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Show 1890.] THE STRUCTURE OF PSOPHIA. 341 The most central form I believe to be Grus, i. e. the family Gruidae (including Aramus). To unite this family with the Limicolae in a group Pluviales, as Prof. Garrod1 and Mr. Forbes2 have done, seems to me to be an ignoring of some of the obvious cranial characters of the Gruidae. I do not propose to say much about Rhinochetus and Eurypyga, now, as I am waiting an opportunity of completing my notes upon the anatomy of these two forms. In the meantime, however, I regard them as closely allied, and as having been given off from the Crane stock shortly after one branch of this had begun to develop in the direction of the Limicolae. In the Cranes the omentum is well developed, while it is less developed in the Limicolae and is hardly recognizable in the Rallidae, Psophia, and Cariama. If any stress may be laid upon this character, it would indicate the low position of the Gruidae. 3. On new or little-known Birds from South-eastern China. By H E N R Y SEEBOHM, F.Z.S. [Received April 11, 1890.] (Plate XXVII.) Through the kindness of my old friend and travelling companion in Finnmark, Professor Coilett, of the Zoological Museum of Christiania University, I have had an opportunity of examining a large collection of birds, comprising examples of 182 species, from North Fokien in South-eastern China. Most of the examples were procured by Herr Baun at Puching, up amongst the hills, but some of them were obtained at Foo-chow on the coast. When it is remembered what large numbers of birds were collected by Swinhoe in South Fokien, it is surprising that amongst the birds of North Fokien examples of so many interesting species as are enumerated in the following list have been procured. XANTHOPVGIA CYANOMEL_ENA. Herr Baun has sent a female collected at Puching on the 28th of April, which agrees exactly with females of this species from China in the Swinhoe collection, and from Japan in the Pryer collection. It also agrees with the plate in the 'Fauna Japonica' of Muscicapa gularis. XANTHOPYGIA NARCISSI NA. Herr Baun has sent examples of this species collected at Puching 1 " On certain Muscles of Birds.-Pt. II.," P. Z. S. 1874, p. 117. The wide separation of the Rallidae &c. from the Cranes appears to m e to be one of the most striking signs of artificiality in Garrod's scheme. 2 " Notes on the Anatomy and Systematic Position of the Jacanas (Parrida)," P. Z. S. 1881, p. 639 ; " Forbes's Final Idea as to the Classification of Birds," Ibis, 1884, p. 119. In associating together all the birds treated of in the present paper as a group Charadriornithes, Fiirbringer exactly expresses m y own opinion. This also is the position taken up by Mr. Seebohm (Ibis, 1889, p. 415). PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1890, No. XXIV. 24 |