there are several thin branches placed just behind the final insertion of the main tendon. Affinities of Rhinochetus. The original describers of this bird, MM. Des Murs and Verreaux [1], placed it definitely with the Ardeidae ; their opinion was based upon the general coloration : the powder-down patches which characterize this bird, and are to a certain extent evidence of its affinity with the Ardeidae, were not mentioned ; the presence of these was first noticed by Mr. Bartlett. The arrival of a specimen at the Society's Gardens in 1862 enabled Mr. Bartlett to study the habits of Rhinochetus [3] ; he mentions that its movements are lively and quick, and not slow like those of a Heron; its mode of feeding and its food (snails, earthworms) differ from those of the Herons ; it is compared with Eu-rypyr/ a and regarded as Ardeine. In 1866 Mr. Bartlett described the egg, which is blotched like that of Eurypyga and the Cranes, and quite unlike the Heron's pale green egg with no markings ; again, the lively movements are those of a Crane rather than of a Heron. Prof. Parker, in his ' Monograph upon the Shoulder-girdle,' united 1 This matter has been gone into by Mr. J. Bland Sutton, F.R.C.S., in his interesting work 'Ligaments, their Nature and Morphology.' 2 Dr. Gadow, in his work on Birds (Bronn's ' Thierreichs'), has mentioned this ligament in Bucorvus. It exists in other Hornbills. 2* |