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Show 162 MR. W. K. PARKER ON STEATORNIS CARIPENSIS. [Apr. 2, Genera, and Species are the newest and the most specialized; this is seen best of all in the Passerine order, the " Coracomorphae." On the other hand, we have birds that are impoverished up to the very edge of extinction, such as the "Ratitae"-poor, stupid, savage tribes, that are fast dying out from among the noble and accomplished modern birds. The "Order" to which Steatornis belongs is in great contrast with the great Passerine group ; the Coccygomorphae are little more than one fourth as numerous as the Coracomorphae, yet are ten times as polymorphous. Among the more than half-myriad of the Singing-birds, using the term in the broadest sense, a very small percentage of the types is abnormal; a very few have four notches to their sternum; two or three genera have their plantar tendons bound across by a special ligament-are Desmodactyle ; just a few have a tracheal, and a few have a simple broncho-tracheal syrinx; whilst two genera, Atrichia and Menura, have a syrinx that just falls short of the typical perfection of that of the highest form-" the Oscines." But all these types are iEgithognathous, and, what is most remarkable is, that that peculiar anticipation of the Mammalian fore-palate is only found in one small family outside the Coracomorphae, namely, the Swifts (Cypselidae). So that we have one character which does not fail us throughout the Passerine order; the sternum, the syrinx, and the plantar tendons are variable. One other character, which, however, is shared by many other birds, is the great abortion, mostly the complete suppression, of the basipterygoids; these are useful and important things for the taxonomist, but they fail him in the time of need. The time of need is when he would make a good clear distinction between the Coracomorphae and the Coccygomorphae: he is bound to do this, or to cease to call himself a philosophical ornithologist; and yet can it be done ? Here, if anywhere, Professor Huxley's comprehensive terms come to be of great value, but of most difficult application. The difficulty was felt by himself, and he was thus led in his second paper (P. Z. S. 1868, pp. 294-319) to breakup and spoil his excellent and most natural group of the " Alectoromorphae," and a little more wavering of mind would have made him break up and destroy his excellent group of the Cuculines-the Coccygomorphae. These, however, must be kept together at any cost; to enrich that order I feel willing to give up the importance of the distinctness of the Swifts, the Humming-birds, and the Parrots. As for the Picidae and Yungidae, none but the most fretful and impatient of the Classifying tribe would have quarrelled with the present writer for demonstrating the peculiar structure of the palate in these birds, or for inventing a morphological term for that palate, namely " Saurognathous." As for the Value of the condition of this part of the bird's structure, I have just stated that it is the safest thing we have in the Coracomorphae; but whilst that masterly and invaluable paper on the |
