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Show 1905.] OX THE ANATOMY OF LIMICOLINE BIRDS. 155 5. On the Anatomy of Limicoline Birds ; with special Reference to the Correlation of Modifications. By P. C h a lm e r s M i t c h e l l , M .A., D.Sc. (Oxon.), Secretary to the Society. In this memoir I use the term Limicolse in the sense of Gadow (3) as a major subdivision of the Order Charadriiformes. I have dissected examples of the following forms, and where, in this paper, I refer to family-chara'cters, I must be understood as limiting my remarks to the birds I have myself dissected, unless I definitely state otherwise:- Suborder L im ic o l j e . Family Charadriidee ....... Charadrius pluvialis. The greater part of the actual dissection was completed in 1902, in continuation of my work on Gruiform Birds (7); pressure of other duties has made it impossible to finish it sooner. I am indebted to the facilities afforded by this Society in the prosectorium at the Gardens for the material, and to my friend Mr. F. E. Beddard, F.R.S., the Society's Prosector, for much kindly interest. In the arrangement of the feathers on the wing, all Limicoline birds are closely similar. They are diastataxic in the most typical form. The condition in Chionis alba (text-fig. 23, p. 156) may serve as an example. Along the edge of the ulna, from the wrist towards the elbow, the great quills with their associated coverts are arranged in an orderly series, but after four of these rows, each headed by a quill, there is a row from which the quill is missing, forming the diastataxic gap (text-fig. 23, x, p. 156). The carpal remex and covert are present (C.R., C.O.), the covert, in most cases (although not in Chionis), being conspicuously larger than the remex. These two feathers lie closer to the most proximal primary- [Received May 16, 1905.] (Text-figures 23-28.) Chionidfe..... Glareolidje .. Thinocoridae (Edicnemidfe Parridte ..... Himantopus nigricollis. Vanellus vulgaris. Gallinago coelestis. Rhynchcea capensis. Scolopax rusticola. Chionis alba. Glareola pratincola. Thinocorus species ? CEdicnemus scolopax. Hydrophasianus chirurg us. D ia s t a t a x y in t h e L im ic o l .e . |