OCR Text |
Show 190 ON THE UNITED STATES COLUMBIDiE. [Mar. 3, 15. Sternum large, with very deep carina; two pairs of flaring xiphoidal processes, usually making the bone 4-notched, but the posterior or more inconspicuous internal pair of xiphoidal processes may unite by their extremities with the mid-xiphoi-dal prolongation and thus create fenestras behind. Manubrium small. Corpus sterni often narrow for its entire length. Usually four articular facettes upon each costal border. 1G. The humerus is straight, pneumatic, and its radial crest is triangular in form. The radius is straight and the ulna is bowed. 1 7. Trochanter offemur elevated above the summit of the shaft. Patella may be very small and in two pieces, or it may be larger with a single minute piece near it (Stamcenas). Ossific centres in tibial cartilage. 18. Hypotarsus of tarso-metatarsus of short cubical form, and is both pierced and grooved for the passage of tendons. Hallux on a level with the other toes, and its metatarsal peculiarly twisted. Phalanges of pes 2, 3, 4, 5 for the 1st to 4th toes respectively. CONCLUSIONS. Our Suborder of Columbce in the United States contains but one family-the Columbidce. Whether the Quail-Doves of the genus Stamcenas should be awarded a subfamily of the Columbidce can onlv be settled when we are in possession of a full knowledge of their anatomy. So far as the osteology of Stamcenas cyanocephala goes, it would seem to indicate that a subfamily line separates it from our other Pigeons l. One of the best established facts in ornithology is that the Columbidce are nearly related to the great gallinaceous group of birds, so then the nearest relatives they have in our avifauna are the Tetraonidce, especially the Grouse. Then beyond them are the Cracidce and Turkeys. Huxley has said (P. Z. S. 1867, p. 460) that " on the other side they seem to be allied with the Owls and Vultures." Such affinities, however, must be quite remote. There is no question about the links that connect the Columbine types with the Grouse and Ptarmigans (Lagopus), for they are most perfectly seen in the Sand-Grouse, holding as these latter do a morphological position directly between them. The Plovers are not so far off in another direction, and Tinamus and Hemipodius have also distant claims to kinship. The extinct Dodo and the existing Didunculus of Samoa show other and perhaps nearer relations. Fossil remains of Pigeons, so far as the present writer is aware, have not as yet been found in this country, though those of several species of Turkeys have. 1 With its enormous sternum, its differently constituted vertebral column, and a number of other points, it will at once be seen that, osteologically, Btarmenas is quite different from any of our other Pigeons. These characters are also supported by others already pointed out by Coues (Key, 2nd ed. p. 571), who has created for it the subfamily Starnomadince, and I a m strongly inclined tu believe he is right. |