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Show 1889.] ON THE ANATOMY OF POLYBOROIDES. 77 With the evidence now before us there is no longer l any reason to doubt that the skeleton described by Gervais really belongs to Trichys. H e gives as the numbers of vertebrse : - D . 16, L. 5, S. 4, C. 21, whilst I find in our skeleton D. 16, L. 6, S. 3, C. 24. The caudal vertebral column bears four compressed, hatchet-shaped chevron-bones between the fourth and eight caudal vertebrae. The eighth vertebra marks the boundary between the proximal and distal portions of the caudal series, differing much in shape from the seventh as well as the ninth, and having the transverse process dilated into a broad lamina extending along the whole length of the centrum. The seven vertebrse preceding it are provided with strong and long lamelliform transverse processes, whilst the apophyses rapidly disappear from the ninth vertebra backwards. P.S.-'Through the kindness of Dr. Jentink I have been able to examine one of the specimens described by Waterhouse as Atherura fasciculata, and find that I was right in supposing that they are identical with Trichys. I have to add that Dr. Jentink adopts now Waterhouse's identification, an opinion which, for reasons stated, I do not share. Dr. Jentink also informs me that the specimens in the Leyden Museum come from Malacca, not from Siam.- March lith. 6. On certain Points in the Anatomy of the Accipitres, with reference to the Affinities of Polyboroides. By F R A N K E. B E D D A R D , M.A., Prosector to the Society. [Received February 19, 1889.] I have recently had the opportunity of dissecting a specimen of Polyboroides which died in the Society's Gardens ; the specimen was deposited by Lord Lilford, who expressed a wish that the skin should go to the British Museum; after the bird was skinned it was still possible to examine into the arrangement of certain of the muscles and of other organs, which examination has, in m y opinion, thrown some light upon the affinities of the bird. For this reason I think it worth while to publish the notes of m y dissection, although this paper is necessarily very far from containing a complete account of the anatomy of Polyboroides. I have not attempted to give any description of its osteology, which has been lately worked out in detail by Prof. Milne-Edwards2, but in a different species, P. radiatus. This account shows that the supposed resemblances of Polyboroides to Serpentarius are purely superficial, and that in reality it comes nearest to the Buzzards. The position assigned to the genus by Sharpe3 (in the subfamily Accipi- 1 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, p. 712. 2 Milne-Edwards and Graudidier, Hist. phys. nat. et polit. de Madagascar: Oiseaux, torn. i. p. 50. 3 B. M . Catalogue of Birds, vol. i. p. 47. |