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Show 46 MR. A. D. BARTLETT ON WOLVES, [Feb. 4, keel of the sternum in Opisthocomus being on the hinder third of bone, the leg of the Y-shaped merrythought (or furcula) lies close to the flat under surface of the bone and is strongly strapped to it. I showed, long ago, that the leg of the merrythought is developed as a distinct bone, the homologue of the long dagger-shaped interclavicle of the Lizards and the Monotrematous Mammals. Whether I was believed, or not, by those who had not worked these parts out, did not signify anything to me. Here, in the Hoatzin, this median bone is larger than in any other bird, and is more Lacer-tian in its attachments, as m y figures show. This bird has a " supra-scapular" segment; that is an Amphibian character. Its hind limbs are quite normal, they are similar to those of the Pigeon-footed fowls (Peristeropodes), viz. the Cracidae and Megapo-didae, the more archaic kinds of Gallinaceous birds. The vertebrae, as in fowl?, the Ratitae, and the toothed Hesperornis, are cylindroidal up to the sacrum. Many birds, now living, have their dorsal vertebrae " opisthocoelous." As to the skull, it is in many respects that of a normal Carinate bird ; but the palatal bones have a Struthious simplicity, and the basipterygoids, which are aborted in the adult, are developed in the embryo ; they articulate with the pterygoid bones at their hind part, just as in the Ratitae and the Tinamous ; in Gallinaceous birds this articulation is at the front third of the pterygoids. That character, alone, is diagnostic as to the position of Opisthocomus in this class; added to others, nothing can be clearer than that this bird is one of a nearly extinct type, and that its nearest living relations are birds of an old sort; it might be called a " Struthious Curassow." Professor Huxley, in his second paper (P. Z. S.1868, pp. 294-319), makes this single, lonely bird the representative of his suborder " Heteromorphae " ; an equivalent suborder, the " Coracomorphse," contains more than six thousand living species. I agree with him in this daring classification. The following papers were read :- 1. Observations on Wolves, Jackals, Dogs, and Foxes. By A. D. B A R T L E T T , Superintendent of the Society's Gardens. [Eeceived December 6, 1889.] Wolves, jackals, dogs, and foxes are found spread nearly all over the world. So much has been written and published on these animals that at the first sight it would appear that little can be added to the knowledge we already possess. It is, however, agreed by all writers who are entitled worthy of notice, that all the varieties of domestic dogs have descended from wolves and jackals, or from the admixture of animals of these kinds, as no other animals are known to which we can in any reasonable way ascribe their origin. |