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Show 542 MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON THE [Apr. 21, bronchial semirings are fairly ossified, but have rather wide membranous interspaces. In Podicipes cristatus there is the same failure of the intrinsic syringeal muscles to reach even the end of the trachea. A box is formed by fusion at the end of the trachea, into which it appears to m e the first bronchial semiring does not enter. The bronchial semirings are deeper and closer together, and the whole bronchus is more ossified, than in the last genus. The bronchi, too, are longer. In Podicipes coronatus the syrinx is much the same, but of course smaller. The first free semiring of the bronchus seems to be No. 2. There is a wider membranous interval between it and the antecedent tracheo-bronchial box than in the last species. Tachybaptes fluviatilis (fig. 2, p. 541) has a different syrinx. The last three tracheal rings are only fused in front, though they are closely united laterally. These rings are much ossified. The insertion of the intrinsic muscles is remarkable. They run obliquely forward, converging, to be inserted into the last three tracheal rings. The first bronchial semiring is arched, and ossified in front where it is fused with the tracheal box ; otherwise it and the succeeding rings are cartilaginous. It is clear, therefore, that the syringeal characters justify the generic distinction here adopted. § On the inter-relationships of Podicipedidce, Laridae, and Alcidce. By some, e.g. by Mr. Sclater, the Grebes and the Auks are referred to one order. By others, e. g. by Dr. Gadow, the Laridae are placed in the immediate neighbourhood of the Auks, both being separated from the Grebes and Loons. In preparing a general treatise upon the Anatomy of Birds, upon which I am now engaged, I have had to go into this matter. I propose to give now such new facts as I have ascertained for myself, and extracted from the note-books of M r . Garrod and Mr. Forbes, which bear upon this question. It appears to m e to be quite necessary to separate more widely the Alcidae from the Laridae, than the Laridae from the Charadriidse (s. 1.). Dr. Gadow, in the classificatory part of his account of the Birds in Bronn's ' Thier-Eeich,' does not define the Lari by one single character of importance that distinguishes them from all of the remaining Limicolae. Nor are any such characters forthcoming from the elaborate tables of Prof. Fiirbringer. In attempting to justify the separation of some such group as the Longipennes, I have, on the contrary, found additional evidence for a closer union between the Gulls and the Plovers. I should regard the former, in fact, as merely forming a family of Dr. Gadow's Limicolae, equivalent, for instance, to Chionididae, GEdicnemidas, &c. And this family will have to be defined wholly by external characters. _ I imagined for some time that the remarkable condition of the biceps brachii in the Gulls would prove a fact of classificatory value. In Gulls the biceps is divided into two distinct muscles, corresponding to the humeral and coracoidal heads of the more normal |
