I

TO BE COMPLETED IN FOUR PARTS

UC-NRLF

•I

B 3

DICTIONABY OF BIKDS

BY

ALFRED NEWTON

ASSISTED BY

HANS GADOW

«
WITH CONTRIBUTION'S FROM

RICHARD LYDEKKER CHARLES S. ROY

B.A., P.R.s. M.A., F.ll.S.

AND

ROBERT W. SHUFELDT, M.D.

(LATE UNITED STATES' ARMY)

PART III. (MOA-SHEATHBILL)

LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK

1894

PRICE SEVEN SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE NET

REEF

POINT

GARDENS

LIBRARY

The Gift of Beatrix Farrand

to the General Library
University of California,Berkeley

DICTIONABY OF BIEDS

BY

ALFRED NEWTON

L- —

ASSISTED BY

HANS GADOW

WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM
RICHARD LYDEKKER CHARLES S. ROY

B.A., F.R.S. M.A. F.R.S.

AND

ROBERT W. SHUFELDT, M.D.

(LATE UNITED STATES' ARMY)

PART III. (MOA-SHEATHBILL)

LONDON

ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
1894

LANDSCAPE

MOA 577

was promptly (14th Feb. 1843) substituted for it and has ever since
held ground (Proc. Zool Soc. 1843, pp. 1, 2, 8-10, 19). In due
time these specimens with others, subsequently received from the
same quarter (torn, cit. pp. 144-146), and referred to five, or rather
six, distinct species of the genus x were fully described and figured
(Trans. Zool Soc. iii. pp. 235-275, pis. 18-30), forming the first
of that incomparable series of memoirs continued over nearly forty
years which will always be associated with the author's name,2 but
cannot be here further particularized, though mention must be made
of the assistance rendered by Mr. Percy Earl and by Mr. Walter
Mantell.

The Moas inhabited both the North and South Islands of New
Zealand, where they were represented by a considerable number of
species, of which the smallest was scarcely larger than a Turkey,
while the largest had a tibia of more than a yard in length. We
are inclined to estimate the number of species at about 20 ; Capt.
Hutton (N. Zeal. Journ. i. pp. 247-249 ; Trans. N. Zeal Insl
xxiv. pp. 93 - 172) admits, indeed, 26 species, but some of
these we should prefer regarding merely as varieties or sexes.
Certain species were peculiar to the North, and others to the South
Island, while some were common to both. A femur described
under the name of D. queenslandise 3 appears to belong to a Moa, and
if its reputed place of origin be correct, shews that the Family
extended to Australia ; — a fact in distribution which, if true, is of
extreme importance.

When New Zealand was first systematically explored by
Europeans, Moa-bones were found lying on the surface of the ground
in many districts in great profusion, being especially abundant near
the old cooking-places of the natives, and often shewing traces of
the action of fire. They also occur in the most superficial and recent
deposits, such as blown sands, as well as in caves and swamps.
Many of the latter, such as that of Glenmark, near Canterbury,
when drained have been found to be full of Moa-bones, frequently
in all conceivable positions. In one particular district of the South
Island, where climatic conditions appear to be peculiarly favourable,
skeletons have been found with the bones connected by dried
muscles, ligaments, and integument with the cuticle and feathers.
Fragments of egg-shells, as well as pebbles swallowed by the birds
and contained in their stomachs at their death, together with impres-
sions of footprints, have likewise been discovered. The discovery of

1 Namely D. giganteus, ingens, struthioides, dromseoides, didiformis and otidi-
formis. The original specific name novas-zealandise was tacitly dropped.

2 This series was issued in 1879 in a separate form under the title of The
Extinct Birds of New Zealand.

3 De Vis, Proc. R. Soc. Queensl. i. p. 27, pis. iii. 17. (1884). Etheridge, Rec.
Geol. Surv. N. S. W. i. p. 128 (1889).

37

211

578 MO A

remains of a Moa (Anomalopteryx antiqua) in clay on Timaru Downs
seems, however, to carry back the group to the Pliocene, or possibly
the upper part of the Miocene period ; but the age of the beds has
been called in question by Mr. H. 0. Forbes. That Moas lived
down to a comparatively recent epoch is abundantly evident, and it
is practically certain that they formed a considerable portion of the
food of the human race by whom New Zealand was first peopled,
and by whom they were in great part or wholly extirpated. Capt.
Hutton considers that in the North Island Moas were extermin-
ated not less than 400 or 500 years ago, while in the South Island
they might have lingered a century later. The larger species
(Dinornis) were always comparatively rare, but many of the smaller
forms were very numerous. How so many became entombed in
the swamps is a question not yet solved ; although it is suggested
that debacles during a glacial period may have been the chief agents.

As a rule, Moas were destitute of wings, although Capt. Hutton
states that a rudimentary pair existed in Anomalopteryx (Palapteryx)
dromseoides. The nearest allies of the Moas being apparently the
Kiwis, it seems a fair inference that the females were larger than
the males ; and this is confirmed by bones differing only slightly,
but constantly, in size.1 The feathers differ from those of the
Kiwis in having an aftershaft.

Moas are distinguished from all existing Ratitss, in having
a bony bridge on the anterior surface of the lower end of the tibia
above the condyles (fig. 1). The tarso- metatarsus (fig. 2) has
three distal trochleae, and in most cases (according to Capt. Hutton
probably all) carried a hallux. The beak (unlike that of the Kiwis)
is short and stout ; the form of the lower jaw being either U-like
or V-like. The general form of the pelvis is very like that of the
Kiwis ; but the sternum (fig. 3) differs by the absence of the
superior notch, the more divergent lateral processes, and the abor-
tion or disappearance of the grooves for the coracoids.

The most remarkable features which the birds present are the
gigantic dimensions attained by some of them, and the great number
of species occurring in such a limited area as New Zealand. The
absence of Mammals in those islands has doubtless been the chief
cause which has led to this great development, both as regards
species and individuals, of Moas (as well as of other flightless
birds); and it has generally been considered that this development
has taken place entirely within the limits of these islands;2 while Capt.
Hutton suggests that the genera may have been differentiated on
separate islets by subsidence during the Pliocene period. As regards
their introduction into New Zealand, Mr. Wallace (Island Life, pp.
446, 447) is of opinion that Cassowaries, Emeus, Dromornis, Kiwis

1 Capt. Hutton does not admit this sexual difference in size.

2 If D. queenslandiss be truly Australian, this view will need modification.

MOA

579

and Moas were derived from an Asiatic stock of Ratite birds ; but
Capt. Hutton objects to this view, and suggests that the Moas are
descended from volant birds, allied to the TlNAMOUS, which inhabited
New Zealand during the Eocene. The Moas are thus regarded as
the ancestral stock of all the Australasian Ratitaz, while those of Asia
and America are supposed to have had a totally independent origin.
There are, however, many objections to this view ; one of the most
obvious being the absence of any evidence of the presumed Tinamou-
like Eocene birds.1

Although, as already mentioned, there is some uncertainty as to
the actual number of species of Moas, yet there is no doubt that the

Fig. 1. EIGHT TIBIA of Euryapteryx gravis (A), 1/6, of Dinornis gracilis (B), 1/8, and Megalapteryx

tenuipes (C), 1/8. Anterior view.
(From Lydekker's ' Catalogue of Fossil Birds in the British Museum.')

number was large. The Family may be divided into at least 5
genera, of which the first and last are very widely separated,
although connected to a certain extent by the intermediate forms."2
The typical genus Dinwnis, Owen, includes the tallest of the
Moas, and is characterized by the length and slenderness of the

1 It is not easy to reconcile Capt. Hutton's views as to the impossibility of an
immigration of flightless birds having taken place into New Zealand, while he
admits that emigrations must have happened.

2 Capt. Hutton adopts 7 genera (one of which he subdivides into two sub-
genera), exclusive of one of those noticed below.

580

MOA

tibia (fig. 1, B) and tarso-metatarsus (fig. 2, B), and also by the
broad and flattened beak, the apparent absence of the hallux, and
the width and convexity of the sternum. The typical D. novaz-

zeolandias (including D. giganteus
and D.ingens J) is mainly confined
to the North Island, and is one
of the largest species, the length
of the tibia of the presumed
female being 35 inches. In the
South Island this Moa was re-
presented by the closely -allied
D. maximus (D. robustus, in part),
which is the largest of all the
species, having a tibia measuring
39 inches, and probably reaching
a height of 12 feet. D. gracilis
(fig. 1, B) and D. struthioides
(fig. 2, B) were considerably
smaller forms, occurring in both
islands, and referred by Hutton
to a distinct subgenus (Tylo-

Fig. 2. RIGHT TARSO-METATARSUS of Pachyornis pteryX).

elephantopus (A), and Dinornis struthioides MegCtlaptenjX, Yon Haast,

worko' Anterioraspect' <F™mthesame originally referred to the Aptery-

gidse, is represented by two much

smaller and imperfectly -known forms from the South Island,
characterized by the extreme slenderness and length of the femur
and tibia (fig. 1, C), and the shorter tarso-metatarsus.

Anomalopteryx, Reichenbach ( = Meionornis, Haast) is typically
represented by the small D. didiformis, Owen, and, in our opinion,
may be conveniently taken to include all the smaller species of the
group, although Capt. Hutton prefers to separate Owen's D. dro-
mseoides as Palapteryx, D. curtus as Cela, and D. didinus as Mesopteryx.
On the other hand, Owen's D. casuarinus, which Yon Haast
included in Meionornis, is placed by Capt. Hutton with Emeus crassus.
Whether included under one or more generic headings, all these
forms are characterized by having the tibia and tarso-metatarsus
considerably shorter and stouter than in Dinornis, while the beak is
narrow and more or less pointed, the hallux present (as in the
following genera), and the sternum (fig. 3, A) very long and
narrow. There is great difficulty in correctly identifying the
various members of this group with the species named by Owen
on the evidence of detached bones. A. casuarina, with a tibia
measuring 19 inches in length, is the largest form, and A. (Cela)

1 If these forms be regarded as distinct, the name novae-zealandise, should be
adopted for the latter.

MOA

581

oweni, in which the tibia measures only 9 '2, the smallest. A. parva
is the only member of the Family of which there is a perfect
skeleton in English collections. It is identified by Capt. Hutton
with the typical A. didiformis ; but a skeleton transmitted by Von
Haast to the British Museum and assigned to the latter has a
relatively smaller skull.1 In the type of A. (Mesopteryx) didina the
integuments of the head and feet are still preserved.

Emeus, Reichenbach, was established on D. crassus, Owen. It is a
rather large species, to which Owen and Von Haast assigned a broad-
billed skull, and although Capt. Hutton states that the skull is
really of the narrow-beaked type of Anomalopteryx, we have reason
to believe that the original view is correct. This Moa was confined to
the South Island.

Fig. 3. STERNUM of Anomalopteryx casuarina (A), and Pachyornis elepTiantopus (B), 1/6.
a, Costal process ; fc, Lateral process. (From the same work.)

Von Haast proposed the name Euryapteryx for the small and
broad-beaked D. gravis, Owen. This species, which is confined to the
South Island, is distinguished from those that follow by the absence
of any inflection of the lower end of the tibia, and the relative
length and straightness of that bone. It therefore seems to be
entitled to generic distinction.2 If, therefore, the so-called 7).
crassus really have a broad-beaked skull, both that and the present
species may be included under the title of Emeus.

Lastly we have the genus Pachyornis, Lydekker, likewise typi-
cally confined to the South Island, and including some three or
four species of large size, characterized by the extraordinary
massiveness and sharpness of their limb -bones. The tarso-
metatarsus (fig. 2, A) presents a remarkable contrast to the corre-
sponding bone of Dinornis (fig. 2, B) ; and a similar contrast is

1 It is doubtful if this skeleton is altogether authentic.

2 According to Von Haast it is further distinguished by having a sternum of
the type of Anomalopteryx, but Capt. Hutton throws some doubt on the correct-
ness of the restoration of the skeleton by Von Haast.

582 MO A T-HEN— MOCKING-BIRD

exhibited by the tibiae of the two genera, that of Pachyornis being
further distinguished from the corresponding bone of all the
preceding members of the Family by the inflection of its distal end.
The sternum (fig. 3, B) is likewise very different from that of the
other forms, being very wide and flat, with broad and divergent
lateral processes. The skulls found with the limb-bones of P.
elephantopus near Oamaru Point, and transmitted with them to the
British Museum, have pointed beaks, and there is much probability
of their reference to this species by Owen being correct. P.
elephantopus, of which the remains, often charred by fire, are
extremely abundant near Oamaru Point, was a large species, the
tibia measuring 24 inches in length ; but P. immanis was still larger,
with a remarkably wide tarso-metatarsus. R. LYDEKKER.

MOAT-HEN, an old name for the MOOR-HEN.

MOCKING-BIRD x is the name given by naturalists and
others to a number of birds that possess the power of imitating the
notes of other species of the Class. Comparatively speaking,
however, it almost exclusively applies to the Mocking-bird of
America, the Mimus polyglottus of recent ornithologists. This re-
markable bird is regarded by those who have investigated its
structure as belonging to the Family Troglodytidse, a group containing
the WRENS, THRASHERS (Harporhynehus), and their allies ; a sub-
family, Miminse, within this Family having been created to contain
such birds as are represented in the United States by the last-
named genus, as well as the genera Oreoscoptes, Mimus and Galeo-
scoptes.2

The most THRUSH-like forms among the Troglodytidse are more
or less closely related to the Turdidse, the Family containing the typical
Thrushes, and none more so than are the several genera above
named. Indeed, many ornithologists regard the Miminse as being

1 For this article on a subject which can only be fitly treated by an American
ornithologist I am again indebted to Dr. Shufeldt. The earlier English naturalists,
Charleton, Ray and Catesby wrote the name "Mock-bird"; and in England
either form, or more often "Mock-Nightingale," is occasionally given to the
BLACKCAP, Sylvia atricapilla, and the SEDGE-BIRD. In India and Australia the
name is sometimes applied to other species, and even in North America two
Wrens, Thryothorus ludovicianus and T. bewicki seem to be widely known as
"Mocking-birds."— A. N.

2 In this connexion see the paper by Mr. F. A. LUCAS entitled Notes on the
Osteology of the Thrushes, Miminae, and Wrens (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. vol. xi.
1888), and two papers by the present writer, viz. On the Position of Chamsea in
the System (Jour. Morph. vol. iii. No. 3, 1889, pp. 475-502), also Contributions to
the Comparative Osteology of the Families of North American Passeres (Jour.
Morph. vol. iii. No. 1, 1889, pp. 81-114).

MOCKING-BIRD 583

aberrant Turdidx, the former possessing tarsi anteriorly scutellate,
while the latter are characterized by having the tarsal theca fused
into one solid, smooth sheath in front. It is as well to observe here,
however, that in Galeoscoptes the scutellae of the tarsus are sometimes
quite obsolete. Osteologically the Mimime, Thrushes and Wrens
possess apparently distinguishing characters of about equal rank and
strength, while in some particulars the several genera almost seem
to intergrade where the affinities are most closely drawn. From
some cause or another, not yet fully determined, adult Mocking-
birds vary considerably in size, especially in length, several
apparently full-grown males ranging from 9| to 11 inches; and it
is also a well-known fact that they likewise vary greatly in their
powers of song.

Although exceedingly plain in the coloration of his plumage,
the Mocking-bird is a strikingly handsome and graceful bird. This
is largely due to the ease and elegance of his every movement, his
neat appearance, and a certain decisive dignity in all his actions.
His eye is full of animation, and his constant bearing full of energy.
The sexes differ but little in colour or size, the female being rather
browner and at the same time smaller, while young birds are
speckled below with dusky, as is the case in the majority of young
Turdidas. An adult male is of an ashy-grey above, and a dingy
white below. A large white space marks the blackish-brown wing,
and the outer tail-feathers are also white, the remainder of the
tail being black, the feathers tipped with white, the same
being graduated from without towards the middle pair of usually
wholly black feathers. The bill and feet are likewise black, and
the irides of a fine golden cream-colour. In form, the bird is trim
and Thrush-like, the tail being rather long and cuneiform.

The habitat of this species may be said to extend across the
entire breadth of the United States, and south into Mexico ; but
north of the 38th parallel the bird becomes rare. Over this wide
range the food of the Mocking-bird varies somewhat, although it
may be broadly said that it everywhere consists largely of many of
the smaller fruits, insects and some seeds. In some respects its
nidification agrees with the typical Thrushes, the nest being placed
without much regard to concealment in some bush or low tree ;
being bulky, and built of twigs, dried leaves, fine fibrous roots,
and sometimes to these are added wool or tow when procurable.
The eggs are from four to six, bluish-green in colour, freckled with
blotches of various shades of yellowish-brown. Two broods may
be reared in the season, and in the southern States sometimes
even three. Very often the nest of the Mocking-bird is attacked
by various species of snakes, more especially the black -snake
(Bascanium constrictor), which is very partial to the eggs and young
of this and other birds. These attacks are met by Mimus with

584 MOCKING-BIRD

conspicuous courage, and the intruder is frequently compelled to
withdraw, while the victorious bird announces the result of the
encounter with a perfect medley of his richest vocalizations,
which are usually poured forth from the top of the tree or bush
containing his nest.

Were what we have given in the foregoing account of the
Mocking-bird all that goes to make up his life-history, he would
pass among his Class as a very ordinary representative of it indeed ;
it is not, however, for any of the traits or habits thus far
enumerated that he has become one of the most famous of his tribe.
He is, as every student of nature knows, one of the most extra-
ordinary songsters of the entire world's avifauna. As an imitator
of the songs or cries of every other species of bird he has ever
listened to, the Mocking-bird probably stands without a rival in
the entire Class, but in addition to this power he possesses native
notes of great purity, strength, energy, and sweetness. To some
degree these latter resemble the notes of the Brown Thrasher,
Harporhynchus rufus, but are of greater variety and far richer.

For thorough appreciation, one should catch him upon a
dewy morning just as the sun rises, and he flits to the top
of some low tree to pour forth his medley of carols in soul-felt
welcoming. This may be in some quarter of the sunny south,
perhaps near the manor-house of some broad plantation, where
not only can he imitate any individual of the host of native
songsters about him, but vary the strain with any of those familiar
sounds heard about the house and barn-yard. To see that little
feathered being so brimful of ecstasy, replete with action and anima-
tion, drooping his wings, spreading his tail, so buoyant as hardly
to be able to retain his perch, while the air is actually filled with
his inimitable musical performances, is a sight not likely to be for-
gotten. Clearly, and with the greatest possible accuracy and
rapidity, and with a mellow strength even exceeding the originals,
he utters the notes and calls of twenty or more birds in succes-
sion, ranging all the way from the plaintive air of the Blue-Bird
to the harsh, discordant cries of Jays, Sparrow-Hawks, and even
with equal compass the vociferations of an Eagle. Catching breath,
and tossing himself lightly into the air above his perch, he alarms
the entire feathered community assembled by his imitating the
cries of a wounded birdling in the talons of a Hawk ; this is
followed perhaps by the crowing of a Cock or the vociferous note of
the Whip-poor-will, and the very incongruity appears to put his
feathered listeners to shame at the hoax.

Caging seems hardly to diminish his powers, and he will sing
with the greatest energy the best part of a moonlit night, as
lustily as though he were free in his native haunts. But enough :
to have one appreciate the Mocking-bird he must be heard, and he

MOLLY— MONAL 585

must be heard under all circumstances where he best loves to
dwell. To compare him with his only rival, the European Nightin-
gale, seems to me quite out of place, though I will say that my
faith in the powers of the Mocking-bird is so firm, that I believe
were he successfully introduced into those countries where the
Nightingale flourishes, that princely performer might some day
wince as he was obliged to listen to his own most powerful
strains poured forth with all their native purity by this king of
feathered mockers, the subject of the present notice.

In America there are no other birds that at all deserve the
name of a Mocking-bird. The Magpie often imitates bits of human
speech with great accuracy, while the CAT-BIRD sometimes
makes a feeble effort to bring out the notes of some of the
smaller birds, but they are not to be thought of in connexion with
the powerful productions of Mimus polyglottus, while the cat-like
mewing note of the former is not in imitation of that animal at
all, but only an accidental vocal resemblance.1

E. W. SHUFELDT.

MOLLY and MOLLY-MA WK, corruptions of MALLEMUCK,
applied by modern seamen to the smaller kinds of ALBATROS.

MONAL or MOONAUL (Hind. Mundl),2 the Anglo-Indian
name for birds of the genus Lophophorus, some of the largest of the

1 Some twelve or fourteen other species of Mimus have been recognized,
mostly from South America, where the name of "Calandria" (Lark) is often
applied to them, and Mr. Hudson's account (Argent. Orn. i. pp. 5-11) of the
three inhabiting the portion of that continent treated of by him is well
worth attention ; but M. orpheus seems to be common to some of the
Greater Antilles, and M. hilli is peculiar to Jamaica, while the Bahamas have a
local race in M. bahamensis. The so-called Mountain Mocking-bird, Oreoscoptes
montanus, is a form not very distant from Mimus ; but, according to Mr.
Kidgway, it inhabits exclusively the plains (overgrown with Artemisia) of the
interior tableland of North America, and is not at all imitative in its notes, so
that it is an instance of a misnomer. Of the other genera allied to Mimus, those
known in the United States as THRASHEBS, and belonging to the genus Harpo-
rhynchus — of which six or eight species are found in North America, and are very
Thrush -like in their habits — have been mentioned above ; but there is only room
here to dwell on the CAT-BIRD, Galeoscoptes or Mimus carolinensis, which is an
imitator of many sounds, with at the same time peculiar notes of its own, from
one of which it has gained its popular name. The sooty-grey colour that,
deepening into blackish-brown on the crown and quills, pervades the whole of its
plumage — the lower tail-coverts, which are of a deep chestnut, excepted — renders
it a conspicuous object ; and though, for some reason or other, far from being a
favourite, it is always willing when undisturbed to become intimate with men's
abodes. Besides its range on the American continent it is one of the few species
that are resident in Bermuda, while on more than one occasion it is said to have
appeared in Europe, though whether as an unaided visitor may be doubted. — A. N.

2 See Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, pp. 443, 444.

586 MONAL

Phasmnidss, the Impeyan PHEASANTS of many writers, so called
because one of them was introduced to notice by Sir Elijah and
Lady Impey on returning from India in 1784.1 But the species
thus made known, the true L. impeianus, seems to have a re-

LOPHOPHORUS REFULGENS. (After Swainson.)

stricted range in southern Cashmere (Chamba), and is not common
in collections, a nearly allied one, L* refulgens, which frequents
the forests of the southern slopes of the Himalayas, from eastern
Afghanistan to western Bhotan, being generally mistaken for
it.2 Its habits, described by Mr. Frederic Wilson, writing in
1848, as "Mountaineer" in The India Sporting Review (viii. pp.
143-148), and quoted by Jerdon (B. Ind. iii. pp. 511-515), are
completely those of an ordinary Pheasant, though it often shews
a greater partiality for perching upon a tree when made to take
wing. In some districts it seems to have been extremely numerous
not so many years ago, but there is reason to fear that, in spite of
the well-intended action of the Indian Government, this is not so
now; for the cocks have been killed by thousands to meet the
" plume " market, and their refulgent feathers are not only largely
used by women to bedizen their persons, but also in the construc-
tion of fans, screens and the like. The hens are fortunately
without special adornment, and carry on their maternal duties
comparatively unmolested in a modest attire admirably adapted
to concealment, and in strong contrast to the brilliant hues of their
mates, whose plumage of shining green and blue over nearly the

1 Cuvier in 1829 (Regne Animal, ed. 2, i. p. 474), and after him Yule (Marco
Polo, i. p. 248), believe that it was described by Mlieui (Nat. Anim. xvi. 2), but what
the last says of his "Great Indian Cock," though in several respects fitting the
Monaul, seems too vague to make this certain. Some suppose that Julian took
his information from Ctesias, but the fragments of the latter speak only (Indica,
cap. 3) of very big Indian Cocks, a MS. at Munich reading, according to P. J. C.
F. Bahr (Francof. a/M. : 1824, p. 269), d\eKTpv6ve.s u>s Trpd^ara — cocks as big as
sheep I Mr. M'Crindle, in his edition of Ctesias (Bombay: 1882, p. 36, note),
also thinks he had this bird in view, but woefully misspells its scientific name.

2 L. impeianus has the lower part of the back and body generally of a golden-
green, while in L. refulgens the former is white and the latter black. The correc-
tion of the common mistake is due to Mr. Ogilvie-Grant (Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxii. p.
278), and is the more welcome since the original species had been redescribed
(Ibis, 1884, p. 421, pi. x.) under the new name of i. chambanus.

MONK— MONSTROSITIES 587

whole body, with a gleam of gilded purple on the nape, a snowy-
white rump and rufous tail, offer a marvellously bright combination
of colours. Another striking feature is the crest of feathers formed
almost like those of the common Peacock, and this crest is pos-
sessed also by the true L. impeianus. In Assam a third species,
L. sclaleri, is found (Proc. Zool. Soc.
1870, pi. xiv. ; 1879, pi. li.) crestless,
and having the tail white with a
broad reddish bar near the tip ; while
a fourth, L. I'huysi, having a crest of
ordinary feathers, and a dark glossy
green tail (op. cit. 1868, pi. i.), in-
habits Moupin. Other species may A

... r _/ (After Swamson.)

not unlikely reveal themselves as the

North-eastern portion of the Indian Region is explored. According
to Jerdon (op. cit.\ one of the Horned Pheasants, Tragopan or
Ceriornis satyrus, is also called " Monaul " by Europeans at Darjiling.

MONK, a name in some parts of England for the cock BULL-
FINCH, and in Australia one of many applied to the FRIAR-BIRD.

MONSTROSITIES are naturally more observed in domesticated
than in wild Birds, and are more commonly cases of excessive
than of arrested development. The former may be restricted to
overgrowth of otherwise small parts, such as double feathers, or
may amount to the addition of a whole limb, or even still greater
portion of the body. Frequently such supernumerary parts seem
due to an early splitting of the affected member in the embryo,
but whether caused by mechanical injury or due to an unusual
activity of the growing and multiplying cells it is of course in most
cases impossible to say. As a rule, such abnormalities are purely
pathological, and not indicative of ancestral conditions, though cases
are known in which latent germs have certainly been awakened
and given rise to organs or parts of organs that in normal individuals
of the species are either absent or rudimentary.

Supernumerary toes, as in the Dorking Fowl, are of common
occurrence. In these cases the additional toe is generally the result
of the HALLUX being split into two, and not the real fifth toe, which
was long ago completely lost by the Reptilian ancestors of Birds.

Three legs are very frequent ; the third limb, which is generally
smaller and with crippled toes, being attached to the caudal
vertebrae, to the pelvis, or even to the femur of one of the proper
legs. Such cases have been many times recorded in the Duck, Fowl,
Sparrow and other common birds, while Lidbeck long ago described
(K. Vetensk. Acad. Handl 1762, p. 164) an adult Eagle with three
feet, of which the superfluous foot was placed between the other
two and bore seven toes. A more recent and somewhat similar

588 MONSTROSITIES

instance is described by Mr. H. K. Coale (Auk, 1887, p. 332), in
which a superfluous toe was loosely attached to the muscles of the
thigh of a Buteo latissimus.1 Monstrous examples with four legs are
known in Fowls, Pigeons, Geese, Sparrows and the Goldfinch, the
supernumerary pair being sometimes correlated with a double vent.
A Chick preserved in the Cambridge Museum has the additional
pair of limbs attached to the end of the stunted tail.

Supernumerary wings, articulating below the normal Avings,
likewise occur, but very rarely except the legs be also doubled, so
that the monster possesses eight limbs (Tiedemann, Anat. und
Naturgesch. Vogel, ii. p. 273).

Many other malformations may be seen in various Museums,
but only a few need be here mentioned — such as Chicks with two
bills, three wings and four legs ; Geese, Pigeons, and Pheasants
with two or three bills ; Chicks, Ducklings and Pigeons with two
heads. Occasionally considerable portions of the trunk are affected
by duplicity, producing not only two heads and necks, but two
vertebral columns and two bellies. Two hearts, within otherwise
normal bodies, have also been described in adult Fowls, Turkeys
and Geese. The Cambridge Museum possesses a nearly adult
example of a Duck which beside the two normal and functional
legs has an extra right leg of the same size as the others, but ending
in five complete toes. Another immature Duck has a cleft in the
middle line of the sternum, separating it together with the keel
into a right half and a left, in this respect continuing the embryonic
condition. Similar cases of arrested development are common, and
one, of a Pigeon, has been figured (Phil. Trans. 1869, pi. xxiii. fig.
172). In the same Museum is an adult male Turnstone (Strepsilas
interpres), which was in perfect plumage when killed, with only one
leg, and not the least trace, as ascertained on dissection, of the other.
Fowls may have their toes more or less united by a web, and Ducks be
without any web between their toes ; the last case is of some curiosity,
insomuch as such birds, as they swim, close their toes during the
back stroke, thus adapting themselves to their abnormal condition.

Questions relating to abnormal excess of structure form what is
called Teratology, on which the works of M. Camille Dareste 2 and
Mr. Bateson 3 may be profitably studied. The former comes to the
following conclusions : — Abnormalities are always due to modifica-
tions of the early embryonic development. Multiple heads are the

1 The same gentleman also records a Dolidionyx oryziwrus having a horny
spur, of which he gives a figure (torn. cit. p. 333), " growing from the thumb tip "
of each wing. This may be compared with the examples already cited (CLAWS,
pp. 89, 90), but they scarcely belong to the category of Monstrosities. — A. N".

2 Recherches sur la production artificielle des monstruositts, ou essai de Terato-
genie experimentale. Paris : 1877.

3 Materials for the Study of Variation. London : 1894.

MOOR-BUZZARD—MOOR-HEN 589

result of arrested development of the anterior cranial vesicle.
Irregular growth of the AMNION frequently has a disturbing in-
fluence upon various parts of the embryo, and thus abnormalities of
the tailfold (EMBRYOLOGY, p. 201) produce hind limbs abnormal in
shape and position, a crooked vertebral column and so on. Double
or treble monsters, partial or even perfect twins, or triplets, may be
due to any one of three causes : — two or three yolks, each with its
own blastoderm (p. 200) in one common shell ; two blastoderms
with one yolk ; or one blastoderm upon a single yolk, split by a
subsequent injury, each portion of it producing a more or less
complete counterpart of an embryo or portion of it. M. Dareste
has been able to shew beyond doubt that portions of the blasto-
derm artificially split off, or even parts of more advanced embryos
will occasionally continue growing into a part at least of that
organ, of which the respective embryonic cells were the normal
substratum ; in the case of two blastoderms upon a single yolk,
complete though more or less united embryos will be the result.
According to the present state of our knowledge it is not justifiable
to explain partly multiple monstrosities by the assumption of a fusing
of originally separate embryos, but by a splitting of the blasto-
derm, and if that takes place very early and is complete, each of
its halves, which in Mammals have little or no yolk, may produce
an independent embryo, so that in such a case the flippant saying
that "A twin is only the other half" happens to be true.

MOOR-BUZZARD, the common name in England, in days
when the bird was not scarce, for what is called in books the
Marsh-HARRiER.

MOOR-COCK, MOOR-FOWL and MOOR-POULT, old English
names of the bird now well known as the Red GROUSE ; but

MOOR-HE^S" is the commonest name of a common bird, often
called Water-hen, and in books sometimes Gallinule. An earlier
English name was Moat -hen, which was
appropriate in the days when a moat was
the ordinary adjunct of most considerable
houses in the country, and this species
its ordinary denizen. It is the Gallinula

chlowpus of ornithologists and so well MOOR.HEN (Atter Swainson-)
known as hardly to need description.

About the size of a small Bantam -hen, but with the body
much compressed, as is usual with members of the Family
Rallidx (RAIL) to which it belongs, its plumage above is of a
deep olive-brown, so dark as to appear black at a short distance,
and beneath iron-grey, relieved by some white stripes on the
flanks, with the lower tail-coverts of pure white — these last being
very conspicuous as the bird swims. A scarlet frontlet, especially

590 MOOR-HEN

bright in the spring of the year, and a red garter on the tibia of
the male render him very showy. Though often frequenting the
neighbourhood of man, the Moor-hen seems unable to overcome the
inherent stealthy habits of the Rallidse, and hastens to hide itself
on the least alarm ; but under exceptional circumstances it may be
induced to feed, yet always suspiciously, with tame ducks and
poultry. It appears to take wing with difficulty, and may be
often caught by an active dog; but, in reality, it is capable of
sustained flight, its longer excursions being chiefly performed by
night, when the peculiar call-note it utters is frequently heard as
the bird, itself invisible in the darkness, passes overhead. The
nest is a mass of flags, reeds, or other aquatic plants, often arranged
with much neatness, almost always near the water's edge, where a
clump of rushes is generally chosen ; but should a mill-dam, sluice-
gate, or boat-house afford a favourable site, advantage will be
taken of it, and not unfrequently the bough of a tree at some
height from the ground will furnish the place for a cradle. The
eggs, from seven to eleven in number, resemble those of the COOT,
but are smaller, lighter, and brighter in colour, with spots or
blotches of reddish-brown. In winter, when the inland waters are
frozen, the majority of Moor-hens betake themselves to the tidal
rivers, and many must leave the country entirely, though a few
seem always able to maintain their existence however hard be the
frost. The common Moor-hen is widely spread throughout the
Old World, being found also at the Cape of Good Hope, in India,
and in Japan. In America it is represented by a very closely-
allied form, G. galeata, so called from its rather larger frontal helm,
and in Australia by another, G. tenebrosa, which generally wants
the white flank-markings. Both closely resemble G-. chloropus in
general habits, as does also the G. pyrrhorrhoa of Madagascar, which
has the lower tail -coverts buff instead of white. Celebes and
Amboyna possess a smaller cognate species, G. h&matopus, with red
legs ; tropical Africa has the smallest of all, G. angulata ; and some
more that have been recognized as distinct are also found in other
more or less isolated localities. One of the most remarkable of
these is G. nesiotis, the " Island Hen " of Tristan da Cunha (Proc.
Zool. Soc. 1861, p. 260, pi. xxx.), which has wholly lost the power
of flight concomitantly with the shortening of its wings and a
considerable modification of its external apparatus, as well as a
strengthening of its pelvic arch and legs.1 The same is to be
said of the "Mountain Cock" of Gough Island, the Porpliyriornis
comeri of Mr. Allen (Bull Am. Mus. N. H. iv. pp. 57, 58), who

1 A somewhat intermediate form seems to be presented by the Moor-hen of
the Island of St. Denys, to the north of Seychelles (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 1036 ;
Trans. Norf. <L Norw. Nat. Soc. iv. p. 552, note), hitherto undescribed, and
accordingly now named by me Gallinula dionysiana.

MOOR-HEN 591

has instituted for it a new genus, to which he also refers the preced-
ing bird. A more extreme development in this direction appears to
be exhibited by the singular Habroptila walladi of Gilolo (Proc. Zool.
Soc. 1860, p. 365, pi. clxxii.), and to some extent by the Pareudiastes
pacificus of Samoa (op. dt. 1871, p. 25, pi. ii.), but at present little
is known of either. Of other forms, such as the common Gallinula
(Erythra) plicenicura and Gallirex cinerea of India, as well as the
South- American species classed in the genus Porpliyriops, there is
not room to speak ; but mention must be made of the remarkable
Australian genus Tribonyx, containing three species (Ann. & Mag.
N. H. ser. 3, xx. p. 123), called by the colonists "Moor-hen" and
" Native Hen," which seem to be more terrestrial than aquatic in
their haunts and habits.

Allied to all these is the genus Porpliyrio, including the bird so
named by classical writers, and perhaps a dozen other species often
called Sultanas and Purple Water-hens,
for they all have a plumage of deep
blue — some becoming violet, green, or
black in parts, but preserving the
white lower tail-coverts so generally
characteristic of the group ; and their
beauty is enhanced by their scarlet

bill and legs. Two, P. alleni of the Ethiopian Region and the
South- American P. parva, are of small size. Of the larger species,
P. cseruleus seems to be the " Porphyrio " of the ancients, and inhabits
certain localities on both sides of the Mediterranean, while the rest
are widely dispersed within the tropics, and even beyond them, as
in Australia and New Zealand. But this last country has produced
a more exaggerated form, Notornis, which has an interesting and
perhaps unique history. First described from an imperfect fossil
skull by Owen (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1848, pp. 2, 7 ; Trans, iii. p. 366, pi. Ivi.),
and at that time thought to be extinct, an example was soon after
taken alive (Proc. 1850, pp. 209-214, pi. xxi.; Trans, iv. pp. 69-74,
pi. xxv.), the skin of which (with that of another procured like the
first by Mr. Walter Mantell) may be seen in the British Museum.
Other fossil remains were from time to time noted by Prof. Owen ; x
but it began to be feared that the bird had ceased to exist,2 until a
third example was taken about the year 1879, the skin and most

1 Thus the leg-bones and what appeared to be the sternum were described and
figured by him (Traits, iv. pp. 12, 17, pis. ii. iv.), and the pelvis and another
femur (vii. pp. 369, 373, pis. xlii. xliii. ) ; but the supposed sternum subsequently
proved not to be that of Notornis, and the author's attention being called to the
fact (Proc. 1882, p. 97) he rectified the error (torn. cit. p. 689) which he had
previously been "inclined to believe" (Trans, viii. p. 120) he had made.

2 Notwithstanding the statement, which certainly presented some incon-
gruities, made by Mr. Mackay (Ibis, 1867, p. 144).

MOOR- TITLING— MO RILLON

of the bones of which, after undergoing examination by Sir W. Buller
and Prof. T. J. Parker (Trans. N. Zeal Inst. xiv. pp. 238-258), are
now in the museum of Dresden, where Dr. A. B. Meyer declared
the recent remains to be specifically distinct from the fossil, and while

NOTOKNIS. Natural size. (From Buller.)

keeping for the latter the name N. mantelli gave t]ie former that of N.
hochstetteri. A third species ascribed to the genus, N. alba, is said to have
once inhabited Lord Howe's and Norfolk Islands, but is now extinct,
a specimen at Vienna (Ibis, 1873, p. 295, pi. x.) being its sole remains.1

MOOR-TITLINGr, a common local name in Scotland and the
North of England for the TITLARK.

MOORUK, the native name of the species of CASSOWARY
peculiar to New Britain, and adopted as an English word.

MOOSE-BIRD, a name for the Canada JAY.

MOREPORK, in New Zealand the name of an OWL, SpUoglaux
novx-zealandide, but in Tasmania that of Podargus cuvieri (NIGHTJAR),
in each case from the cry of the bird.

MORILLON, a name commonly given by fowlers to the female
and immature male of the GOLDEN-EYE, the Clangula glaucion of

1 The genus Aptornis, of which Prof. Owen described the remains from New
Zealand as nearly allied to Notornis and Porphyrio, is considered by Prof. T. J.
Parker (loc. cit.) to be a " development by degeneration of an ocydromine type,"
and Mr. Lydekker (Cat. Foss. B. Br. Mus. p. 147) speaks of it as "allied to
Ocydromus " (WEKA).

MOSQ UITO-HA IVK—MO TMO T 593

modern ornithology, under the belief which still very generally
obtains among them, as it once did among naturalists, that they
formed a distinct species of Duck. The mistake no doubt originated
in, and is partly excused by, the facts that the birds called Morillons
were often of opposite sexes, and differed greatly from the adult
male Golden-Eye, whose full and beautiful plumage is not assumed
until the second year. The word is used in French in precisely
the same form, but is in that language applied to the Tufted Duck,
Fuligula cristata, and is derived, according to Littr6, from more,
signifying black.

MOSQUITO-HAWK, a name in America for the species of
Chordiles (NIGHTJAR).

MOSS-CHEEPEE, a north-country name of the TITLARK.

MOTHER CAEEY'S CHICKEN, GOOSE and HEN— sailors'
names, the first of any of the small black or black and white PETRELS,
the second of the Giant Petrel, Ossifraga gigantea, and the third seems
to be applied without much discrimination to any Petrel of middle
size.

MOTH-HAWK, MOTH-HUNTEE, names of the NIGHTJAR.

MOTMOT, according to Hernandez in his 'Historia Avium Novse
Hispanic (p. 52), published at Eome in 1651, was the Mexican
name of a bird which he described well enough to leave no doubt
as to what he meant ; but the word being soon after printed Momot
by Nieremberg and others gave rise to the Latinized Momotus,
invented by Brisson as a generic term, which has since been
generally adopted by ornithologists,1 though Motmot has been
retained as the English form. Linnaeus knew of only one species
of Motmot, and referred it to his genus Ramphastos (TOUCAN)
under the name of R. momota. This is the Momotus brasiliensis
of modern ornithologists, and from its geographical range cannot
be the original Motmot of Hernandez, but is most likely the " Guira
guainumbi " of Marcgrave.

The Motmots have been for many years recognized as forming a
distinct family, Momotidas or Prionitidze, of the heterogeneous assem-
blage known as Picarise or Coccygomorphx ; and the only question
among systematists has been as to their position in that group.
This has been discussed and illustrated with his usual assiduity by
Dr. Murie (Ibis, 1872, pp. 383-412, pis. xiii.-xv.), who conclusively
shewed that Todus (TODY) was the Motmot's nearest existing
relative, while he believed that both Momotida and Todidte might be
placed in one section (Serratirostres) with the Coraciidw (EOLLER),
Meropidx (BEE-EATER), and Alcedinidx (KINGFISHER). To the latter

1 Its barbarous origin induced Illiger to substitute for it the word Prionites,
and his example has been followed by some nomenclatural purists.

38

594 MOTMOT

allocation Garrod (Proc. Zool Soc. 1878, pp. 100-102) partly de-
murred, though admitting the Kingfisher affinity, while upholding
the former, and even declaring that Motmots and Todies form but
a single Family. As the conclusions of both these investigators are
based on the sure ground of anatomical structure, they are of in-
comparably greater value than most of those arrived at by prior
systematists who judged from external characters alone.

In outward appearance the Motmots have an undoubted
resemblance to the Meropidse, but, though beautiful birds, various
shades of blue and green predominating in their plumage, they do
not exhibit such decided and brilliant colours ; and while the Bee-
eaters are only found in the Old World, the Motmots are a purely
Neotropical form, extending from southern Mexico to Paraguay,
and the majority of species inhabit Central America. They are
said to be solitary birds, or at most living in pairs, among the gloomy
forests, where they sit on the underwood nearly motionless, or only
jerking their long tail as the cry " houtou " (or something like it) is
uttered. Their ordinary food is small reptiles, insects, and fruits.
The nest of one species, as observed by Mr. Robert Owen, is at the
end of a hole bored in the bank of a watercourse, and the eggs are
pure white and glossy (Ibis, 1861, p. 65). Little else has been
recorded of their ways.

The Momotidte form but a small group, containing, according
to the enumeration of them in 1873 by Messrs. Sclater and Salvin
(Nomenclator, pp. 102, 103), but 17 species,1 distributed into 6
genera, of which last, however, Dr. Murie (I.e.) would only recognize
four — Momotiis, Baryphtliengus, Hylomanes,&n& Eumomota — the second
including Urospatha, and the last Prionorhynchus, while Dr. Sharpe
in 1892 (Cat. B. Br. Mus. xvii. pp. 313-332) made an additional
genus, raising the number of genera to 7 and of species to 18.
The distinctions between Dr. Murie's, and still more Dr. Sharpe's
groups would require more space to indicate than can here be
allowed ; but it may be stated that, while all have a general
resemblance in the serrated edges of the bill and many other
characters, Momotus has the normal number of 12 rectrices, while
the rest have only 10,2 which in Hylomanes have the ordinary con-
figuration, but in adult examples of all the others the shaft of the
median pair is devoid of barbs for the space of about an inch a
little above the extremity, so as to produce a spatulate appearance,
such as is afforded by certain HUMMING-BIRDS known as " Racquet-

1 The same number was recognized by the first-named of these gentlemen in
his review of the Family (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1857, pp. 248-260), where they are all
diagnosed, a species, subsequently described by Dr. Cabanis (Mus. Hein. ii. p.
115), not being admitted.

2 Dr. Sharpe (I.e.) makes a different statement, but I believe Dr. Murie,
whose reckoning is here followed, to be right.

MOULT 595

tails," Kingfishers of the genus Tanysiptera, and PARROTS of the
group Prioniturus. Waterton (Wanderings, Journey 2, chap, iii.),
mentioning the species M. brasiliensis by its native name " Houtou,"
long ago asserted that this peculiarity was produced by the Motmot
itself nibbling off the barbs, and this extraordinary statement,
though for a while doubted, has since been shewn by Mr. Salvin
(Proc. Zool. Soc. 1873, pp. 429-433), on Mr. Bartlett's authority, to
be perfectly true. The object with which the operation is per-
formed is wholly unknown. It is sometimes incompletely executed,
and the tail has then an asymmetrical form. This must have been the
case with the example that Hernandez described (I.e.), and brought on
himself the criticism of Willughby (Ornithologia, p. 298) for so doing.
Much of the bibliography of the family is given in Dr. Murie's
paper already quoted ; and it may be remarked that in 1734 Seba,
probably misled by wrong information, figured (Rerum Nat. Thesaur.
tab. 67, fig. 2) under the name of " Motmot" a bird which has been
identified with a species of GUAN, and is the Ortalis motmot of
modern ornithology.

MOULT,1 the change of plumage, or shedding of its old and
often weather-beaten feathers to be replaced by an entirely new
suit, to which almost every individual bird is subject at least once
a year, and a process of the most vital consequence, being possibly
the severest strain to which the life of each is exposed, for to judge
by its effects on those we domesticate, it produces a greater mortality
than temporary want of food may do. Important then as is all
that relates to the subject, it is yet one that has been sadly neglected
by ornithologists, among whom that careful observer the late Herr
W. Meves seems alone to have published any extensive series of ob-
servations,2 and it is certainly not to the credit of ornithologists
in general, and especially of those who are afforded facilities by
Zoological Gardens, that so much ignorance of the process should
prevail as undoubtedly is the case, for since his time little advance
has been made in our knowledge, so that questions arising out of
investigations made by him more than forty years ago remain un-
answered and disregarded ; and, apart from general works, in which
the subject is usually but lightly touched, the literature relating to
this branch of ornithology is very small. The structure and mode
of growth of FEATHERS has already been sufficiently treated, and

1 In Middle English the word (originally a verb) is mout, the modern I being
redundant, and it is derived from the Latin mutare, to change.

2 His valuable paper is in the CEfversigt of the Academy of Sciences of Stock-
holm for 1854 (No. 8), and an English translation of it has been published by
Mr. Dresser (Zoologist, 1879, pp. 81-89), while a German version containing some
modifications and additional matter appears in the Journal fur Ornithologie for
1855 (pp. 230-238). But the essay treats also of change of colour in feathers
apart from moult.

596 MOULT

here we have briefly to consider the different phases which the act
of Moulting offers.

As a general rule all kinds of Birds are subject to an annual
Moult, and this commonly begins immediately on the close of the
breeding -season, but, as will be presently explained, there are
some which undergo in addition a second or even a third partial
change of plumage, and it is possible that there may be others still
more exceptional : our information respecting these, however, is too
meagre to make it worth while saying anything here about them.
It must be acknowledged that with regard to the greatest number
of forms we can only judge by analogy, and though it may well be
that some interesting deviations from the general rule exist of
which we are altogether ignorant, yet when we consider that the
Ratitse, so far as observed, moult exactly in the same manner as
most other birds,1 the uniformity of the annual change may be
almost taken for granted.

It is not intended here to say more (cf. p. 248) of the way in
which a feather dies and a new one succeeds it, nor need we com-
pare the process of moulting with the analogous shedding of the
hair in Mammals or of the skin in Eeptiles, though the latter, in
the case of the flipper-like wings of the PENGUIN — the scaly feathers
of which come off in flakes — Mr. Bartlett (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1879, p.
6) has shewn to be remarkably close. Enough for our present
purpose to see that such renovation is required in Birds, nearly all
of which have to depend upon their quills for the means of loco-
motion and hence of livelihood. It is easy to understand that dur-
able as are the flight-feathers, they do not last for ever, and are
beside very subject to accidental breakage, the consequence of
which would be the crippling of the bird.2 It is obviously to pro-
vide against what in most cases would be such a disaster as this last
that we find the remiges, or quill-feathers of the wings, to be nearly
always shed in pairs. They drop out not indeed absolutely at the
same moment, though this sometimes seems to happen, but within
a few days of each other, and, equilibrium being thus preserved,
the power of flight is but slightly deteriorated by their temporary
loss. The same may be observed in a less degree, since there is
less need of regularity, with the rest of the plumage, as a little
attention to any tame bird will shew, and the new feathers grow at
an almost equal rate. In the young of most species the original
quills are not shed during the first year, nor in the young of many
does there seem to be an entire moult during that time, but in the

1 For the knowledge of this fact I am indebted to the vast experience of Mr.
Bartlett.

2 By an ingenious but simple process known as "imping," which properly
means engrafting, and is described in almost every book on hawking, falconers
repair any broken flight-feather, and so restore the bird to its full power.

MOULT 597

typical Gallinse^ which are able to fly at a very early age, often before
they are one-third grown, the original quills, being proportioned
to the duties required of them, are shed before the bird has
attained its full size and are succeeded by others that serve it when
it has reached maturity. In the Anatidze and some other groups,
however, we have a singular exception to what has been above
stated. Most of the former, Ducks, Geese and Swans, shed their
quill-feathers all at once, and become absolutely incapable of flight
for a season,2 during which time they generally seek the shelter
of thick aquatic herbage,3 and it is further to be particularly
remarked that the males of most of the Family Ancdidse at the
same period lose the brilliantly-coloured plumage which commonly
distinguishes them and " go into eclipse," as Waterton happily said,
putting on for several weeks a dingy garb much resembling that of
the other sex, to resume their gay attire only when, their new
quills being grown, it can be safely flaunted in the open air. Here
we have the first instances of Additional Moult to be mentioned.
Another is not less interesting, though ornithologists must confess
with shame that they have not sufficiently investigated it. This is
that of the Ptarmigan, Lagopus mutus (p. 392), both sexes of which not

1 Nothing seems to be known about the moulting of the young Megapodiidse,
and information thereon would be very acceptable.

2 A Patagonian form, the LOGGER-HEAD (p. 518, No. 3) Tachyeres cinereus,
seems never to regain the power of flight thus lost (cf. Cunningham, Proc. Zool.
Soc. 1871, p. 262).

3 It is amusing to find from comments on a paper by the Baron d'Hamonville
(Bull. Soc. Zool. Fr. 1884, pp. 101-106), that the observation of this fact has
been regarded by reviewers and others as a recent discovery. The fact may have
been neglected by some writers ; but it was well known to a monk of the 12th
century (Liber Eliensis, ii. cap. 105), and it is hard to imagine the time when it was
not familiar to " divers persons next inhabiting in the countries and places within
this realm, where the substance of the same wild-fowl hath been accustomed to
breed," for they — to continue the words of an Act of Parliament (25 Hen. viii.
cap. 11) passed in 1533 — "in the summer season, at such time as the said old
fowl be moulted, and not replenished with feathers to fly . . . have by certain
nets, engines and other policies yearly taken great numbers of the same fowl, in
such wise that the brood of wild-fowl is almost thereby wasted and consumed."
It was accordingly declared unlawful to take Wild Ducks or Wild Geese in this
manner between the last day of May and the last day of August. Another Act
in 1710 (9 Anne, cap. 25, § 4) reinforced this provision for any "Fowl commonly
reputed Waterfowl, in any place of resort for wild fowl in the moulting season,"
and in 1737 (10 Geo. ii. cap. 32, § 10), the close time for moulting waterfowl
was extended to the 1st of October.

A similar state of things in the FLAMINGO came under the notice of Pallas
(Zoogr. Ross.-Asiat. ii. p. 207) who therein is corroborated by Crespon (Orn. du
Gard, p. 396) ; and, more recently, it has been asserted by M. Gerbe (Rev. Zool.
1875, pp. 271-277, pi. vi.) to obtain in the PUFFIN, Fratercula ardica, and in
the Black-throated DIVER, Colymbus arclicus.

598 MOULT

only moult after the breeding-season is over into a grey suit, and
then again as autumn passes away into their snowy winter-clothing,
but, divesting themselves of this last in spring, at that time put on
each a third and most distinctive dress — these changes, however,
do not extend to the quills either of the wings or tail.1

The number of Birds which undergo a more or- less entire
Double Moult is very considerable, and the peculiarity is not always
characteristic of Families or even, unless in a very restricted sense, of
genera. Thus while the Garden- WARBLER, Sylvia salicaria, and the
WHITETHROATS, S. rufa and S. curruca, are said to moult twice in the
year the BLACKCAP, S. atricapilla, does so but once. The same may
be said of the Emberizidx (BUNTING), in which Family both prac-
tices seem to obtain, but on the other hand, the distinction in this
respect between the Alaudidse (LARK) and the Anthinx (PIPIT),
belonging to the Family Motacillidte (WAGTAIL), appears, so far as
our knowledge goes, to be invariable, though the habits and general
appearance of both groups are so much alike — the Alaudidss moult-
ing but once and the Anthinse, conforming to the practice of the
normal Motacillidte (Motacillinte), twice a year — the quills, be it
understood, excepted. But it would be impossible here to give
more than these few examples, and indeed we scarcely know any-
thing of the subject outside of some groups belonging to the
Northern hemisphere.2

In a large number of species the Additional Moult is very
partial, being often limited to certain portions of the plumage, and
it is yet an unsolved problem how far some of the changes to be
observed are due to actual Moult and how far to the alteration of
colour in the feathers themselves, as also the way by which this
alteration of colour is produced, whether, as certainly happens in
many instances, by the dropping off of the " barbicels " — the fine
filaments that fringe the "barbules," which are arranged on the
upper surface of each " barb " composing the web of the feather —
or in some other manner. With either of these last considerations
we need not now concern ourselves. It is unquestionable that there
are innumerable species of birds, the males at least of which put
forth in spring decorative plumes unknown at any other season,
and it would appear that in some of them the feathers which
before clothed the parts whence the newly-donned ornaments grow
are doffed to make room for these paraphernalia of marriage.

1 Macgillivray (Brit. Birds, i. p. 196 ; and Nat. Hist, of Deeside, p. 405)
thought there were four moults in this species, but that seems to be one too
many. Meves (loc. cit.) and the Abbe Caire (Rev. Zool. 1854, p. 494) independ-
ently made the discovery of the Triple Moult, and almost simultaneously
announced it (cf. Gloger, Journ. fur Orn. 1856, p. 461).

2 The fullest list as yet published is that of Meves (Journ. f. Orn., loc. cit.},
but it is not entirely free from error.

MOULT 599

The subject of Additional Moult is thus intimately connected
with the seasonal adornment of Birds, and as that properly be-
longs to a branch of the great question of Natural Selection it
could not be suitably entered upon here. The reader is accordingly
referred to those excellent chapters in which Mr. Darwin1 has
treated the matter with his usual perspicuity, though even he has
far from exhausted its varied points of interest.

It remains to be remarked that though the annual Moult com-
monly takes place so soon as the breeding-season is over, there are
plenty of cases in which the change is delayed to a later period.
This is so with the SWALLOW, Hirundo rustica, which has long been
known to moult in our mid-winter or even later, and it is generally
the way with the Diurnal Birds-of-Prey. But unquestionably most
birds accomplish the change much earlier, and before they leave
their breeding-quarters for their winter haunts, thereby starting on
one of their great annual journeys with all the external machinery
of flight renewed and in the best condition for escaping its attend-
ant perils.

But the plumage is not the only part of the Bird's integument
that undergoes regularly periodical change. Many years ago
Nilsson made known by a communication to the annual report of
the Academy of Sciences of Stockholm on Zoology for 1828 (pp.
104-106) that in certain species of Tetraonidte (GROUSE) the CLAWS
grow to an inordinate length in winter and are partly shed or worn
off as spring comes on, and the fact has since received further
attention (cf. Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 189, pi. 485). The seasonal
elongation of the bill of REDPOLLS during summer, first announced
as a conjecture by Gloger (Journ. fur Orn. 1856, pp. 433-440), had
been previously made known to the present writer by Wolley, who
first observed it in 1853-4 (cf. Yarrell, Br. B. ed. 4, ii. p. 139).
In both these cases, however, the getting rid of the extraneous
growth is to a great extent a mechanical process, and therefore in
some measure comparable with the shedding of the fringes of the
feathers before mentioned. Not so does it seem to be with others,
and a far stranger state of things was revealed by the observation,
originally made by Mr. H. G-. Palmer about 1865, according to Mr.
Ridgway (U. S. Geol. Expl&r. 40th Parall. iv. p. 634), who himself
confirmed it in countless instances, that irrespective of sex the
White PELICAN of North America, during the breeding -season,
bears on the ridge of its bill a curious horny projection, flattened
at the sides and roughly-triangular in shape, which is worn for
about two months only, and then dropping off may be " gathered
by the bushel " on the nesting-grounds of the species, as recorded
by Baird (Ibis, 1869, p. 350). Still more extraordinary was the

1 The Descent of Man and Selection in relation to Sex, chaps, xiii.-xvi.
London: 1871.

6oo MOUND-BIRD— MOUSE-BIRD

discovery by Dr. Bureau of the PUFFIN moulting the horny sheath
of its BILL, together with the outgrowths over the eyes, while the
fleshy rosette at the corner of the mouth shrinks to insignificance,
completely changing the bird's physiognomy, and he has since de-
scribed the same astonishing metamorphosis as existing in other
allied forms, including the genera Chimerina, Ombria, and Simorhynchus
(Bull Soc. Zool Fr. 1877, pp. 377-399, pi. v. and 1879, pp.' 1-63,
pis. i.-vi.) Mr. Harting has given a translation of the first of these
papers, with a reproduction of the remarkable plate (Zool. 1878,
pp. 233-240), and Dr. Coues has published an abstract of both
(Bull Nutt. Orn. Club, iii. pp. 87-91, and v. pp. 127, 128).

MOUND-BIKD, a name sometimes given to the MEGAPODES in
general, from their mode of modification, but not applicable to all.

MOUNTAIN-, a prefix to the name of many birds, but often
inappropriate, and seldom used except in books, or by persons
whose knowledge is thereto limited — thus Mountain-Bunting is the
Snow-BuNTiNG ; Mountain-Cock the CAPERCALLY ; Mountain-Duck
several species of Anatidse — and in New Zealand apparently
applied colloquially to Tadorna tadornoides (SHELD-DRAKE) ; Moun-
tain-Finch the BRAMBLING ; Mountain-Parrot the Kea (see NESTOR) ;
Mountain-Sparrow the Tree-SPARROW, and so on.

MOUSE-BIRD (Dutch Muisvogel), the name by which in Cape
Colony, Natal, and other parts of British Africa, the members of
Brisson's genus Colius,1 Englished COLY in 1773 by Pennant (Gen.
B. p. 31), are known — partly, it would seem, from their general
coloration, but probably more from their singular habit of creeping
along the boughs of trees with the whole tarsus applied to the
branch. By the earlier systematists, who had few opportunities of
examining the internal structure of exotic forms, Colius was usually
placed among the Fringilliddz; but nearly all travellers who had
seen one or another species of it in life demurred to that view.
Still its position was doubtful till Dr. Murie, in an elaborate treatise
on its osteology and systematic place (Ibis, 1872, pp. 262-280, pi.
x.) shewed that it was no Passerine, and subsequently (Ibis, 1873,
p. 190, note) proposed to regard the Family Goffidx as the sole repre-
sentative of a distinct group (PAMPRODACTYL^E) — this word being
coined to indicate the obvious character of all the toes being
ordinarily directed forwards, though it is by no means the only
peculiar character these birds possess. A few years later most of
Dr. Murie's views were confirmed by Garrod (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876,
pp. 416-419), who added considerably to our knowledge of the
general anatomy of the Family, which he considered to be related
on the one hand to the Piddas (WOODPECKER), and on the other to

1 Some other generic divisions have been suggested, but on grounds so slender
as hardly to merit consideration.

MUGGY— MUNI A 601

the Alcedinidte (KINGFISHER), and Bucerotidaz (HORNBILL). The
Coliidze are small birds, with a rather Finch-like bill, a more or less
crested head, a very long tail, and are generally of a dun or slate-
coloured plumage that sometimes brightens into blue or is pleasingly
diversified with white or chestnut. They feed almost wholly on
fruits, but occasionally take insects, in quest of which they pass in
bands of fifteen or twenty from tree to tree, and hang in all

MOUSE-BIRD. (Partly after Mitchell.)

attitudes from the branches as they feed. It is even said that they
sleep suspended by their powerful and versatile toes. Ten species
are recognized by Dr. Sharpe (Cat. B. Br. Mus. xvii. pp. 338-346,
and 500), all belonging to the Ethiopian Kegion (of which the
Family is one of the most characteristic), and ranging from
Abyssinia southwards. Three species inhabit the Cape Colony.

MUGGY, possibly cognate with the latter part of Grasmiicke
(Grass-Midge), the common German name of the WHITETHROAT,
and allied birds ; but perhaps only a corruption of MEGGY.

MULLET-HAWK, a name for the OSPREY.

MUMKUFFIN, said to be a local name of the Long-tailed TIT-
MOUSE.

MUNIA, the general name in many parts of India for several
kinds of small seed-eating birds, commonly placed in the Family

602 MURRE— MUSCULAR SYSTEM

Ploceidte (WEAVER-BIRD), which are distinguished for their familiarity
with man, their gregarious habits, their depredations on the rice-
crops, and their ingenious NESTS, to quote Mr. Hodgson (Asiat.
Researches, xix. p. 155), who not only Anglified the word but
Latinized it, making it the title of a genus to which he assigned three
species, while Dr. Sharpe in 1890 (Gat. B. Br. Mus. xiii. p. 326)
referred to it no fewer than twenty-six. Many of them are among
the commonest of exotic cage-birds.

MURRE, a name applied by fishermen indifferently to GUILLE-
MOT and RAZOR-BILL.

MUSCULAR SYSTEM. Muscles constitute what is generally
called "flesh," and are composed of fibres, each of which is an
elongated cell of contractile tissue surrounded by a thin sheath of
connective tissue, the whole being held together by an outer sheath
of connective, and frequently elastic, tendinous tissue. The fibres
are arranged with their long axes in the direction of the action or
pull of the muscle, and each is intimately connected with a nerve-
cell, stimulation of which causes contraction, and consequently
draws together the parts to which the whole muscle is attached.
In the Muscles of the Skeleton the attachment nearest to the axis
of the body is called the "Head" or "origin"; the attachment
furthest from the same is the " Tail " or " insertion " — no matter
which extremity is the punctum Jixum : the intermediate portion
is the " Belly " or " Body."

In Birds, as in other Vertebrates, there are two fundamentally
different kinds of Muscles : —

1. Involuntary or unstriped Muscles, which are generally of slow
or rhythmical action, such as all those of the viscera, and the
true cutaneous Muscles, such as those attached to the root of the
feathers.

2. Voluntary or striped Muscles, in which each fibre under a
microscope seems to consist of a great number of alternate dark
and light disks, which cause a transverse striation.

The Muscle of the HEART is in some degree intermediate between
those two kinds.

The nomenclature of Muscles has always been difficult. Names
like Musculus deltoides or M. gracilis afford no information, and the
physiological method of naming a muscle from its function permits
only a limited application. The most preferable way is to use a
compound word, of which the first portion should indicate the
origin, and the second the insertion, further distinction, when
needed, being secured by an additional adjective — as M. ilio-tibialis
internus. Where the old names of human anatomy can be used
without mistaken homology, they may be well applied to Birds, as
with M. latissimus dorsi or M. biceps, even though the words M.

MUSCULAR SYSTEM 603

spini-liumeralis and M. coraco-humero-brachialis would also fix and,
moreover, in a measure describe the muscle ; but the application of
these old names is not always easy, as shewn by the M. supra-
coracoideus of Birds which really is the modified M. supra-
spinatus of Man, and has been called the M. pectoralis minor, M.
p. secundus, M. p. medius and M. subclavicus ; while the M. caud-
ilio-femoralis figures as M. adductor femoris, M. gemellus, M.
pyriformis and M. femoro-caudalis — the last being wrong and in-
appropriate in more than one way — that is to say, it has been
mistaken for at least three distinct muscles, and since the nerve-
supply has not been ascertained by the writers who employ those
names, it is generally doubtful which piece of flesh is intended to
be described. Our knowledge of the homologies of avine Muscles
may now be regarded as fairly settled by the present writer in
Bronn's Thieweich (Fogel, pp. 91-325), thanks to the previous
labours of Alix, De Man, Fiirbringer, Retzius, Rolleston and
Riidinger, and it is based upon their nerve-supply and a study of
their origin and insertion in a great number of different Birds.

The taxonomic value of Muscles is theoretically great, but
very limited when . put to a practical test. Most of them cannot
be understood unless the whole group to which they belong be
examined, and the study of their correlations is a very complicated
problem. To pick out a few of the most variable muscles of the
leg, and to arrange Birds according to their mere presence or
absence, without regarding intermediate stages, is an easy but
scarcely serious mode of investigation, and there is no wonder that
systems built on such simple notions broke down. There is no
reason why a dozen different kinds of Birds should not have lost
the same muscle at different times and independently of each
other, and that other kinds may not lose it in future if its function
be no longer required or can be fulfilled by some other combina-
tion. Similar conditions may possibly have abolished 3 out of
the 4 famous thigh-muscles in Cypselus, Trochilus, Striges, Fregata
and Accipitres, and identical circumstances have caused Dicholophus
and Serpentarius to assume the same " myological formula," which
in this case means only the loss of the caudal portion of the M.
caud-ilio-femoralis ! It is certain that similar muscular combina-
tions in two or more Birds do not necessarily mean relationship,
while on the contrary similar requirements are often met in
similar ways, that is to say the respective organs are "isomor-
phous" if in two Birds they are modifications of one and the
same substratum of the same previous condition, but if identical
requirements were in both Birds reached after they had already
differed in their substratum, the later requirement would be
differently met, and the results would be no longer isomorphous.
Thus if in a descendant of the Passeres the hallux became reduced

604 MUSCULAR SYSTEM

and ultimately lost, its so-called " long flexor " muscle would in all
likelihood disappear also, because in existing Passeres its tendon
is unconnected with that of the M. flexor perforans digitorum,
while Birds which lost the hallux before these two tendons were
disconnected have kept both these muscles.

Prof. Fiirbringer, who with enormous labour has exhaustively
studied the muscles of the shoulder -girdle, has tabulated the
chief characters of 14 muscles selected with a view to taxonomic
application, but the results are very small and far less obvious
than those afforded by the muscles of hind limbs. The former,
as the apparatus of Flight, seem to be more uniformly constructed
than the latter, which are more diversified according to the varied
uses of the legs and feet. Fluttering, skimming, sailing, soaring
are motions much more akin to one another, than climbing, grasp-
ing, running, scratching, swimming and wading. The only really
aberrant modifications of the wings and their muscles are found in
the Ratitx, where they are all easily explained by reduction, and
in the Sphenisddse, where bones and muscles are greatly specialized.
The modifications of the hind limbs are many times greater — such
as extremely long legs, with four, three or only two toes — short or
long : very short legs, almost incapable of running or walking, with
all four toes directed forwards, or two or one backwards, and two
or more connected in various ways.

Most Muscles leave an impression upon the bones to which
they are attached, in the shape of ridges, furrows, crests and
processes. These marks, small as they often are, are mostly
significant, and of greater assistance in the recognition of a bone
than its general configuration, as any one will find on trying to
determine the kind of bird to which a given bone belongs. The
muscles are not as a rule attached to such crests and ridges
because these happen to be there, but on the contrary they shape
the bone which serves as their passive framework : what is bred in the
flesh comes out in the bone, not vice versa. It is the quality not
the quantity of an organ that determines its taxonomic value,
and adhesion to this principle precludes us from classifying Birds
by trim myological formulae which seem to afford easy keys, but
rather obscure than elucidate natural affinities.

Without entering upon genetic and therefore fundamental
differences, the voluntary skeletal muscles may be conveniently
grouped thus : —

A. Muscles supplied by spinal nerves.

a. Muscles of the Stem (neck, trunk and tail).

1. Dorso-spinal Muscles, supplied by dorsal branches.

2. Ventri-spinal Muscles, supplied by ventral branches.
/?. Muscles of the extremities (limbs) supplied by ventral

branches.

MUSCULAR SYSTEM 605

B. Muscles supplied by cranial nerves.
a. Muscles of the Visceral Skeleton.

1. Muscles of the Jaws.

2. Muscles of the HYOID apparatus (page 452).

P. Muscles of the SYRINX. /

y. Muscles of the EAR (page 178) and EYE (page 229).

A. The Muscles of the Stem (A.a) and of the Extrem-
ities (A./3) not only exhibit many varieties in different Birds, but
they are also very numerous, about one hundred pairs being recog-
nized. To describe them all adequately would go far beyond the
scope of this work, while simply to name them and devote a few lines
to the general condition of each would, considering their great vari-
ability, be of no practical use, for the dissection and recognition of
Muscles is not easy. In what follows, therefore, only some of
those will be dealt with which, rightly or wrongly, bear the
reputation of being of taxonomic value.

Musculus pectvralis, consisting of a thoracic, propatagial and
abdominal portion — the first forming the chief muscular mass of
the breast and arising from the sternum in the shape of a (J — the
two arms of which surround the ra. supracoracoideus, the longer
formed by the clavicle, sterno-clavicular membrane and the side
of the keel, the shorter by the body and lateral margin and
membranes, filling the sternal notches, and adjoining parts of the
sternal ribs. All the fibres of this great muscle, which occupies
most of the ventral surface of the sternum, converge toward the
shoulder into one or two tendons, the principal of which is inserted
on the greater tubercle and the upper crest of the humerus, and
the muscle is the chief depressor of the upper arm during the
down stroke, while it also rotates it forwards. This last is especially
its effect in the Spheniscidx, giving their wings the screw -like
motion, and is in conformity with the peculiar fact that the tendon
of the clavicular portion of the muscle is attached to the whole
length of the radial surface of the humerus between its inferior
crest and the head. The weight of both the pectoral muscles
together is said to amount to about 1/14 in Birds-of -Prey and 1/11
in Wild Geese of that of the whole body.

M. supracoracoideus, arising chiefly from the sides of the angle
formed by the keel and body of the sternum, and from part of the
coraco- clavicular membrane, and covered by the ra. pectoralis,
ascending from the sternum along the inner and anterior surface
of the coracoid, passing by a strong tendon through the foramen
triosseum and the region over the joint, and inserted on the upper
tubercle of the crest of the humerus, which it rotates and ab-
ducts. This muscle is generally described as a second pectoral or
as the ra. mbdavius ; but Alix and Fiirbringer have shewn that its

6o6

MUSCULAR SYSTEM

Mammalian equivalent is the m. supraspinatus. In Eatitse it arises
almost wholly from the coracoid, and scarcely from the sternum :
in Carinatw the lateral margin of its sternal origin is marked by a
ridge beginning near the coracoid and running parallel to the keel,
or converging towards or diverging posteriorly from the latter.
The direction and extent of this ridge afford some taxonomic help,
as shewn thus : —

ORIGIN OF

MUSCLE.

STERNAL RIDGE.

Converging.

Parallel.

Diverging.

From the whole

Spheniscidse, Tinami-

Anseres (pt. ), Grues,

Cypseli, Tro-

length of the

dsejGallinse, Limicolae

Columbse, Opistho-

chili, Capri-

keel.

(pt.)

comus, Psittaci.

mulgidae.

From half to

Limicolse (pt.}, Lari,

two-thirds.

Anseres (pt. ), Phoeni-

copteras, Pelargi,

Herodii, Stegano-

podes, Cathartidse,

Neophron, Striges,

Steatornis.

From the an-

Acciptres (plurimi),

Passeres (pt.)

Picarise (plur-

terior third.

Colymbidse, Tubi-

imse), Pici,

nares.

Passeres (plur-

imi).

M. propatagialis longus, always present, composed of slips from
the mm. deltoides, pectoralis, biceps and cucullaris. Its strong belly
originates near the shoulder- joint from the clavicle, scapula and
coracoid. Its tendon runs directly to the carpus, forming the
outer margin of the patagium or fold of skin between the anterior
surfaces of the upper and forearm, which it with the m. propatag.
brevis serves to extend, and consists of yellow elastic and blue
non-elastic fibres, the latter radiating into and being attached to
various portions of the patagium. When the wing is extended
the elastic portion is stretched to about three times its ordinary
length, to which it returns when the wing is folded.

M. propatagialis brevis, composed like the last, absent only in
Apteryx, Casuarius, Dromseus and the Spheniscidse. In other Birds
it is often very complicated — the simplest condition being in the
Pici, where it consists of a belly and a strong tendon, running
down the anterior and outer side of the upper arm, and attached
to the proximal tendon of the m. extensor metacarpi radialis longus,
a little below the outer condyle of the humerus. In Cuculus its
tendon is attached simply to the ulnar fascia, below the elbow-
joint. In most other Birds the tendon is split into several portions,
and is further complicated by receiving slips from, and by connexion

MUSCULAR SYSTEM

607

with the m. propatag. longus. Frequently one or more sesamoid
bones are intercalated with these tendons, which shew the most
complicated arrangement in the Tubinares.

Garrod devoted much labour to the elucidation of these patagial
muscles, regarding them as of taxonomic value. An obvious and

Fig. i.

Fig. 2.

Fig-3-

PU.

Fig. 4.

Fig- 5-

Fig. 6.

MUSCLES OF LEFT ARM. Lateral View. (After Fiirbringer.)

Fig. 1. Anas ; 2, Columba ; 3, Phoenicophases ; 4, Upupct ; 5, Menura ; 6, Cyanocorax.

D, m. deltoides major ; D.pt. deltoid portion of m. propatagialis ; L.d. in. latissimus dorsi

(portion); Pt.b. and Pt.l. mm. propatagialis brevis and m. longus ; T, m. triceps.

(The m. biceps with its slip to the m. propatagialis is black.)

constant character is the presence or absence of a slip from the m.
biceps to the tendon of the m. propatag. longus, and its value may
be judged from the following lists : —

Present — Gallinte (excl. Craddse), Columbse, Limicolse, Laridse, Al-
tidze, Rallidse, Grues, Tubinares, Colymbidse, Podidpedidse, Plialacrocorax,
Plotus, Sula, Anseres, Phcenicopterus, Platalea, Caprimulgidse, Colius.

Absent — Ratitte, Tinamidse, Turnices, Cracidse, Otis, Cariama,
Spheniscidse, Phaethon, Fregata, Pelicanus, Palamedea, Herodii, Pelargi,
Accipitres, Psittaciy Striges, Picarise (excl. Caprimulgidse), Steatornis,
Pici, Passeres.

M. metapatagialis, formed by slips from the m. serratus super-
fidalis and m. latissimus darsi, and with the addition of the
m. expansor secundariorum extending by its tendons the posterior
patagium or fold of skin between the trunk and the inner surface
of the upper arm. The sem^ws-portion comes from the ribs and is

608 MUSCULAR SYSTEM

inserted on the patagium and the last cubital quills, the other
splits off from the posterior portion of the latissimus dorsi and acts
indirectly on the patagium by joining the m. anconazus longus.

M. expansor secundariorum or of the cubital quills, arises as a long
tendon from the sterno-scapular ligament, passes the axilla, often
by a fibrous pulley, accompanies the axillary vessels and nerves
along the humerus, and is inserted by a few fleshy fibres on the
base of the last two or three cubital quills. It is, however, more
complicated in many birds, especially GdUinsR and Anseres ; but
it is scarcely of taxonomic value, being weak or absent in Golumbx,
absent in Sphenisddtc, Tubinares, Steganopodes, some Herodii, Alcidse,
some Accipitres, in Striges, Psittaci, CypsehmorpJue, Pici and Passeres.

r.
Exp. sec,

WING MUSCLES OP A GOOSE.

Bi. m. biceps ; Elast. sec. vinculum elasticum and Exp. sec. m. expansor secundariorum ; Lig.
ligament ; Metapatag. metapatagium ; Pector. m. pectoralis ; Propatag. propatagium ; Pt. br.
and Pt. Ig. mm. propatagialis brevis and longus ; Tri. m. triceps.

M. flexor digitorum sublimis, arising fleshy from the inner face of
the long subcutaneous elastic band that extends from the inner con-
dyle of the humerus along the ventral surface of the ulna to the ulnar
carpal, over which the tendon runs and is inserted on the radial
anterior side of the first phalanx of the second digit. Owing to
the elasticity of the humero-carpal band the wing remains closed
without any special muscular exertion, while, when the wing is
extended, this band assists considerably in keeping it taut.1

M. AMBIENS (page 11), long and spindle-shaped, lying immedi-
ately beneath the skin as the most median or internal of all the

1 From its position immediately under the skin, tliis band may be easily cut,
and though that operation would cause a drooping of the wing, it would suffi-
ciently hinder its being firmly extended, and thus would be the neatest substitute
for the clumsy and barbaric method commonly employed for pinioning Birds.
The power of flight is more effectively destroyed if one wing only be operated
upon than if both are treated.

MUSCULAR SYSTEM 609

muscles extending from the pro-acetabular ilium to the knee. When
typically developed, it arises with a short tendon from the outer face
and the apex of the pectineal process or ilio-pubic spine and runs as
a long tendon between the insertion of the m. sartorius and the
patella over the outer surface of the knee-joint, where it is covered
by the origins of the m. flexor perforans and perforatus dig. Hi., and
the m. perforatus dig. ii., then perforating the lateral head of the m.
peroneus superflcialis, it lastly forms one of the heads of m. flex,
perforat. ii. or Hi. Its nerve-supply comes from the last branch but
one of the middle crural plexus. This muscle is subject to many
modifications, and upon their extremes were founded the two
groups ANOMALOGONAT.E and HOMALOGONAT^E (see also ANATOMY,
page 16). One of the functions of this peculiar muscle, which is
similarly developed in Crocodiles, but absent or not differentiated
from the ilio-tibial and ilio-femoral mass in other Vertebrates, is
that its contraction closes the second and third toes.1

M. caud-ilio-femoralis, when fully developed, consists of ' two
parts, inserted by a single strong and ribbon-like tendon near the
end of the first third of the hind face of the femur. The caudal
part is longer than the other, and arises from the transverse processes
of one or more caudal vertebrae passing externally over the distal
half of the ischium and pubis. The iliac part, which is the "accessory
femoro-caudal " of some writers, is more or less triangular and arises
in most cases from the outer face of the distal half or mid-third of
the pro-acetabular ilium. This double-headed condition is the most
primitive and obtains in most NIDIFUG^E, but in many of them as
well as in many of the NiDiGOL^E either the caudal or the iliac head
is absent, though in very few is the whole wanting. The absence of
the caudal head may possibly be correlated with the strength of the

1 Owen, in 1835, described (Cyclop. Anat. Physiol. i. p. 296) the disposition
of this muscle, which he called the gracilis, as passing ' ' first, over the con-
vexity of the knee-joint, and afterwards over the projection of the heel, [so] that
from its connection with a flexor of the toes, these must necessarily be bent
simultaneously with every inflection of the joints of the knee and ankle. As
these inflections naturally take place when the lower extremities yield to the
superincumbent weight of the body, birds are thus enabled to grasp the twigs on
which they rest whilst sleeping, without making any muscular exertion. " This
ingenious explanation of the perching and roosting of Birds was apparently first
given by Borelli (De motu animalium, Romse : 1680-82), and has been copied
and made much of by many subsequent writers, though Sundevali in 1851 drew
attention to the faultiness of the idea, since the ambiens muscle is absent in such
typical perching Birds as the Coccygomorphse and Passeres, while it is present in
the Anseres. Elsewhere I have pointed out (TMer-reich, Vogel, p. 148) that Birds
possessing it can spread and stretch their toes freely while the leg is also
extended because then only it is not interfered with, and accordingly it is fully
developed in running, wading, swimming and rapacious Birds, but absent in
those which hop and climb.

39

6io

MUSCULAR SYSTEM

leg ; but these four principal modifications are linked to each other
by intermediate stages, which moreover frequently occur in closely-
allied genera or even species. Thus the caudal head is very weak
in (Edicnemus su-percUiaris and (E. bistriatus and, as Garrod found,
does not exist in GB. grallarius. Dicholophus cristatus, like Otis, has
lost it, but D. burmeisteri the iliac head as well. In Ciconia, the
Striges and Catliartidw the whole muscle is represented only by the
feebly-developed caudal head, and in Leptoptilus this also is lost.
In some of the Limicolse, for instance Charadrius pluvialis and Vanellus
cristatus, the presence of the iliac head is an individual variation.
In Pedionomus the iliac head is very large, while the caudal is
reduced to a very thin and feeble slip that does not even reach the
femur, but merges into the iliac : if this reduction were continued
Pedionomus would agree with Pavo and Meleagris and not with
Turnix, in which the iliac head is absent. Thus the taxpnomic
value of this muscle may be judged from the following table,
shewing its four principal modifications : —

Caudal and Iliac Head
present.

Caudal Head alone
present.

Iliac Head alone
present.

Both Heads
absent.

Ratitse

Tinamidse

Pedionomus

Turnix

Gallinse (most)

Pavo, Meleagris

Pterocles

Columbse (most)

Lopholsemus

Glareola

Numenius
Hsematopus

Scolopacinee (most)
Tringinse

Himantopus
(Edicnemus super-

Strepsilas

CE. grallarius

ciliaris,(E. bistri-

atus

Charadrius

Otis

Vanellus

Eupodotis

Crex

Grus

Parra

Dicholophus cris-

D. burmeisteri

tatus

Sterninse

Larinse

Alcidse

Ibididfe

Ciconiinae

Phoenicopterus

Leptoptilus

Platalea

Herodii

Tubinares

Steganopodes

Colymbus

Podicipes

Spheniscidse
Anatidse

Accipitres

Serpentarius

Striges

Psittaci

Centropus

Pici

Cypselomorphse

Passeres

MUSCULAR SYSTEM

611

M. caud-ilio-flexorius or semitendinosus, subject to many modifica-
tions, but when fully developed, as in Gallinte, arising from the
transverse processes of the first three caudal vertebrae and the
lateral margin of the posterior half of the post-acetabular ilium, and
thence extending, as a broad ribbon, mesially from the ischiadic nerve
towards the popliteal region, where it splits into two portions, one
of which, being broad and fleshy, is inserted on the posterior face
of the distal third of the femur, while the other starting at a right

art.

•II til}.

LEFT THIGH-MUSCLES (Grus or Rallus). Outer view after removal of the superficial m. ilio-
fibularis and m. ilio-tibialis.

A, caudal, B, iliac portion of m. caud-ilio-femoralis ; X, m. caud-ilio-flexorius ; Y, accessory
or femoral portion of the same ; II. fb. m. ilio-fibularis (cut away) ; II, tib. m. ilio-tibialis
(cut away) ; Is. fl. m. ischio-flexorius ; Is. fin. m. ischio-femoralis ; P.i.f. m. pub-ischio-
feinoralis ; Sart. m. sartorius ; N, nerve.

angle joins the fascia of the inner femoral head of the m. gastro-
cnemius. The divergence of these two portions is marked by a
tendinous intersection, which running in the direction of the
gastrocnemial insertion has caused the femoral portion of the whole
to be wrongly described as the "accessory semitendinosus." The
extent of the insertion on the femur varies much, occupying more
than its distal half in Rliea or confined to the intercondyloid region.
In almost all swimming Birds as well as in some of the Picarix,
there is a complete split between the femoral and crural portions,
the crural tendon being then inserted on the neck of the tibia, and
the original femoral portion forming part of the median femoral
head of the m. gastrocnemius, in which case the " accessory head " is
generally stated to be absent. The origin of this muscle likewise
varies, arising either from the tail and ilium as in Galling Pterocles,

612 MUSCULAR SYSTEM

Numenius and fihamphastus, or from the ilium only as in Larus,
Ardea, Grus, Corythaix and Podargus. It is frequently connected
aponeuroticaily with the m. ischio-flexorius, and when its " accessory "
is absent, both are inserted on the tibia by one common tendon.

M. ischio-flexorius or semimembranaceus, ribbon-shaped, running
parallel to the posterior margin of the preceding, present in all
Birds, though sometimes much reduced, as in Podicipes, Columbze and
Pterodes, arising chiefly from the outer face of the middle or distal
third of the ischium and inserted by a flat tendon on the neck of
the tibia, whether on its anterior crest or the posterior or inner
face. A slip from the principal tendon frequently descends the leg
and is inserted either separately or jointly with a similar tendon of
the m. caud-ilio-flexorius, being often connected with it in various
ways.

M. ilio-fibularis or biceps cruris, arising from a great portion of
the lateral and dorsal margin of the post-acetabular ilium, changing
near the knee to a round and strong tendon that, accompanied by
one of the principal stems of the ischiadic nerve, runs over a ten-
dinous pulley x and passing between the outer and middle head of
the m. gastrocnemius is inserted on the tuberosity of the fibula at
about the level of the first fifth of the tibia.

M. extensor digitorum communis, arising from the outer and
anterior face of the crest and proximal half of the tibia, its
roundish tendon passes mesially from that of the m. tibialis anticus
through the transverse ligament along the anterior metatarsal groove
and, arrived at its distal end, splits into several tendons, according
to the number of front toes, to be inserted on the dorsal surface of
the base of their several phalanges. In Striges and Pandion, where
the fourth toe is reversible, the principal tendon first splits into two,
one for the second toe, the other soon subdividing for the third and
fourth. In the Rhampliastidaz and Cuculidx, the main stem goes to
the third toe, and sends a short slip to each of the others. In the
Picidse the tendon for the fourth toe passes through an ossified loop
and over a furrow at the end of the fourth metatarsal, so as to
ensure the extension of this digit with the others notwithstanding
its backward position. In the Psittaci alone the principal tendon
sends a slip to the hallux also, the rest being divided into an inner
and outer half, each of which splits again to be inserted on the
other toes, the third of which therefore receives two such tendons.

M. extensor hallucis, arising from the anterior and inner face
of the proximal part of the second tarso-metatarsal and inserted

1 This pulley or loop on the outer side of the knee is composed of three arms,
two arising from the outer face of the external femoral condyle, the third from
the inner head of the m. perforat. dig. iv. and supporting the outer of two
principal branches. Owing to the pulley the contraction of this muscle does not
merely draw the leg towards the trunk, but also lifts it towards the thigh.

MUSCULAR SYSTEM 613

on the dorsal face of the base of the first phalanx of the hallux.
Generally best developed in Birds with a large hallux, as Apteryx,
Galling Accipitres, Steganopodes and Herodii, but yet very small in
Picus and absent in Psittaci. When the hallux is very small, as in
Pterodes and many Limicolaz, this muscle still exists, and though
slender is rather long.

Mm. flexores longi digitorum consist of three principal sets,
each of which is again divided into several muscles, the hallux
having one, the fourth toe two, and the third and second toe three
each, which are conveniently distinguished by the relation to one
another of their respective tendons. Those that are inserted on
the base of the first phalanges are perforated immediately above
the insertion by the tendons of those that are inserted on the
second and third phalanges, which in their turn are perforated by
those that are attached to the terminal phalanges — hence there are
perforati, perforantes et perforati, and perforantes.

Mm. flexores perforati digitorum ii. Hi. iv. These three, of which
each anterior toe has one, arise in a variable way, either separately
or partly blended, from almost any part of the region of the knee,
but especially from the posterior intercondylar space of the femur,
from its outer condyle, from the ligaments of the knee and patella,
the proximal part of the tibia and fibula, and lastly from the
tendon of the m. ambiens (page 11), of which in most cases the m.
perforatus Hi. partly forms the continuation. Each of them be-
comes a distinct tendon which passes posteriorly over the inter-
tar sal joint, and piercing the pad above mentioned, runs along the
plantar groove of the metatarse to be inserted ventri-laterally on
the base of the first phalanx of the second, third or fourth toe as
the case may be — their insertion being perforated as before stated.
The tendon of the m. perforatus Hi. may be easily recognized, first
by its passing the intertarsal joint and the pad the most super-
ficially, and next by its receiving below that joint the lateral
distal tendon of the m. peroneus superfidalis. The tendon of m.
perforatus ii. often passes the pad through a special canal, but in
Struthio is wholly absent, in conformity with the loss of the corre-
sponding toe. The tendon of m. perforatus iv. passes the intertarsal
joint as superficially as that of the third toe, and is often inserted
on all the four proximal phalanges of the fourth toe.

Mm. flexores perforantes et perforati digitorum ii. et Hi., with a
similar origin to the last group, except as regards the m. ambiens
(page 11). The tendon of the second toe pierces the pad by a special
canal, and is inserted on the plantar and lateral faces of the base
of its first or second phalanx, after having perforated that of the
foregoing and being perforated by that of the following muscle.
It is absent in Struthio. The tendon of the third toe in many
Birds receives a vinculum or slip from that of the m. perforatus Hi.,

614 MUSCULAR SYSTEM

then passes the pad and is inserted like that of the second toe on
the base of its own second and third phalanges.

In conformity with the separate position of the hallux, the
mass of deep flexors is divided into two principal portions, each
becoming a strong tendon which passes through or posteriorly over
the metatarsal pad and tubercle, then along the metatarsal groove
for insertion in various ways on the plantar face of the last or two
last phalanges, having in its course perforated the more super-
ficial tendons. It is convenient to distinguish these two portions,
the one as m. flexor perforans, the other as m. hallucis longus.

M. flexor perforans s. profundus, arising from the greater part of
the hind face of the fibula and tibia, and rarely also from the outer
femoral condyle, runs covered by all the other flexors straight to
the intertarsal joint, which it passes more deeply than any of the
rest, entering between the pad and the tibio-tarsus, piercing the
former and immediately after the metatarsal tubercle as well. In
most Birds its tendon divides just above the distal end of the meta-
tarse, sending a slip to each front toe.

M. flexor hallucis longus, regarded as the posterior portion of the
whole mass mentioned above, arises mostly from the intercondylar
space, with its belly resting upon that of the preceding, but slightly
towards the outer or fibular side, and its tendon in most cases
accompanying that of the preceding, there to pass either through
the tarsal pad and hypotarsus, resting in this case on the posterior
surface of the other tendon, or lying a little towards its outer side,
superficially over the pad and tubercle, after which both run down
the metatarsal groove, that of the present resting on the plantar
and fibular side of the other. About half-way down the middle of
the metatarse the tendon of the m. flex, hallucis splits into two
parts, one, continued as the so-called vinculum to the front tendon,
the other, which is generally the weaker, to be inserted on the last
phalanx of the hallux. It is obvious that the tendon of the m.
flex, hallucis, after passing over the outer part of the ankle, must
cross the deeper tendon obliquely to reach the hallux, a crossing
which is correlated with its reversed position, and is really double,
because the m. flex, hallucis arising more inwardly than the m. flex,
perforans, and thus crossing it laterally, crosses it once above
the joint and then again upon the metatarse, since its tendon
goes to the hallux. It is also clear that, owing to the vinculum,
contraction of the m. flex, hallucis bends not only the hallux but the
other toes as well, while the m. flex, perforans acts on the front toes
only. This m. flex, hallucis is therefore, properly speaking, a m.
flexor communis, and the so-called m. flex, perforans is the anterior
portion of the whole mass of deep flexors, a view which is justified
by the fact that the m. flex, hallucis is present regardless of the
absence of the hallux.

MUSCULAR SYSTEM 615

According to the variable configuration of the toes, whether
two, three or four in number, whether the Bird be anisodactyl,
syndactyl, zygodactyl, heterodactyl, eleutherodactyl or what, the
connexion between the two principal deep flexors and their distri-
bution to the toes exhibits many modifications, almost any com-
bination conceivable occurring in some Bird or other. There can
be no doubt that the various uses of the toes — running, climbing,
grasping, rowing and so on, are the chief determining causes of the
manifold arrangements of these tendons. It is easy to understand
the action of a single muscle by itself, but of the action of a group
of muscles, of their mutual play, and how they partially counteract,
supplant or support one another, we know next to nothing. One
point, however, is certain, and that is that coincidence does not
necessarily indicate affinity. The misconception concerning these
plantar tendons has exaggerated their taxonomic value, culminating
in the separation of the Trochilidse from the other Cypselomorpha^
and in the association of the Cathartiddz with the Alctdinidte, Cora-
ciid&, Caprimulgidse and Bucerotidde to the exclusion of Upupa.

Sundevall1 and Garrod2 have done most to describe the modi-
fications of the deep plantar tendons, which are reducible to seven
chief types, most of them connected by intermediate stages.3 In
the following enumeration, the muscle and tendon of the flexor per-
forans are called A (anterior portion), those of the flexor hallucis P
(posterior portion).

I. Vinculum from P to A. Tendon A splits into 3, going
to toes ii. iii. and iv. Tendon P goes to i., and by the vinculum
acts also on ii. iii. and iv. — i.e. upon all the toes. — The arrange-
ment most commonly found in 4-toed birds, no matter whether
the toes be normally placed, paired or reversible : Ardete, Ciconise,
Platalea, Gallinse, Ralli, Grues, Rhinochetus, Eurypyga, Otis, Limicolse,
Pterodes, Columbse, Laridx, Alcidaz, Opisthocomus, Cuculidse, Muso-
phagidse, Psittaci, Striges, Euryl%mid%. In Eerodii the vinculum is
either very weak or wholly lost, thus leading to type VII.

II. Vinculum very strong and broad, forming the direct and
principal continuation of tendon P, of which the hallux receives
but a slender portion. Tendon P goes to i. by vinculum to ii. iii.
and iv. — i.e. it acts on all. Tendon A goes to ii. iii. and iv.
Muscles A and P of equal strength. This is the case in Apteryx,
Tinamidaz (Nothurd), Spheniscidse, Steganopodes, Anseres, Colymbi,
Podidpedes and also in Podica.

III. Tendons A and P more or less fused throughout the
greater extent of the metatarse. The vinculum and the level of
the actual crossing are shifted to the distal portion of the meta-

1 Forhandl. Skandinav. NaturforsTc. 1851, pp. 259-269.

2 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, pp. 339-348.

3 Thicr-reich, VogcZ, p. 195.

616 MUSCULAR SYSTEM

tarse. Tendon A goes to ii. iii. and iv. Tendon P to i. and by
vinculum to ii. also, consequently, owing to the vinculum's distal
position, its action is confined to two toes. This type, to a certain
extent intermediate between I. and II., is characteristic of Acci-
pitres, except Cathartidse (see V.), and Pandion, in which last,
perhaps owing to its reversible outer toe, A goes to ii. iii. and iv.,
but tendon P splits into 4, sending a slip to each toe directly,
and in this case is therefore a complete flexor communis.

IY. The prevalent type where the hallux is absent or very
small. Both muscles are strong and almost equally developed,
their tendons unite about the middle of the metatarse, the joint
tendon A + P going to the front toes, the hallux receiving no
tendon, and consequently there is no crossing. This type, genetically
connected with II. , occurs in Casuarius, Drom&us, Rhea, Struthio,
Turnix, Pterodes and Phcenicopterus, Palamedea, Dicholophus, Tubin-
ares, ColymU.

V. Tendons A and P unite at a variable distance below the
ankle joint, passing it in the ordinary way, and there is no crossing
behind the metatarse, tendon P running directly into A from its
fibular side. Muscle A generally much stronger than muscle P.
In the simplest case (V, a) the united tendons A + P split into 4
equally strong tendons, either just above the base of the toes, or
successively first to the hallux and lastly to iv. — as in Buceros,
Cypselus and Colius. Secondly an exaggerated condition of this
(V,a) prevails (as V,b) in Momotidw, Todidaz, Meropidae and in some
Alcedinidse, where the tendon of the hallux is split off directly
from the tibial and ventral side of A above its fusion with P.
Thirdly there is a condition (V, c), hitherto known in the Trochilidse
only, where A and P are completely divided from each other into
a deep mass (A) which goes to ii. and iii., and into a plantar mass
supplying i. and iv. Careful and, from their small size, difficult
preparations of this have been made by Prof. Stewart and Mr.
Bourne for the Museum of the College of Surgeons in London, and
any other description and figures of these Trochiline tendons are
either incorrect or misleading. Lastly comes the modification found
in the Cathartidse, where the fusion of the two principal tendons (as
in Y,a and V,b) is followed by a splitting into a ventral mass (P) to
ii. iii. and iv., and into a deep mass (A) to i. ii. and iii. This
arrangement can be easily derived from type V, a, but almost
equally well from the variable type III., as indicated by Pandion
(fig. XL) In the latter case the Cathartidse would appear as a
peculiar departure from primitive Accipitrine conditions.

VI. Vinculum present, going from P to A. Tendon A single,
going only to iii. Tendon P going to i. ii. and iv., and by the
vinculum to iii. also, i.e. to all the toes. This most peculiar type
prevails in all the anomalogonatous zygodactyl Birds, Picidw, Rham-

MUSCULAR SYSTEM

617

phastidie, Indicatoridae, Bucconid&, Capitonidss and Galbulidse. The
fourth toe being turned backwards behaves like a hallux and
receives a tendon from the flex, hallucis, but this cannot be the only
reason, since the Cuculidse and Psittad are also zygodactyl, but
possess an ambiens, and belong to type I.

VII. Tendons A and P are entirely disconnected, owing to the

iv iii ii

DIAGRAMS SHEWING ARRANGEMENT OF TENDONS OF THE FOOT.
A, Tendon of the anterior portion (m. flexor perforans). P, Tendon of the posterior portion (m.

flexor hallucis. The toes are numbered i. ii. iii. iv.

I-VIII, The types numbered according to Garrod, Gadow and Fiirbringer. I, Gallus ; II,
Apteryx ; III, Falconidae ; IV, Rhea ; Va, Cypselus ; Vb, Momotus ; V<=, Trochilus ; Vd,
Upupa and Irrisor ; VI, Picus ; VII, Oscines ; VIII, Harpactes duvauceli ; IX, Dacelo gigas ;
X, Heliornis surinamensis ; XI, Pandion ; XII, Cuculi.

(Vc, VIII, IX, after preparations in Mus. E. Coll. Surg. ; X, after Beddard.)

loss of the vinculum. Tendon A goes to ii. iii. and iv. ; Tendon
P only to the hallux, which is always well developed and the only
posterior toe. This type is the most differentiated and also the
simplest. Morphologically therefore it is the highest. It exists in
all the Passeres, except Eurylxmidse, and in some Herodii.

6i8 MUSCULAR SYSTEM

Hitherto it has always been stated that Upupa has free tendons
(as in type VII.) and this has been used as an argument for placing
it among the Passeres ; but, as a matter of fact, in Upupa and Irrisor,
tendon P sends a vinculum to the slips of tendon A which goes to
iii., and this vinculum joins A below, not above, the root of the toes
(see fig. V,d).

VIII. This type is peculiar to the Trogonidse. These Birds are
heterodactyl, the hallux and second toe being reversed, while the
third and fourth are front toes, and their deep flexor tendons like-
wise anomalous. Tendon A goes to the two hind toes i. and ii.,
and by the vinculum together with tendon P to iii. and iv.
Analysis of this case means : — fusion of P with A, without any
crossing; proximal splitting-off of the tendons for i. and ii. from
the tibial side of A ; and consequently direct derivation from type
V,a, analogous to, but more exaggerated than, V,b.

These eight types are to be genetically grouped as follows : —
I. II. III. IV. and VII. are closely allied to each other ; I. and IV.
to be derived from II. and VII. from I., while III. is a compara-
tively primary condition ; V, a shews a primitive stage, whence are
developed in diverging directions V,b, V,c, V,d, VI. and VII.
Any derivation of VI. from VIII. or vice versd is impossible ; and
the same applies to V, c and VI.

B.a. Muscles of the Visceral Skeleton, which according
to their innervation, derivation and function fall naturally into
three groups.

1. Group of the m. mylohyoideus, formed by the most anterior
continuation of the m. cucullaris and m. constrictor colli and consist-
ing of two portions: — (1) m. mylohyoid. anterior, lying between
the branches of the mandible from the inner face of which its
transversely-directed fibres arise to meet in the middle line, and by
their contraction press the tongue and larynx against the palate,
and supplied from the third ramus of the nervus trigeminus, and
(2) m. mylohyoid. posterior, arising from the outer face of the
posterior end of the mandible and sometimes also from the adjoin-
ing part of the occiput, and inserted in the corner formed by the
hyoid horn and the corpus linguze, being supplied by a branch of the
nervus facialis, and drawing the tongue with the larynx upward
and backward. When the tongue is very protractile or very thick
this portion consists of two parts, one, m. serpi-hyoideus, arising
from the serpiform process of the mandible, the other, m. stylo-
hyoideus, from the occiput.

2. Group of the masticatory muscles, supplied by nervus
trigeminus and n. facialis.

M. digastricus or depressor mandibulse, large and often compound,
generally arising from the lateral occipital bone, and inserted on the

MUSCULAR SYSTEM 619

inner angular process of the mandible, acting on the jaw behind the
articulation so as to open the mouth.

M. tempvralis, consisting of a variable number of parts, the chief
of which, arising from the postorbital process and the quadrate, pass
beneath the jugal arch and are inserted on the mandible in front of
the joint, acting mostly as masseters. Two or three smaller muscles,
arising from the deeper region of the orbit and the interorbital
septum to be inserted on the palatal and pterygoid bones, are much
less constant. i

M. pterygoideus, arising chiefly from the ventral face of the
pterygoid, palatal and, sometimes, from the maxillary bones, and
inserted on the inner face of the mandibular articulation, close the
bill or, when the mouth is open, flex the upper mandible, as seen in
Psittaci, Anatidse and others.

3. Group of the Hyoid muscles, supplied solely by nervus hypo-
glossus often very numerous and always attached to the HYOip
apparatus (page 452), whence they reach backward to the sternum
or to the furcula as mm. sterno-hyoidei or mm. deido-Tiyoidei, to the
larynx and trachea as mm. thyreo-Jiyoidei or mm. tracheo-hyoidei, while
others extend forward to the mandible as mm. genio-Jiyoidei and genio-
glossus, or lastly they connect the various portions of the Hyoid
apparatus. In most cases their position is indicated by their name.

System of the m. sterno-hyoideus, a long pair of muscles, pre-
senting its least differentiated condition in Apteryx (where no other
sterno-hyoid or sterno-tracheal exists). The broader and more
superficial portion arises from the ventral face of the thyroid
cartilage and the hyoid bones, meeting its fellow without being
attached to the trachea, and is inserted aponeurotically on the
lateral and posterior margin of the sternum, partly covering the
muscles of the shoulder and breast. The deeper portion likewise
begins at the thyroid cartilage, passes down the side of the trachea,
to which it is firmly attached until just above the bronchial fork,
where it leaves it to be inserted near the coraco-sternal articulation.
From the conditions just described are differentiated the more
complex arrangements found in other Birds. By reduction of the
muscular mass about the middle of the neck an upper and lower
portion are formed, the upper then appearing as tracheo-laryngeal or
thyrohyoid muscles — the lower as sterno- or cleido-tracheal, and
through further extension to the bronchi as muscles of the SYRINX.
In many Birds the superficial portion of the whole system remains
as one or two ribbons, m. cleido-hyoideus, running along the side of
the neck and connecting the tongue with the furcula, or other parts
of the scapular arch. The chief retractor of the tongue, M. tracheo-
hyoideus reaches its highest development in some of the Picidx, where
it takes several spiral turns round the trachea.

M. genio-hyoideus, arising from about the middle of the mandi-

620 MUSKET-HAWK—NASAL GLANDS

bular bar, extends as a ribbon to the hyoid bone, round which it
twists loosely ; and, being attached to its dorsal extremity, the con-
traction of the spiral surrounding the hyoid horns protrudes them
with great force, the extent of protrusion depending on their length.
This is greatest in Trochilidse and Picidze, in some of which they pass
round the head and reach forward to the nostrils.

M. genio-glossus, a small protractor of the tongue, connecting the
os entoglossum with the chin, but often absent.

M. ceratoglossus, arising from the dorsal face of the ceratohyal,
inserted by a tendon laterally on the os entoglossum, which it draws
sideways or bends when acting jointly with its fellow.

M. cemto-hyoideus, extending from the inner face of the ceratohyal
to the urohyal, but often absent.

M. hypoglossus, extending from the ventral face of the body of
the tongue to the ventral or lateral face of the os enioglossum.

MUSKET- or MUSQUET-HAWK (0. Fr. mousquet or mouchet),
an old name for the cock Sparrow- HAWK, seemingly given from its
comparatively small size (Fr. mouche, Lat. musca — a fly), and hence,
on the invention of fire-arms, applied to one which was smaller and
handier than the older match-lock.

MUTTON-BIRD, a sailors' name for at least one species of
SHEARWATER, but especially for Puffinus brevicauda, presumably
because "the young are literally one mass of fat, which has a
tallowy appearance" (Gould, Handb. B. Austral iii. p. 462). Mr.
Robert Elwes has given (Ibis, 1859, pp. 397-399) a remarkable
account of one of the most frequented breeding-places of this bird
on an island in Bass's Strait, which, it is to be feared, no longer
exists as such owing to the devastation wickedly carried on — nearly
60,000 breeding birds having been taken in a single season.

N

NANDU, from Nhandu-guapu, given by Marcgrave and Piso as
the Brazilian name of the RHEA, and occasionally used for that bird
by some English writers.

NASAL GLANDS exist pairwise in almost all Birds, and their
tear-like secretion serves to moisten and cleanse the mucous lining
of the nasal cavities. Each gland has a duct opening into the
vestibulum of the nares below the nasal bone, and passing beneath
the lacrymal bone. These glands vary much in shape, size, position
and colour, in the last respect ranging from bluish-red to red and

NASUT^E— NERVOUS SYSTEM 621

pale yellow. They are very large in Limioolx, except Scolopax, and
are occasionally absent in S. mticola, Larute, Colymbidx and Tuhi-
marwt, vesting sabcutaneously on the frontals between the eyes, or
above the orbital margin and producing on these bones deep
depressions, the configuration of which, together with lateral notches,
or canals between the nasals, lacrymals and frontals can, with care,
be used for taxonomic purposes. In most Anseres the glands are
small and placed on the upper orbital margin When they are
small they extend to the orbital cavity only or are restricted to the
maxillary cavity, as in Raittaz. Gallin&, Cdumbae, Otis, Sula, Pdargi,
Acdpiirt&) Picarix and Passeres.

NASUT.E, Nitzsch's name in 1840 for the group which Uliger
had called TUBINARES in 1811.

NATATORES, Dliger's name in 1811 for an Order of Birds
(including 6 Families and 22 genera), equivalent to the Linnaean
ANSERES. Holding its place, to the exclusion of the older term, for
about fifty years, ornithologists at last perceived that the group
contained many forms which have no affinity, and the word is now
hardly used but by writers who know little of the principle of
Taxonomy.

NATIVE-COMPANION, Grus australasianus (CRANE) ; -HEX,
any species of Tribonyx (RAIL) ; -PHEASANT, Lipoa ocellaia (MEGA-
PODE); -SPARROW, Zonasginthus octdeus, one of the WEAVER-
BIRDS ; -THRUSH, Pathycephala divacea (THICKHEAD); -TURKEY,
Otis austrtdis, a BUSTARD — all names used, according to Gould, by the
English in Australia or Tasmania.

XECK, or cervix, that part of the body which extends from the
head to the thorax, the last cervical vertebra being the one which
carries a pair of ribs that do not join the STERNUM.

NEOPHRON, the generic term given to the Vultur percnopterus
of Linnaeus by Savigny l when separating it
from the other VULTURES, and sometimes
used as an English word.

XEOSSOPTTLE, see FEATHERS (p. 243).

NERVOUS SYSTEM. This consists of
two parts, (1) a Central portion, composed of

the Spinal Cord and BRAIN, and (2) Peripheral, containing the
Cranial and Spinal Nerves, together with all that pertains to what
is called the Sympathetic.

1 He took the word from the pseudomythological Metamorphoses (or Trans-
formationum congeries, Fab. 5) of Antoninus Liberalis, a writer who flourished
about the middle of the second century, Xeophron being the name of a man
changed, for a base trick he played, into a Vulture by Zeus.

622 NERVOUS SYSTEM

I. The Spinal Cord or "Marrow" is the continuation of the
medulla oblongata, extending throughout the vertebral canal
to the tail, being swollen at the level of the shoulders by an
accumulation of ganglionic cells to serve the Brachial Nerve
Plexus governing the fore-limbs, and again in the lumbar region
where the nerves of the hind -limbs have their origin. On the
dorsal side of this lumbar swelling, there is a lozenge-shaped slit,
the sacro-rhomboidal sinus, filled with a colourless gelatinous
substance, behind which the cord lessens gradually, ending as
a thin thread in the last free caudal vertebrae. The whole of
this System is encased in a strong, fibrous sheath of connective
tissue, the dura mater, the outer layer of which is closely attached
to and forms the lining of the central vertebral canal, while its
inner layer forms a looser and more meshy tissue. A much thinner
membrane, the pia mater, is immediately attached to the surface of
this System, penetrating its various furrows or sulci, and containing
blood-vessels which nourish the nervous matter. Between the dura
and the pia mater, but partly separated from each by lymphatic
spaces, lies the Arachnoid Membrane.

The composition of the Spinal Cord is best studied in transverse
section : — in the midst is the central canal, on the medio-ventral
and medio-dorsal lines are the anterior and posterior sulci, forming
more or less deep vertical slits which thus divide the cord into a
right and left side. The central portion of the cord, distinctly
grey in colour, being composed of grey nerve-fibres, without axial
cylinders, and interspersed with numerous ganglionic nerve-cells,
arranged in the form of a saltire or St. Andrew's cross, of which the
ventral pair of limbs contain the ganglia and send out the motory
roots of the spinal nerves, while the dorsal pair contain the ganglia
and send out the sensory bundles of nerve-fibres. This grey matter
is surrounded by a thick mantle of white nerve-fibres, most of them
conducting threads composed of an axial cylinder with a sheath,
and running longitudinally parallel to each other, though at the
so-called commissures a crossing from one side to the other occurs
with many of both white and grey fibres.

II. The Spinal Nerves arise from the medulla by a number of
rootlets, which leave its surface in the form of a dorsal and a
ventral root — the former (with a small swelling, the spinal ganglion,
at its base) containing the sensory, the latter the motory fibres ;
but all the fibres of each issue as a single bundle either between
two vertebrae or pass through a hole at the anterior end of a
vertebra. The first spinal or cervical nerve issues between the
occiput and the atlas, and each that follows from the anterior end
of its vertebra — all on leaving the vertebral column separating into
three branches — a dorsal, ventral and visceral. The first two
contain sensory and motory nerves mixed ; but the dorsal branches

NERVOUS SYSTEM 623

are small and innervate the skin and muscles of the dorsal spinal
tract, while the ventral branches are much larger, and, depending
on the muscles they have to supply, are strongest in the region of
the limbs. The visceral branches, or " sympathetic nerves," supply
chiefly the digestive, vascular and generative organs.

Four or five of the lowest cervical nerves join to form the
Brachial Plexus, whence diverge those that serve the wings and
shoulders ; but the composition of this plexus varies considerably
not only in different species but even individually. The serial
number of the nerves entering into its formation depends chiefly
on the length of the neck, the extremes being found in Cypselus
(10th to the 14th cervical pair), and Gygnus (22nd to 24th), inter-
mediate cases occurring in Columba (llth to 15th), Gallus (13th to
17th), Anas (15th to 18th) and in many Passeres (12th to 15th).
The last nerve of this plexus often marks off the boundary of the
cervical and thoracic regions, by issuing just above the first thoracic
vertebra.

The nerves arising from this plexus are divided into (A) small
dorsal branches supplying the scapular muscles, and (B) thoracic
branches forming a system for the sterno-coracoid and all the wing-
muscles. The thoracic branches (B) send off a group (a) to the
superior and another (5) to the inferior brachial muscles. Among
the former (a), the chief are (1) nervus subcoraco-scapularis for the
m. subcoracoideus, m. subscapularis and m. subcoraco-scapularis, (2)
n. muscuU latissimi dorsi, (3) n. axillaris, a strong nerve passing
the humero-scapular joint, running between the humerus and the
m. triceps, and innervating the deltoid muscles, as well as the skin
of the shoulder, upper arm and propatagium, and (4) the n. radialis,
the strongest nerve of all, running spirally round the dorsal side of
the humerus, supplying the m. triceps, and, dividing at the elbow
into a superficial and a deep branch, innervating all the numerous
exterior muscles beside the skin and feathers of the forehead.
Among the latter group (b) are three strong nerves (1) the n. supra-
coracoideus, covered by a membranaceous ligament, crossing the
coracoid and supplying the m. supracoracoideus,1 (2) the n. pectoralis
for the large pectoral muscle, and (3) the n. brachialis inferior, which
accompanies the last so far as the axilla, and then passing along the
humerus divides into a n. medianus, supplying the m. biceps and
the radial side of the forearm and hand, and a n. ulnaris, sending
several branches to the ulnar side.

The spinal nerves succeeding to the Brachial Plexus are those
of the intercostal region, their short dorsal branches supply the

1 In many birds the median side of the coracoid has a notch (bridged by a
tendinous ligament) for the passage of the nerve, which in other cases may pass
through a foramen near the inner side of that bone ; but these differences have
little taxonomic importance.

624

NERVOUS SYSTEM

R.d.

fc.w.

Fig. i.

Fig. 1. — Diagrammatic Representation of the peripheral Nervous System of a Bird. Ventral
view. Left side showing the Somatic, right side showing the Visceral Nerves.

IX. N. glossopharyngeus ; X. N. vagus, C. G. H. P. its distribution to the Carotid, the Heart,
Lungs, Stomach and Gut; XII.l, Lingual branch and XII.2, Syringeal branch of N. hypo-
glossus ; Sy. Sympathetic ganglion of the first spinal nerve.

Fig. 2.— Diagrammatic view of a transverse section through the spinal cord on the level of the
exit of a typical spinal nerve.

A.H. and P.H. Anterior or ventral and Posterior or dorsal Horns with ganglia, of the grey sub-
stance ; in the middle of which is seen the central canal ; Sp.G. the Spinal Ganglion of the
dorsal root of the spinal nerve; Sy.G. the Sympathetic Ganglion; R.d., E.ve., R.vis.
Dorsal, Ventral and Visceral (or sympathetic) branches of the spinal nerve.

NERVOUS SYSTEM 625

dorsal muscles of the spine, and their long ventral branches run
between the ribs, supplying the intercostal and, further back, the
abdominal muscles.

The Sacral Plexus is formed by the Spinal Nerves in the
pelvic region, and may be conveniently divided into (A) a
Crural or Lumbar, (B) a Sciatic, and (C) a Pudic portion. The
first (A) is composed of from 2 to 4, but generally of 3 nerves,
the foremost of which sends a long branch to the abdominal
muscles, while the hindmost, n. furcalis, leaving the spinal column,
as a rule, between the 2 last lumbo-sacral vertebrae, divides — one-half
going to the Sciatic portion. From the Crural portion spring
several branches forming 3 groups — (1) those that serve the m.
sartorius, m. ambiens and some other muscles of the leg ; (2) the
n. obturatorius, supplying the m. obturator and its accessories, as
well as the m. adductor magnus ; and (3) a long nerve which runs
down the median side of the thigh to the inner side of the knee,
supplying the latter and passing subcutaneously down the median
side of the leg. This nerve is almost peculiar to Birds, occurring
beside only in Crocodiles and Monotremes.

The Sciatic portion (B) generally consists of 5 or 6 nerves,
which leave the pelvis as a thick stem, passing close behind the anti-
trochanter through the ischio-iliac foramen, where a strong branch
separates itself from the hinder side of the common stem to supply
most of the adductor muscles of the thigh and leg. From the
main stem branches are given off to the ilio-femoral, ilio-tibial, ilio-
fibular and ischio-femoral muscles. The rest of the stem continues
as the Sciatic nerve, accompanied by the great arteries and veins
on the posterior side of the thigh, and below the knee invariably
divides into 3 branches, the first of which (1) is the strongest, and
passes with the tendon of the ilio-fibular muscle through the peculiar
tendinous pulley on the side of the fibula, whereupon it splits into
the superficial and deep peroneal nerves, to supply the extensor
and peroneal muscles of the foot and toes ; the median branch (2)
soon breaks up into a number of nerves for the deep flexor muscles
of the toes and the inner and middle portion of the m. gastro-
cnemius ; while the third (3) innervates the outer head of the
gastrocnemius and the rest of the flexor muscles of the toes. As
before stated, the Sciatic portion (B) receives one-half of the n.
furcalis from the Crural (A), while its hindmost spinal stem, leaving
the spinal column, in most birds, between or just below the hind-
most of the 2 primary sacral vertebrae (see Pelvis under SKELETON),
sends a branch to the Pudic portion (C), which is composed of the
post-ischiadic spinal nerves. These are partly imbedded in the
substance of the KIDNEYS, and run obliquely outwards, forming
many anastomoses with one another, especially on the hinder parts of
the ischium and pubic bone. This portion chiefly innervates the

40

626 NERVOUS SYSTEM

ventral muscles between the pelvis and tail, together with those of
the cloacal region and the copulatory organs.

The dorsal branches of all the spinal nerves in the whole pelvic
region are restricted to small, cutaneous branches in conformity with
the reduction of the dorso-spinal muscles. The caudal nerves are
also small, their dorsal branches supply the levator and their
ventral the depressor muscle of the tail.

III. The Cranial or Cerebral Nerves have been already described
(BRAIN).

IV. The Sympathetic System consists of the visceral branches of
the Cerebro-Spinal Nerves, and supplies chiefly the alimentary and
genital organs and the circulation. The Nerves composing it have
no axial cylinder : they are paler than the white fibres, and are
characterized by the presence of ganglia in their course, each
branch containing one near its base which beside sending off
other ramifications is connected with the corresponding ganglion of
the next metamere, so as to form a " Sympathetic" chain running
along each side of the ventral surface of the vertebral column.
The two chains by means of these connexions somewhat resemble
a ladder, the cross-bars of which are called rami communicantes,
from a mistaken notion that they join the longitudinal " strand"
or n. sympathicus of their side with the medulla, the fact being
that the cross-bars are the true " rests," the lateral strands rather
making the connexion between the successive ganglia. In the
region of the NECK each of these strands runs, accompanied by
the vertebral artery of its side, through the transverse foramen of
each of the cervical vertebrae. In the thoracic region each strand
is double, and the basal ganglia are successively connected with the
next by a nervous branch which runs over the head of the rib, and
by another which passes directly through the space between the
head of the rib and its tubercle. In the pelvic region each strand
again becomes single ; but, conversely to the single strand of the
cervical region, each is composed of ventral branches only, while
lastly in the caudal region the right and left branches approach
and coalesce in the middle line. From the first thoracic ganglion
there issues a cardiac branch supplying the HEART, while other
branches starting from neighbouring ganglia form a sort of plexus
which, accompanying the cceliac artery, innervate the stomach, LIVER
and other viscera. Similar branches from the basal ganglia of the
lumbar and sacral regions form a plexus with ganglia numerously
interspersed, and serve the rest of the Alimentary Canal, the
KIDNEYS (page 480), genital organs and CLOACA (page 90), where
they partly anastomose with the branches of the Pudic portion of
the Sacral Plexus.

From the first pair of cervical ganglia the Sympathetic strands
are continued on either side to the ganglia of the n. hypoglossus,

NESTOR 627

and thence to the ganglion supremum of the combined n. vagus and
glossopharyngeus. From this last, which sends out long sympathetic
branches to the carotids and the throat generally, the Sympathetic
chain extends to the head by complicated connexions with the
ganglia of the 7th, 5th and 3rd pairs of cranial nerves (see BRAIN),
its numerous branches serving chiefly the blood-vessels of the head,
the lacrymal glands and the EYES.

NESTOR, the name applied to a small but remarkable group of
Parrots peculiar to the New-Zealand Region, of which the type is
the Psittacus meridionalis of Gmelin, founded on a species described
by Latham (Gen. Synops. i. p. 264), and subsequently termed by him
P. nestor, in allusion to its hoary head, but now usually known as
Nestor meridionalis^ the " Kaka " of the Maories and English settlers
in New Zealand, in some parts of which it was, and even yet may
be, very abundant, though its numbers are fast decreasing. Forster,
who accompanied Cook in his second voyage, described it in his

HEAD OF NESTOR. (From Buller.)

MS. in 1773, naming it P. hypopolius, and found it in both the
principal islands. The general colour of the Kaka is olive-brown,
nearly all the feathers being tipped with a darker shade, so as to
give a scaly appearance to the body. The crown is light grey, the
ear-coverts and nape purplish-bronze, and the rump and abdomen of
a more or less deep crimson-red ; but much variation is presented
in the extent and tinge of the last colour, which often becomes
orange and sometimes bright yellow. The Kaka is about the size
of a Crow; but a larger species, generally resembling it, though
having its plumage varied with blue and green, the Nestor notdbilis
of Gould, was discovered in 1856 by Mr. Walter Man tell, in the
higher mountain-ranges of the South Island. This is the " Kea " of
the Maories, and has of late incurred the enmity of colonists by
developing, when pressed by hunger in winter, an extraordinary
habit of assaulting sheep, picking holes with its powerful beak in

628 NESTOR

their side, wounding the intestines, and so causing the animals'
death. The lacerations are said to be made so uniformly in one
place as to suggest deliberate design ; but the bird's intent has yet
to be investigated, though it is admittedly an eater of carrion in
addition to its ordinary food, which, like that of the Kaka, consists
of fruits, seeds, and the grubs of wood-destroying insects, the last
being obtained by stripping the bark from trees infested by them.
The amount of injury the Kea inflicts on flock-masters has doubt-
less, as always happens in similar cases, been much exaggerated, for
Dr. Menzies states (Trans. N. Zeal. Inst. xi. p. 377) that on one
" run," where the loss was unusually large, the proportion of sheep
attacked was about one in three hundred, and that those pasturing
below the elevation of 2000 feet are seldom disturbed.1

On the discovery of Norfolk Island (10th October 1774) a
Parrot, thought by Forster to be specifically identical with the
"Kaghaa" (as he wrote the name) of New Zealand, — though his
son (Voyage, ii. p. 446) remarked that it was "infinitely brighter
coloured," — was found in its hitherto untrodden woods. Among the
drawings of Bauer, the artist who accompanied Robert Brown and
Flinders, is one of a Nestor marked "Norfolk Isl. 19 Jan. 1805," on
which Von Pelzeln in 1860 founded his N. norfolcensis. Meanwhile
Latham, in 1822, had described, as distinct species, two specimens
evidently of the genus Nestor, one, from the collection of Mr. Thomas
Wilson of Maidenhead, said, but doubtless erroneously, to inhabit
New South Wales, and the other brought by Col.' Hunter from
Norfolk Island. In 1836 Gould described an example, without any
locality, in the museum of the Zoological Society, as Plyctolophus
productus, and when some time after he was in Australia, he found
that the home of this species, which he then recognized as a Nestor,
was Phillip Island, a very small adjunct of Norfolk Island, and not
more than five miles distant from it. Whether the birds of the two
islands were specifically distinct or not we shall perhaps never know,
since they are all extinct (EXTERMINATION, pp. 223, 224), and no
specimen undoubtedly from Norfolk Island seems to have been pre-
served ; 2 while, now that we are aware of the great diversity in
colour, size, and particularly in the form of the beak, to which the
New-Zealand members of the genus are subject, it would be unsafe
to regard as specific the differences pointed out by Von Pelzeln

1 A third form, from an unknown locality, has been distinguished as ^\7.
esslingi (Rev. Zool. 1856, p. 223), and has been regarded by several writers, and
among them Count T. Salvadori (Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xx. p. 8), as a good species,
though Sir W. Buller (B. N. Zeal. ed. 2, i. pp. 150-175) believes it to be, like
his own N. occidentalis and N. superbus, as well as the so-called N. montanus
of Haast, founded on individual variation.

2 Canon Tristram (Ibis, 1892, p. 557) believes that one in his possession had
this origin, and so it may prove.

NESTS— NIDICOL& 629

from Bauer's drawing. The Phillip-Island Nestor may be distin-
guished from both of the New-Zealand species by its somewhat
smaller size, orange throat, straw-coloured breast, and the generally
lighter shade of its tints.

The position of the genus Nestor in the Order Psittad must be
regarded as uncertain. Garrod removed it altogether from the
neighbourhood of the Lories (Proc. Zool. Society, 1874, p. 597), to
which indeed the structure of its tongue, as previously shewn by
him (op. cit. 1872, p. 789), indicates only a superficial resemblance.
Like so many other New-Zealand forms, Nestor seems to be isolated,
and may fairly be deemed to represent a separate Family — Nestoridx
— a view adopted by Count T. Salvadori (Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xx.
Introd. p. viii.), and fully justified by a cursory examination of its
osteology, though this has hitherto been only imperfectly described
and figured (Eyton, Osteol. Avium, p. 72 ; A. B. Meyer, Abbild. von
F~ogel-SMetten, p. 18, pL 23).

Further knowledge of this very interesting form may be facili-
tated by the following references to the Transactions and Proceedings
of the New Zealand Institute, ii. pp. 64, 65, 387; iii. pp. 45-52, 81-
90; v. p. 207 ; vi. pp. 114, 128; ix. p. 340; x. p. 192; xi. p.
377 ; and of course to Sir Walter Buller's Birds of New Zealand,
especially the second edition.

NESTS, see NIDIFICATION.

NIAS (Fr. Niais, and that from the Low Latin Nidax, a nest-
ling), corruptly " Eyas " or " Eyess," a falconer's term for a Hawk
that has been brought up from the nest, in contradistinction to
a " Haggard " or Hawk that has been caught wild.

NIDICOL^E, a word used in this work in no systematic sense,
but as a convenient term to indicate those Birds, the young of
which remain in the nest for a shorter or longer time as opposed to
NIDIFUG^E, or those whose chicks are hatched in a condition
enabling them to leave their birthplace at once. The Nidicolte, all
of which have their eyes closed at coming into the world, may be
divided into four categories, according to their initial state and the
way in which they subsequently develop : —

(1) Those born with a clothing of "Neossoptiles" (see
FEATHERS, p. 243), as Accipitres, Alcidx (partly), Caprimulgi, Colum-
bian, Eurypyga, Heliornis (excl. Podica), Sphenisci, Striges, TuUnares.

(2) Those born naked or nearly so, but soon acquiring a thick
clothing of neossoptiles, often of complicated structure, as Ardese
( + Scopus), Cathartse, Ciconise ( + Platalea), Podica, Steganopodes.

(3) Those born naked, but with a few neossoptiles growing out
of the tip of the " Teleoptiles " (see FEATHERS, p. 243) as Passeres,
Upupidds.

(4) Those born naked and never acquiring neossoptiles, nearly

630 NIDIFICATION

all being birds that breed in holes, as Alcedines, BuceroKdas, Coraciidas,
Cuculidse, Cypseli, Meropidae, Momotidte, Musophagidse, Pici, Todidx,
Trochilidx.

The Bucconidss, Coliidse, Euryl&midse, Galbulidse and Trogonidw are
probably all naked.

Menura is said to have downy nestlings.

Opisthocomus is born with open eyes, but is fed by its parents,
and has an imperfect nestling plumage.

The interesting correlation between Neossoptiles and permanent
Downs (see FEATHERS, p. 242) is shewn (Thier-reich, Fogel, Systemat.
Theil, pp. 76-85).

NIDIFICATION, or the building of the nest in which the EGGS
are to be incubated and hatched, is with most Birds the beginning of
the real work of the breeding -season, to which SONG and its con-
comitant actions are but the prelude or the accompaniment ; but
with many it is a labour that is scamped if not shirked. Some of the
AUK tribe place their single egg on a bare ledge of rock, where its
peculiar conical shape is but a precarious safeguard when rocked by
the wind or stirred by the thronging crowd of its parents' fellows.
The Stone-CuRLEW and the NIGHTJAR deposit their eggs without the
slightest preparation of the soil on which they rest ; yet this is not
done at haphazard, for no birds can be more constant in selecting,
almost to an inch, the very same spot which year after year they
choose for their procreant cradle.1 In marked contrast to such
artless care stand the wonderful structures which others build for
the comfort or safety of their young. But every variety of dis-
position may be found in the Class. The Apteryx (Kiwi) seems to
entrust its abnormally big egg to an excavation among the roots of
a tree-fern ; while a band of female OSTRICHES scrape holes in the
desert-sand, and therein promiscuously dropping their eggs cover
them with earth, and leave the task of incubation to the male, who
discharges the duty thus imposed upon him by night only, and
trusts by day to the sun's rays for keeping up the needful, fostering
warmth. Some MEGAPODES bury their eggs in sand, leaving them,
as many Reptiles do, to come to maturity by the mere warmth of the
ground, while others raise a huge hotbed of dead leaves wherein they
deposit theirs ; but in either case the young are hatched without
further care on the part of either parent. The GREBES and some
RAILS seem to avail themselves in a less degree of the heat generated
by vegetable decay (B. Norf. iii. p. 240),2 and dragging from the
bottom or sides of the waters they frequent fragments of aquatic

1 I make this statement literally on the experience of my brother Edward
and myself, but I believe it will be abundantly confirmed by the evidence of other
observers.

2 Mr. Southwell found the temperature of an unincubated nest of Podicipes
cristatus to be 67°, that of two incubated nests to be 72° and 73° respectively,

NIDIFICA TION 63 1

plants form of them a rude half-floating mass which is piled on some
growing water-weed — but these birds do not spurn the duties of
maternity. Many of the GULLS, SANDPIPERS, and PLOVERS lay their
eggs in a shallow pit which they hollow out in the soil, and then as
incubation proceeds add thereto a low breastwork of haulm. The
Ringed Plover commonly places its eggs on shingle, which they so
much resemble in colour ; but when breeding on grassy uplands it
paves the nest-hollow with small stones. PIGEONS mostly make an
artless platform of sticks so loosely laid together that their pearly
treasures may be perceived from beneath by the inquisitive observer.
The PIE, as though conscious that its own thieving habits may be
imitated by its neighbours, surrounds its nest with a hedge of thorns.
Very many birds of very different groups bore holes in some sandy
cliff, and at the end of their tunnel deposit their eggs with or with-
out bedding. Such bedding, too, is very various in character ;
thus, while the SHELD- DRAKE and the Sand -MARTIN supply the
softest of materials, — the one of down from her own body, the other
of feathers collected by dint of diligent search, — the KINGFISHER
forms in the course of incubation a couch of the undigested spiny
fish-bones which she ejects in pellets from her own stomach. Other
birds, as the WOODPECKERS, hew holes in living trees, even when
the timber is of considerable hardness, and therein establish their
nursery. Some of the SWIFTS secrete from their salivary glands
a fluid which rapidly hardens as it dries on exposure to the air
into a substance resembling isinglass, and thus furnish the " edible
birds' nests" that are the delight of Chinese epicures. In the
architecture of nearly all the PASSERES, too, some salivary secretion
seems to play an important part. By its aid they are enabled to
moisten and bend the otherwise refractory twigs and straws and
glue them to their place. Spiders7 webs also are employed with
great advantage for the purpose last mentioned, but perhaps chiefly
to attach fragments of moss and lichen so as to render the whole
structure less obvious to the eye of the spoiler. The TAILOR-BIRD
deliberately spins a thread, and therewith sews together the edges
of a pair of leaves to make a receptacle for its nest ; while the
Fantail WARBLER, by a similar process of stitching — even making
a knot at the end of the thread — unites as a sheltering canopy
above its nest the upper ends of the grass stems amid which it is
built. Beautiful too is the felt fabricated of fur or hairs by the
various species of TITMOUSE, while many birds ingeniously weave
into a compact mass both animal and vegetable fibres, forming an
admirable non-conducting medium which guards the eggs from the
extremes of temperature outside. Such a structure may be open
and cup-shaped, supported from below as that of the CHAFFINCH and

and that of a nest of Fulica atra to be 61°, while the maximum temperature of the
air that day, was 58° Fahr.

632 NIDIFICATION

GOLDFINCH, domed like that of the WREN and Bottle-Titmouse, slung
hammock-wise as in the case of the Golden-crested Wren and the
ORIOLES, or suspended by a single cord as with certain GROSBEAKS
and HUMMING-BIRDS. Under such circumstances it is even some-
times needful to balance the nest lest the weight of the growing
young should destroy the equipoise, and, precipitating them on the
ground, dash the hopes of the parents, and compensation in such
cases is applied by loading the opposite side of the structure with
lumps of earth. Certain WARBLERS (Aedon and ThamnoUa) for
some unascertained reason invariably lay a piece of snake's slough
in their nests — to repel, it has been suggested, marauding lizards
who may thereby fear the neighbourhood of a deadly enemy. The
clay-built edifices of the SWALLOW and MARTIN are known to every-
body, and the NUTHATCH plasters up the gaping mouth of its nest-
hole till only a postern large enough for entrance and exit, but easy
of defence, is left. In South America we have the subfamily Fur-
nariinse (OVEN-BIRD), which construct of mud on the arching roots
of the mangrove or the branches of other trees globular " ovens," so
to speak, wherein the eggs are laid and the young hatched. The
FLAMINGO erects in the marshes it frequents a mound of earth some
two feet in height, with a cavity atop, on which the hen, having
oviposited, is said to sit astride with dangling legs, and in that
remarkable attitude perform the duty of incubation.1 The females
of the HORNBILLS, and perhaps of the HOOPOES, submit to incar-
ceration during this interesting period, the males immuring them
by a barrier of mud, leaving only a small window to admit air and
food, which latter is assiduously brought to the prisoners.

But though in a general way the dictates of hereditary instinct
are rigidly observed by Birds, in many species a remarkable degree
of elasticity is exhibited or the rule of habit is rudely broken.
Thus the noble FALCON, whose ordinary eyry is on the beetling
cliff, will for the convenience of procuring prey condescend to lay
its eggs on the ground in a marsh, or appropriate the nest of some
other bird in a tree. The Golden EAGLE, too, remarkably adapts
itself to circumstances, now rearing its young on a precipitous ledge,
now on the arm of an ancient monarch of the forest, and again on
a treeless plain, making a humble home amid grass and herbage.
HERONS also shew the same versatility, and will breed according to
circumstances in an open fen, on sea-banks or (as is most usual) on
lofty trees. Such changes are easy to understand. The instinct
of finding food for the family is predominant, and where most
food is there will the feeders be gathered together. This explains,
in all likelihood, the associated bands of OSPREYS or Fish-Hawks,
which in North America breed (or used to breed) in large companies
where sustenance is plentiful, though in the Old World the same

1 As before noticed (pp. 255, 256), this statement has been impugned.

NIDIFICATION 633

species brooks not the society of aught but its mate. Birds there
are of eminently social predilections. In Europe, excepting Sea-
fowls — whose congregations are universal and known to all — we
have perhaps but the Herons, the FIELDFARE, and the ROOK, which
habitually flock during the breeding-season ; but in other parts of
the world many birds unite in company at that time, and in none
possibly is this habit so strongly developed as in the ANIS of the
Neotropical Region, the Republican Swallow of North America,
and the Sociable Grosbeak (WEAVER-BIRD) of South Africa, which
last joins nest to nest until the tree is said to break down under
the accumulated weight of the common edifice.1

In the strongest contrast to these amiable qualities is the para-
sitic nature of the CUCKOWS of the Old World and the COW-BIRDS
of the New, but this peculiarity of theirs has been already dwelt
upon. Enough to say here that the egg of the parasite is introduced
into the nest of the dupe, and after the necessary incubation by the
fond fool of a foster-mother the interloper successfully counterfeits
the heirs, who perish miserably, victims of his superior strength.
The whole process has been often watched, but the reflective
naturalist will pause to ask how such a state of things came about,
and there is not much to satisfy his enquiry. Certain it is that
some birds whether by mistake or stupidity do not unfrequently
lay their eggs in the nests of others. It is within the knowledge
of many that Pheasants' eggs and Partridges' eggs are often laid
in the same nest, and it is within the knowledge of the writer that
Gulls' eggs have been found in the nests of EiDER-Ducks, and vice,
versd ; that a REDSTART and a Pied FLYCATCHER, or the latter and
a TITMOUSE, will lay their eggs in the same convenient hole — the
forest being rather deficient in such accommodation ; that an OWL
and a GOLDEN-EYE will resort to the same nest-box, set up by a
scheming woodsman for his own advantage ; and that the STARLING,
which constantly dispossesses the Green Woodpecker, sometimes
discovers that the rightful heir of the domicile has to be brought
up by the intruding tenant. In all such cases it is not possible to
say which species is so constituted as to obtain the mastery ; but
just as it is conceivable that in the course of ages that which was

1 There are not many works on nidification, for "Caliology" or the study of
nests lias hardly been deemed a distinct branch of ornithological study. A good
deal of instructive matter (not altogether free from error) will be found in Rennie's
Architecture of Birds (London : 1831), and there is Mr. "Wallace's most interest-
ing dissertation, " A Theory of Birds' Nests," originally published in the Journal
of Travel and Natural History (1868, p. 73), and reprinted in his Contributions
to the Theory of Natural Selection (London : 1870). Andrew Murray's and the
Duke of Argyll's remarks on this essay are contained in the same volume of the
Journal named (pp. 137 and 276). The late Mr. J. G. Wood's Homes without
Hands, perhaps the best of his books, contains a popular account of many Bii'ds'
nests, but is devoid of scientific treatment and disfigured by some glaring errors.

634 NIDIFICATION

driven from its home might thrive through the fostering of its
young by the invader, and thus the abandonment of domestic duties
would become a direct gain to the evicted householder ; so the
bird which, through inadvertence or any other cause adopted the
habit of casually dropping her eggs in a neighbour's nest, might
thereby ensure a profitable inheritance for endless generations of
her offspring. This much granted, all the rest will follow easily
enough, but it must be confessed that this is only a presumption,
though a presumption which seems plausible if not likely.

Incubation is performed, as is well known, by the female of nearly
all Birds, but with most of the Passeres and many others the male
seems to share her tedious duties, and among the KATIT^E,
apparently without exception, the cock ordinarily takes that office on
himself. There are a few groups or perhaps species in which the
same practice is suspected to obtain — certain of the Limicolse for
instance, the GODWITS (Limosa), the PHALAROPES (Phalaropus), and
the DOTTEREL (Eudromias morinellus) — and in these it is to be
remarked that the hen is larger and more brightly coloured than
her mate. Owing to the unfortunate neglect of those who have
the best opportunities of making the needful observations,1 the
period of incubation has been ascertained in comparatively few
birds, and it is here possible to deal with that subject only in the
most vague and general language. It may be asserted that most of
the smaller Passeres of Europe hatch their young in from 13 to
15 days, but in a few species the term is believed to be shortened
to 10 or 11 days, while in the largest of that Order, the Raven,
it may be lengthened to some 18 or 19 days. The Barndoor-
fowl ordinarily takes 21 days, but the Pheasant, though so
very nearly allied, takes two or three days longer. Most Water-
birds, so far as is known, and the smaller Birds- of -Prey seem
to require as long a time, but the TUBINARES are said (Ibis,
1892, p. 581) to take 35 days, while the Gannet needs at least
39 ; and in the Swan incubation lasts from 35 to 40 days, and
in the Condor, according to Broderip (Notebook of a Naturalist,
p. 14), 54 days. The temperature of the air is commonly credited
with having something to do either in hastening or retarding
exclusion from the egg, but to what extent, or even whether
justly so or not, seems in the absence of precise experiments
to be doubtful. Certain birds occasionally begin brooding so soon
as the first egg is laid,2 and this practice unquestionably has its
advantages, since the offspring being of different ages thereby
become less of a burthen on the parents which have to minister

1 The most valuable papers on the subject are by Mr. William Evans (Ibis,
1891, pp. 52-93 ; and 1892, pp. 55-58).

2 This seems to be very often the case with the Owls ; but, if my observation
is not mistaken, the habit is not constant even with the same individual bird.

NIDIFUG^E— NIGHTINGALE 635

to their wants, while the fostering warmth of the earlier chicks can
hardly fail to aid the development of those which are unhatched,
during the absence of father and mother in search of food ; but
most birds, and it need scarcely be said, all those the young of
which run from their birth, await the completion of the clutch
before sitting is begun. The care bestowed, by almost every
species, on the infant-brood, is proverbial, and there is hardly any
extremity of danger which one at least of the anxious parents will
not incur to ward off injury from their progeny.

NIDIFUGdS, a word used in this work in contradistinction to
NiDiCOL^: (p. 629) to signify those Birds which are able, at
hatching or immediately after, to leave the nest. They are all
born with their eyes open and are thickly clothed with Neossoptiles
(FEATHERS, p. 243) of simple structure, as Alcidaz (portion), Anatidse,
Colymbi, Dicholophus, Galling Grues, Laridte, Limicolx, Otididse,
Palamedete, Phcenicopteri, Podicipedidee, Pterodes, Ralli, Ratitse, Tinami,
Turnices.

Opisthocomus, though born with open eyes, and able to creep about
on the branches, has but few Neossoptiles and is fed by its parents.

As previously remarked (page 244) the condition of the first
plumage is of little taxonomic value. This applies with still more
force to the difference between Nidicolse and Nidifugx. Taken as a
whole the latter comprise most of the phylogenetically older groups ;
but any of them may include some closely-allied members which
have reached the developmental level of the former — the Alcidse,
Pigeons, Plovers and Fowls for example. Most if not all Nidicolse
feed their young, but there are also many Nidifugx which prefer
being fed by their parents though they can feed themselves —
for instance the Gulls.

In order to shew the utterly useless nature of these characters
in the hands of various systematists it will be enough to state that
Newman considered Gulls and Birds-of-Prey to be " gymnogenous "
or born naked : Bonaparte held all the Alcidx and the Sphenisci to
be " PR^ECOCES " but the Laridx to be ALTRICES : Sundevall classed
Herons and Storks, Sphenisci and Tubinares among the Prsecoces •,
while Mr. Seebohm informs us (Classif. B. p. 9) that Pigeons do
not pass through a downy stage.

NIGHT-HAWK, locally applied in parts of England to the
NIGHTJAR, and in North America to species of the genus Chordiles.

NIGHT-HEKON, see HERON, page 420.

NIGHTINGALE (Anglo-Saxon, Nihtegale, literally "singer of
the night"), the bird justly celebrated beyond all others by
European writers for the admirable vocal powers which, during
some weeks after its return from its winter-quarters in the south, it

636 NIGHTINGALE

exercises at all hours of the day and night. The song itself is inde-
scribable, though several attempts, from the time of Aristophanes to
the present, have been made to express in syllables the sound of its
many notes; and its effects on those that hear it depend so much on
their personal disposition as to be as varied as are its tones. To
some they suggest melancholy ; and many poets have discanted on
the bird (which they nearly always make of the feminine gender)
leaning its breast against a thorn and pouring forth its melody in
anguish. It is accordingly to be observed that the cock alone sings,
and that there is no reason to suppose that the cause and intent of
his SONG, unsurpassed though it be, differ in any respect from that
of other birds. Sadness, therefore, is certainly the last impelling
sentiment that can be properly assigned in this case. In great
contrast to the Nightingale's pre-eminent voice is the inconspicuous
coloration of its plumage, which is alike in both sexes, and is of a
reddish -brown above and dull greyish -white beneath, the breast
being rather darker, and the rufous tail shewing the only bright
tint. The range of this bird in Europe has already been so fully
described (GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, pp. 3 39-341) as to render
a further account of it needless. The Nightingale reaches its
English home about the middle of April,1 the males (as is usual
among migratory birds) arriving some days before the females ; and,
often stopping on their way, letting their song be heard in places
they do not habitually frequent, pass to their proper breeding-
quarters. At this time they run very great danger from bird-
catchers, for their capture is effected with facility, and it is painful
to add that of those then caught nine-tenths are said to die within a
month. Fortunately for the species, it receives great protection from
the practice of game-preserving, which guards from intrusion so many
of the localities it affects, and there is probably no country in which
the Nightingale breeds more abundantly and in greater security
than in England. On the cocks being joined by their partners,
the work for which the long and hazardous journey of both has
been undertaken is speedily begun, and before long the nest is
completed. This is of a rather uncommon kind, being placed on or
near the ground, the outworks consisting chiefly of a great number of

1 Poets and novelists are apt to command at will the song of this bird,
irrespective of season. If the appearance of truth is to be regarded, it is danger-
ous to introduce a Nightingale as singing in England before the 15th of April or
after the 15th of June. The "Early Nightingale" of newspaper paragraphs is
generally a Song-Thrush. Mr. Harting has pointed out to me that the well-known
and beautiful passage in which Izaak Walton speaks of this bird's song is an
adaptation of one in D'Arcussia's Lettres de Philoierax A Philofalco (No. 24) ; but
the way in which "Walton turns the idea expressed shews great superiority over
the original, the words of which are " 0 quel doit estre le concert des Anges du
Ciel, puis que ces Anges terrestres nous extasient par leurs chants ? "

NIGHTINGALE 637

dead leaves ingeniously applied together so that the plane of most is
nearly vertical. The mass is wrought so as to contain in the middle
a deep cup-like hollow, neatly lined with fibrous roots, but the
whole is so loosely constructed, and depends for lateral support so
much on the stems of the plants among which it is generally built,
that a very slight touch disturbs its beautiful arrangement. Herein
from four to six eggs of a deep olive colour are duly laid, and the
young hatched. If the latter, when nearly fit to fly, be taken from
the nest, they can with proper care be reared by hand, and this is
the only justifiable mode of proceeding for those who wish to keep
this fine songster in confinement, as, if the birds survive their first
moult, they may live for some years in a cage, and the cocks will
in due time exercise their full vocal powers. The nestling plumage
of the Nightingale differs much from that of the adult, the feathers
above being tipped with a buff spot, just as in the young of the
EEDBREAST, REDSTART and Hedge-SpARROW, thereby pointing to
the affinity of all these forms. Towards the end of summer the
Nightingale disappears, and but little has been observed of it in its
winter-retreats, which are presumably in the interior of Africa. One
of the few records of it at that season proves that it visits the Gold
Coast (Ibis, 1872, p. 291).

The Nightingale is the Motadlla luscinia in part of Linnaeus, and
the Daulias luscinia of some modern ornithologists. In the east of
Europe a second species occurs which was not discriminated by
LinnaBus, though long known to German bird-fanciers as the Sprosser.
This, the Sylvia philomela or Daulias philomela of many scientific
writers, is a somewhat larger bird, which fact, and the presence of
some faint spots on its breast, have caused it to receive the English
name of Thrush-Nightingale. Its westward range appears to be
limited to the valley of the Ehine, and the statement that it has
occurred in England is erroneous. Its song is louder than that of
the true Nightingale, but not so sweet in tone or so varied in note.
Still further to the eastward, extending from the Caucasus through
Persia to Turkestan, and occasionally occurring in winter in
India, is a third species, almost simultaneously described in Berlin
and Moscow as Luscinia golzi and L. hqfizi (see Radde, Orn. Caucas.
p. 247, pi. xv. and Gates, Faun. Er. Ind. Birds, ii. p. 101). The
name Nightingale has been vaguely applied to several other birds.
The so-called "Virginian Nightingale" is a species of GROSBEAK
(p. 387), and the REDWING, strangely enough, has been often spoken
of as the " Swedish Nightingale." 1

1 The Nightingale holds a place in classical mythology. Procne and Philo-
mela were the daughters of Pandion, king of Attica, who in return for warlike aid
rendered him by Tereus, king of Daulis in Thrace, gave him the first-named in
marriage. Tereus, however, being enamoured of her sister, feigned that his
wife was dead, and induced Philomela to take her place. On her discovering the

638 NIGHTJAR

NIGHTJAR or GOATSUCKER, a bird from very ancient times
absurdly believed to have the habit implied by one of the common
names it bears in many European tongues besides our own — as
testified by the Greek Aiyo#?jAas, the Latin Caprimulgus, Italian
Succiacapre, Spanish Chotacabras, French Tettechkwe, and German
Ziegenmelker. It is admittedly the type of a very peculiar and
distinct Family, Caprimulgidze, a group remarkable for the flat head,
enormously wide mouth, large eyes, and soft, pencilled plumage
of its members, which vary in size from that of a Lark to that of a
Jay. Its position has been variously assigned by systematists.
Prof. Huxley considered it to form, with two other Families — the
Cypselidse (SWIFT) and Trochilidas (HUMMING-BIRD) — the division
CYPSELOMORPELE. The same view was taken in 1884 by Dr.
Reichenow; but in 1885 Dr. Stejneger proposed to place it in a
" Superorder " Coracoidese along with $fea£0rms (GuACHARo), Coraciidw
(ROLLER) and Leptosomatidse ; while in 1888, Prof. Fiirbringer put
it between the Rollers and OWLS, with which it forms in his opinion
a group Coraciiformes. There are two ways of regarding the
Caprimulgidse — one including the genus Podargus (MOREPORK) and
its allies, the other recognizing them as a distinct Family, Podargidse,
as is done among others by Mr. Hartert (Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xvi.
pp. 519-654). As a matter of convenience the last are here
comprehended in the Caprimulgidse, which will then contain two
subfamilies, Caprimulginse and Podarginse ; for what, according to
older authors, constitutes a third, though represented only by
Steatornis, the singular GUACHARO or Oil -bird, certainly requires
separation as an independent Family.

Some of the differences between the Caprimulginse and Podarginze
were pointed out by Mr. Sclater (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1866, p. 123), and
are very obvious. In the former, the outer toes have/ow phalanges
only, thus presenting a very uncommon character among Birds, and
the middle claws are pectinated ; while in the latter the normal
number of five phalanges is found, the claws are smooth, and other
distinctions more recondite have also been indicated by him (torn,
cit. p. 582). The Caprimulginse may be further divided into those
having the gape thickly beset by strong bristles, and those in which
there are few such bristles or none — the former containing the

truth, he cut out her tongue to hinder her from revealing his deceit ; but she
depicted her sad story on a robe which she sent to Procne ; and the two sisters
then contrived a horrible revenge for the infidelity of Tereus, by killing and serv-
ing to him at table his son Itys. Thereupon the gods interposed, changing
Tereus into a Hoopoe, Procne into a Swallow, and Philomela into a Nightingale,
while Itys was restored to life as a Pheasant, and Pandion (who had died of grief
at his daughters' dishonour) as a Bird-of-Prey (see OSPREY). The fable has
several variants. Ovid's version may be seen in the 6th Book of his Meta-
morphoses (lines 412-676).

NIGHTJAR

639

genera Caprimulgus, Antrostomus, Nyctidromus, and others, and the
latter Podager, Cfwrdiles, Lyncornis, and a few more.

The common Nightjar of Europe, C. europzeus, arrives late in
spring from its winter retreat in Africa, and its presence is soon
made known to us by its habit of chasing its prey, consisting chiefly
of moths and cockchafers, in the evening-twilight. As the season
advances the song of the cock, from its singularity, attracts attention
amid all rural sounds. It seems to be always uttered when the
bird is at rest, though the contrary has been asserted, and is the
continuous repetition of a single burring note, as of a thin lath fixed
at one end and in a state of vibration at the other, loud enough
to reach in still weather a distance of half-a-mile or more. On the

NIGHTJAR, Caprimulgus europssus.

wing, while toying with its mate, or performing its rapid evolutions
round the trees where it finds its food, the bird has the habit of
occasionally producing another and equally extraordinary sound,
sudden and short, but somewhat resembling that made by swinging
a thong in the air, though in what way this noise is produced is not
ascertained. In general its flight is silent, but at times when
disturbed from its repose, its wings may be heard to smite together.
The Nightjar or, to use perhaps its commoner English name,
Goatsucker,1 passes the day in slumber, crouching on the ground or
perching on a tree — in the latter case sitting not across the branch
but lengthways, with its head lower than its body. In hot weather,
however, its song may sometimes be heard by day and even at
noontide, but it is then uttered, as it were, drowsily, and without the

1 Other English names of the bird are Churn-Owl, Evejar, Fern-Owl, Night-
Hawk, Puckeridge and Wheel-bird— the last from the bird's song resembling the
noise made by a spinning-wheel in motion.

640 NIGHTJAR

vigour that characterizes its crepuscular or nocturnal performance.
Towards evening the bird becomes active, and it seems to pursue its
prey throughout the night uninterruptedly, or only occasionally
pausing for a few seconds to alight on a bare spot — a pathway or
road — and then resuming its career. It is one of the few birds that
absolutely make no nest, but lays its pair of beautifully -marbled
eggs on the ground, generally where the herbage is short, and often
actually on the soil. So light is it that the act of brooding, even
where there is some vegetable growth, produces no visible depression
of the grass, moss, or lichens on which the eggs rest, and the finest
sand almost equally fails to exhibit a trace of the parental act. Yet
scarcely any bird shows greater local attachment, and the precise
site chosen one year is almost certain to be occupied the next
(NiDiFiCATiON, p. 630). The young, covered when hatched with
dark-spotted down, are not easily found, nor are they more easily
discovered on becoming fledged, for their plumage almost entirely
resembles that of the adults, being a mixture of reddish -brown,
grey, and black, blended and mottled in a manner that passes
description. They soon attain their full size and power of flight,
and then take to the same manner of life as their parents. In
autumn all leave their summer haunts for the south, but the exact
time of their departure has hardly been ascertained. The habits of
the Nightjar, as thus described, seem to be more or less essentially
those of the whole subfamily — the differences observable being
apparently less than are found in other groups of birds of similar
extent.

A second species of Nightjar, C. ruficollis, which is somewhat
larger, and has the neck distinctly marked with rufous, is a summer
visitant to the south-western parts of Europe, and especially to Spain
and Portugal. Hancock recorded (Ibis, 1862, p. 39) the occurrence
of a single example of this bird at Killingworth, near Newcastle-on-
Tyne, in October 1856 ; but the season of its appearance argues the
likelihood of its being but a casual straggler from its proper home.1
Many other species of Caprimulgus inhabit Africa, Asia and their
islands, while one, C. macrurus, ranges very widely and is found in
Australia. Very closely allied to this genus is Antrostomus,2 an
American group containing several species, of which the Chuck- will' s-
widow, A. carolinensis, and the Whip-poor-will, A. vociferus, of the
eastern United States (the latter also reaching Canada) are familiar
examples. Both these birds take their common name from the cry
they utter, and their habits seem to be almost identical with those of
the Old-World Nightjars. Passing over some other forms which need

1 A third species, 0. segyptius, recognizable by its pale coloration, has occurred
about half a dozen times in Europe, and once even in England (Zool. 1883,
pp. 374, 375).

2 Mr. Hartert (op. cit. p. 521) denies its generic validity, and not unjustifiably.

NIGHTJAR 641

not here be mentioned, the genus Nyctidromus, though consisting of only
one species (N. albicollis) which, though varying somewhat in size and
coloration, ranges from Texas to Southern Brazil, requires remark,
since it has tarsi of sufficient length to enable it to run swiftly on the
ground, while the legs of most birds of the Family are so short that
they can make but a shuffling progress. The South-American
Heleothreptes, with the peculiar form of wing (counting from the
wrist, in which the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th primaries are greatly elongated)
possessed by the male, needs mention ; but a still more exaggerated
condition exists in two African species, referred by some ornithologists

PENNANT-WINGED NIGHTJAR, Macrodipteryx.
(After sketch from life by J. Gedge.)

to as many genera (Macrodipteryx and Cosmetornis) though probably
one genus would suffice for both. The males of each of them are
characterized by the wonderful development of the 2nd primary,
which reaches in adult specimens the extraordinary length of 17
inches or more. The former of these, the Caprimulgus macrodipterus
of Afzelius, seems to have the more northern range, occurring across
the continent from Abyssinia to the West Coast, and the shaft of
the elongated remiges is bare for the greater part of its length,
retaining the web, in a spatulate form, only near the tip. The
latter, to which the specific name of vexillarius was given by Mr.
Gould, inhabits equatorial Africa, and thence to Damaraland on

41

642 NIGHTJAR

the east and Fernando Po on the west, and is reported to have
occurred in Madagascar and Socotra. In this the remigial streamers
do not lose their barbs, and as a few of the next quills are also to
some extent elongated, the bird, when flying, is said to look as
though it had four wings. Specimens of both are rare in collections,
and no traveller seems to have had the opportunity of studying the
habits of either so as to suggest a reason for this marvellous sexual
development, though the late Mr. Joseph Gedge, who accompanied
Sir Samuel Baker's expedition to the Soudan, on one occasion
observed a Macrodipteryx squatting on the ground with its long
remiges erected perpendicularly, and the accompanying figure is from
a sketch sent by him to his friend Mr. Marlborough Pryor.

The second group of Caprimulginse, those which are but poorly
or not at all furnished with rictal bristles, contains about five genera,
of which there is here only room to particularize Lyncornis of the
Old World and Chordiles of the New. The species of the former
are remarkable for the tuft of feathers which springs from each side
of the head, above and behind the ears, so as to give the bird an
appearance like some of the " Horned " OWLS — those of the genus
Scops, for example ; and remarkable as it is to find certain forms of
two Families, so distinct as are the Strigidte and the Caprimulgidse,
resembling each other in this singular external feature, it is yet
more remarkable to note that in some groups of the latter, as in
some of the former, a very curious kind of DIMORPHISM takes place.
In either case this has been frequently asserted to be sexual, but on
that point doubt may be fairly entertained. Certain it is that in some
groups of Nightjars, as in some groups of Owls, individuals of the
same species are found in plumage of two entirely different hues —
rufous and grey. The only explanation as yet offered of this fact is
that the difference is sexual, but, as just hinted, evidence to that effect
is conflicting. It must not, however, be supposed that this common
feature, any more than that of the existence of tufted forms in each
group, indicates any close relationship between them. The resem-
blances may be due to the same causes, concerning which future
observers may possibly enlighten us, but at present we must regard
them as analogies, not homologies. The species of Lyncornis inhabit
the Malay countries, one, however, occurring in Burma and India.
Of Chordiles the best-known species is the Night-hawk of North
America, C. virginianus or popetue, which has a wide range from
Canada to Brazil. Others are found in the Antilles and in South
America.

We have next to consider the birds forming the genus Podargus
and those allied to it, whether they be regarded as a distinct Family,
or as a subfamily of Caprimulgidaz. As above stated, they have
feet constructed as those of Birds normally are, and their sternum
seems to present the constant though comparatively trivial difference

NIGHT-RA VEN—NODD Y 643

of having its posterior margin elongated into two pairs of processes,
while only one pair is found in the Caprimulginse. Podargus includes
the bird, P. cuvieri, known from its cry as Morepork to Tasmanian
colonists, and several other species, the number of which is doubt-
ful, from Australia and New Guinea. They have comparatively
powerful bills, and, it would seem, feed to some extent on fruits and
berries, though they mainly subsist on insects, chiefly Cicadas and
Phasmidse. They also differ from the true Nightjars in having the
outer toes partially reversible, and they are said to build a flat nest
on the horizontal branch of a tree for the reception of their eggs,
which are of a spotless white. Apparently allied to Podargus, but
differing among other respects in its mode of nidification, is dSgotheles,
which belongs also to the Australian Region ; and further to the
northward, extending throughout the Malay Archipelago and into
India, comes Batmchostomus, wherein we again meet with species
having "ear "-tufts somewhat like Lyncvrnis. The Podarginx are
thought by some to be represented in the New World by the genus
Nyctibius, of which several species occur from the Antilles and
Central America to Brazil. Finally, it may be stated that none of
the Caprimulgidze seem to occur in Polynesia or in New Zealand,
though there is scarcely any other part of the world suited to their
habits in which members of the family are not found.

NIGHT-RAVEN, a bird frequently met with in fiction, but ap-
parently nowhere else.

NINE-KILLER or NINE-MURDER, old and obsolete render-
ings of the German Neuntodter or Neunmorder, names applied to more
than one species of Lanius (SHRIKE) and due to the belief that each
of the shambles of one of these birds displays the remains of nine
victims ("Nimmurder" by misprint, Cotgrave, 1611, sub wee
"Escriere").

NODDY, the name applied, originally by sailors, to a sea-bird
from its shewing so little fear of man as to be accounted stupid.1 It
is the Sterna stolida of Linnaeus, and the Anous stolidus of modern
ornithology, having the figure of a TERN, and belonging to the sub-
family Sterninse, but is heavier in flight, with shorter wings and the
tail less deeply forked. The plumage is of a uniform sooty hue,
excepting the crown of the head, which is light grey. The Noddy is
very generally distributed throughout the tropical or nearly tropical
oceans, but occasionally wanders into colder climates, and has been
met with even in the Irish Sea. It breeds often in astounding
numbers, on islands, even low cays and coral-islets, commonly making

1 Nodden, used by Chaucer, the old form of nod, is to drop the head suddenly
as in falling asleep, and hence comes Sir Thomas Browne's nodipol—a. sleepy
head, a simpleton— the modern noodle. Noddle, a jocular word for the head, is
possibly allied, as I am told by Prof. Skeat.

644 NONPAREIL

a shallow nest of sea-weed or small twigs, which may be placed on
the ground, on a tuft of grass, or in the fork of a tree, while some-
times it lays its eggs on a bare rock. Mr. Saunders (Proc. Zool. Soc.
1876, pp. 669-672) admitted four other species of the genus: —
Anous tenuirostris, supposed to be confined to the southern part of
the Indian Ocean, from Madagascar to West Australia ; A. melano-
genys, often confounded with the last, but having nearly as wide a
range as the first ; l and A. leucocapillus, hitherto known only from
Torres Strait and the Southern Pacific. These three have much
resemblance to A. stolidus, but are smaller in size, and the two latter,
which have the crown white instead of grey, are now considered
to be identical. The fourth species, A. C83ruleus> with which he
then included the A. cinereus of some authors, but subsequently
(op. cit. 1878, pp. 211, 212) recognized the last as distinct, differs
not inconsiderably, being of a dove-colour, lighter on the head and
darker on the back, the wings bearing a narrow white bar, with
their quill-feathers blackish-brown, while the feet are reddish and
the webs yellow. Three more species — A. superdliosus from the
Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, A. plumbeigularis from the Red
Sea, and A. galapagensis from the Galapagos — were added by Dr.
Sharpe (Philos. Trans, clxviii. pp. 468, 469) ; while Mr. Rothschild
has described and figured (Avifauna of Laysan, p. 43, pi.) the birds
which frequent the Sandwich Islands as forming a tenth — A.

NONPAREIL, the name under which, from its supposed match-
less beauty, a little cage-bird, chiefly imported from New Orleans,
has long been known to English dealers (cf. Edwards, Gleanings,
i. p. 132). It is the Emberiza ciris of Linnaeus and the Cyanospiza,
Spiza or Passerina ciris of recent ornithologists, belonging to a small
group, which, in the present state of knowledge, cannot with
certainty be referred either to the Buntings or to the Finches, while
some authors have regarded it as a TANAGER. The cock has the
head, neck, and lesser wing-coverts bright blue, the upper part of
the back yellow, deepening into green, and the lower parts generally,
together with the rump, bright scarlet, tinged on the latter with
purple. This gorgeous colouring is not assumed until the bird is
at least two years old. The hen is green above and yellow beneath ;
and the younger cocks present an appearance intermediate between
the adults of either sex. The species, often called also the Painted
Bunting, after wintering in Central America or Mexico, arrives in
the southern States of the American Union in April, but does not
ordinarily proceed to the northward of South Carolina. In

1 According to information supplied to Dr. F. Penrose (Ibis, 1879, p. 280) this
species took up a station in 1878 on the Island of Ascension in large numbers, it
having been hitherto unknown there.

NOPE—NULLIPENNES 645

Louisiana, where it is especially the Pape of the French-speaking
inhabitants (see BISHOP -BIRD, page 40) it is said to be very
abundant; and on its appearance in spring advantage is, or
was, taken of the pugnacious disposition of the males (which so
often accompanies a brilliant sexually-distinct plumage) to capture
them alive in great numbers by means of the stuffed skin of one so
placed in connexion with a cage-trap that they instantly fall into
the latter on attacking what they conceive to be a rival. In this
way many thousands are said to have been taken formerly. The
prisoner usually reconciles himself to his fate, and in a few days
will utter his sprightly though not very powerful song; and, if
provided with a mate and proper accommodation, will breed and
rear a family in confinement. Belonging to the same genus as the
Nonpareil is the INDIGO-BIRD, Cyanospiza cyanea, which, as a summer
visitant, is widely diffused from the Missouri to the Atlantic, and
extends into the provinces of Ontario and New Brunswick, being
everywhere regarded with favour. Though wanting most of the
bright hues of its congener, the Indigo-bird has yet much beauty,
the adult cock being nearly all over of a deep blue, changing,
according to the light, to green. The hen is brown above and
ochreous-white beneath. This species is represented in the western
part of the continent by the Lazuli-Finch, C. am&na, the male of
which has the upper parts greenish-blue, the wings barred with
white, a pectoral band of light chestnut extending to the flanks on
each side, and the lower parts white. Of the three remaining
species of the genus, C. versicolor shews in the male a plumage
beautifully varied with brownish-red, violet, and blue ; C. ledancheri
is bluish-green above and yellow beneath, with an orange breast ;
while C. rosit&, though quite distinct, comes nearest in coloration to
C. ciris. These three have a more southern range than the other
three ; but the first of them is believed occasionally to cross the
Mexican frontier into the United States. None of the species of
Cyanospiza are thought to occur further south than the isthmus of
Panama ; but the wonderful Ciridops anna of Hawaii (Wilson and
Evans, Birds of the Sandwich Islands) is possibly allied to this genus.

NOPE, a name of the BULLFINCH, said to be an old corruption
of ALP or some other form of that word (see page 1 0) which has taken
on an initial n borrowed from the indefinite article an.1

NORFOLK PLOVER, a needless book-name for the Stone-
CURLEW (see page 129), apparently invented by Pennant in 1766.

1 Like a newt for " an ewt " (or eft), a nickname for "an ekename," a noTce
for "an oak," and several other words (cf. Skeat, Etymol. Diet, sub litt. N) ;
but the only case among English birds' names where the converse process, or loss
of a real initial n, has happened as in adder for "nadder," auger for " nauger,"
seems to be that of eyas for " NIAS."

646 NUN— NUTCRACKER

NULLIPENNES, Lesson's name in 1831 (Tr. d'Orn. p. 11) for
a group of birds to consist of the genus Apteryx (Kiwi) ; but lately
applied in error (Century Dictionary, sub wee) to the PENGUINS.

NUN (printed "Non" in Merrett's Pinax, p. 183), the adult
male SMEW, from his delicate white and black plumage, and also
said to be a local name of the Blue Titmouse, Parus cteruleus,
according to Charleton (Onomast. p. 90), from its banded head ; but
the French Nonnette and the German Nonnenmeise are names of the
Marsh-Titmouse, P. palustris.

NUTCRACKER, the name given in 1758 by Edwards (Glean-
ings, i. p. 63, pi. 240) to a bird which had hitherto none in English,
though described in 1544 by Turner, who, meeting with it in the
Rhaetic Alps, where it was called " Nousbrecher " (hodie "Nuss-
brecher"), translated that word into Latin as Nudfraga. In 1555
Gesner figured it and conferred upon it another designation,
Caryocatactes. Willughby and Ray obtained it on the road from
Vienna to Venice as they crossed what must have been the Som-
merring Pass, 26th September 1663; and it has a wide range in
the northern parts of the Palaearctic area, chiefly keeping to sub-
alpine or subarctic pine-forests, and apparently nowhere numerous,
though roving bands of seventy or one hundred have occasionally
been observed in autumn, at which season it can be often seen in
suitable localities in several European countries. It is the Corvus
caryocatactes of Linnaeus, the Nudfraga caryocatactes of modern orni-
thology.1 The first known to have occurred in Britain was, according
to Pennant, shot at Mostyn in Flintshire, 5th October 1753, while
about fifteen more examples have since been procured, and others
seen, in this island. For many years nothing was known of this
bird during the breeding-season, when it seemed to disappear from
sight, and this notwithstanding the interest taken in the search for
its nest and eggs. It is now pretty clear that the discovery was
due to the Abbe Caire of Sanieres in the Lower Alps, but though he
obtained an egg in 1846, he was unable to produce proof of the fact,
and the truth was not ascertained until some sixteen years later by
the Danish oologists HH. Fischer and Erichsen, who after much
labour found and took nests and eggs in the island of Bornholm.2
The Nutcracker breeds very early in the year, long before the

1 A monograph of the species by the Ritter Victor von Tschusi-Schmid-
hoffen was printed at Dresden in 1874 with the title of Der Tannenheher, one of
its many German names.

2 Many other claimants appeared in the meanwhile without making good
their pretensions. The story of the discovery is told with some details in
Yarrell's British Birds (ed. 4, ii. pp. 332-337). The egg of the Nutcracker seems
to have been first figured by Badeker (Journ. filr Om. 1856, pi. i. fig. 1), but the
first specimen with an undeniable history, being from Bornholm as above stated,
in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society (1867, pi. xv. fig. 2).

NUTHATCH 647

snows are melted, and this fact coupled with that of its becoming, like
a JAY, silent in the breeding-season, when at other times it is rather
noisy than not, will account for the mystery which so long en-
wrapped its domestic arrangements ; but, now that the secret has
been divulged, nests and eggs have been found without much diffi-
culty in various parts of Europe, and contrary to what was for
many years believed, the nest seems to be invariably built on the
bough of a tree, some 20 feet from the ground, and is a comparatively
large structure of sticks lined with grass. 'The eggs are of a very
pale bluish-green, sometimes nearly spotless, but usually more or less
freckled with pale olive or ash-colour. The chief food of the Nut-
cracker, though it at times searches for insects on the ground,
appears to be the seeds of fir-trees, which it extracts as it holds the
cones in its foot, and it has been questioned whether the bird has
the faculty of cracking nuts — properly so called — with its bill,
though that can be used with much force and, at least in confine-
ment, with no little ingenuity. Considerable difference has been
observed in the form and size of the bill of examples of this species,
but as in the case of the HuiA (page 437) this is now supposed to
depend on the sex — that of the cock being stout and short, while
in the hen it is long and thin. The bird is about the size of a Jay,
and of a dark sooty-brown colour spangled with white, nearly each
body-feather ending in a tear-shaped patch of that colour. Beside
the European species, which also extends into Northern or Central
Asia, three others, very nearly akin to it, have been described from
the Himalayas. Of their American cousin, Clark's Crow, as it is
called (Picicorvus columbianus), inhabiting only the western slopes of
the Rocky Mountains, and discovered during the famous expedition
of Lewis and Clark to the mouth of the Columbia River in 1804-6,
an excellent account has been given by Dr. Coues (Ibis, 1872, pp.
52-59).

The old supposition that the Nut-crackers had any affinity to
the Piddse (WOODPECKER) or were intermediate in position between
them and the Corvidse (CROW) is now known to be wholly erroneous,
for they undoubtedly belong to the latter Family.

NUTHATCH, in older English NUTHACK, and locally NUT-
JOBBER, from its habit of hacking or chipping nuts, which it
cleverly fixes, as though in a vice, in a chink or crevice of the
bark of a tree, and then hammers them with the sharp point of
its bill till the shell is broken. This bird was long thought to be
the Sitta europsea of Linnaeus ; but that is now admitted to be the
northern form, with the lower parts white, and its buff-breasted
representative in central, southern, and western Europe, including
England, is known as Sitta cxsia. It is not found in Ireland, and
in Scotland its appearance is merely accidental. Without being

648 NUTMEG-BIRD

very plentiful anywhere, it is generally distributed in suitable
localities throughout its range — those localities being such as afford
it a sufficient supply of food, consisting during the greater part of
the year of insects, which it diligently seeks on the boles and
larger limbs of old trees ; but in autumn and winter it feeds on
nuts, beech-mast, the stones of yew-berries and hard seeds. Being
of a bold disposition, and the trees favouring its mode of life often
growing near houses, it will become on slight encouragement familiar
with men ; and its neat attire of ash-grey and warm buff, together
with its sprightly gestures, render it an attractive visitor. It generally
makes its nest in a hollow branch, plastering up the opening with
clay, leaving only a circular hole just large enough to afford entrance
and exit ; and the interior contains a bed of dry leaves or the filmy
flakes of the inner bark of a fir or cedar, on which the eggs are
laid. Corsica has a Nuthatch peculiar to itself and remarkable for
its black crown, the S. whiteheadi of Dr. Sharpe, and in the Levant
occurs a third species, S. syriaca, with somewhat different habits, as
it haunts rocks rather than trees ; while four or five representatives
of the European arboreal species have their respective ranges from
Asia Minor to the Himalayas and Northern China. North America
possesses nearly as many ; but, curiously enough, the geographical
difference of coloration is just the reverse of what it is in Europe —
the species with a deep rufous breast, S. canadensis, being that which
has the most northern range, while the white-bellied S. carolinensis,
with its western form, S. aculeata, inhabits more southern latitudes.
The Ethiopian Eegion seems to have no representative of the group,
unless it be the Hypositta corallirostris of Madagascar. Callisitta and
Dendrophila are nearly allied genera, inhabiting the Indian Eegion,
and remarkable for their beautiful blue plumage ; but some doubt
may for the present be entertained as to the affinity of the Australian
Sittdla, with four or five species, found in one or another part of
that continent, which doubt is increased by the late Mr. W. A.
Forbes's discovery (Proc. Zool Soc. 1882, pp. 569-571) that the genera
AcantUdositta (SPINEBILL) and Xenicus, peculiar to New Zealand,
and hitherto generally placed in the Family Sittidas, belong really
to the Mesomyodian group and are therefore far removed from it.
The true Sittidse seem to be intermediate between the Paridse
(TITMOUSE) and the Certhiidas (TREECREEPER), and some authors
comprehend them in either one or the other of those groups.

NUTMEG-BIED, the dealers' name in common use for Munia
pundulata (COWRY-BIRD, page 108), but apparently of somewhat
recent origin.

OA T-FO WL—ODONTORNITHES 649

0

OAT-FOWL, a local name for the Snow-BuNTiNG ; OATSEED-
BIRD for the Yellow WAGTAIL.

OCCIPUT, properly the hinder part of a bird's head, from the
crown backward, as opposed to SINCIPUT, but often used vaguely
for the whole cap.

OCTOBER BIRD, in the Antilles used for the BOBOLINK, from its
arriving there in that month (B. Edwards, Hist. W. Ind. i. p. 99, note).

OCYDROME, see WEKA.

ODONTOGLOSS^E, Nitzsch's name in 1840 (Pterylographie, p.
191) for a group consisting of the genus Phwnicopterus (FLAMINGO).

ODONTOLC^E, see ODONTORNITHES.

ODONTOPHORIN^E, the supposed subfamily containing the
American QUAILS (cf. COLIN), upon the distinctness of which from
those of the Old World some systematists have laid unnecessary
importance. Dr. Coues (Key N.-Am. Birds, ed. 1884, p. 594) says
that he knows no characters to distinguish the true Quails from the
so-called OdontopJiorinas.

ODONTORNITHES,1 a term proposed in 1873 by Prof.
Marsh (Am. Journ. Sci. ser. 3, v. pp. 161, 162) to designate a
so-called Subclass of birds, consisting of the genera Hesperornis
and Ichthyornis (both of which had been named in the previous
year) from the cretaceous deposits of Kansas, and characterized
by the presence of teeth (Fig. 1). Its founder after-
wards subdivided this group (op. cit. x. pp. 403-408)
into the two Orders ODONTOLC^E and ODONTOTORIVLE ;
the former, represented by Hesperornis and characterized
by having the teeth (Fig. 2) placed in grooves, hetero-
coelous vertebrae, and the abortion of the carina sterni
with a generally Ratite conformation of the scapular Fig l
arch (Fig. 3) ; while the latter, typified by Ichthyornis, TOOTH or
was distinguished by the presence of distinct sockets HESPERORNIS.
for the teeth (Fig. 5), amphiccelous vertebrae (Fig. 6), Nicl^™ and
and the Carinate modification of the sternal apparatus. Lydekker's
Subsequent writers have disputed the expediency of Paleontology,
this proposal, for Prof. Cope in 1875 (Vert. Cretac. '
Form, of the West, pt. iii. p. 245) and Prof. Seeley in 1876 (Q. Journ.

1 Again indebted to Mr. Lydekker's kindness for an article worthy of the
closest attention, I wish to guard myself against its being taken as the expres-
sion of my own views on one of the hardest subjects that the ornithologist has
to consider, and one still open to various interpretations. — A. N.

650

ODONTORNITHES

Geol. Soc. xxxii. p. 496) referred Hesperornis to the " Nafatores."
In 1881, M. Dollo (Bull. sc. Depart, du Nord, ser. 2, iv. p. 300) pro-

Fig. 2.— MANDIBLE OF HESPERORNIS. (As before, after Marsh.)

nounced it to be "une autruche carnivore aquatique." This notion
was popularized in 1884 by Prof. Wiedersheim (Biolog. CentralU.
ii. p. 690), while Prof. Dames in the same year (Palseontol. Abhandl.
ii. pt. 3) took much the same view, as did also (though in a different

Fig. 3. — STERNAL APPARATUS OF HESPERORNIS. (As before, after Marsh.)
c coracoid ; /, furcula ; h, humerus ; s, scapula ; st. sternum.

fashion) an author in the Encyclopedia Britannica (ed. 9, xviii. pp.
43, 44), and Prof, von Zittel (Handb. Palseozool. Abth. I, iii.
pp. 826, 834). Almost simultaneously, however, Prof. Vetter
(Festschr. der G-es. Isis in Dresden, 1885, p. 109) explained Hesper-

Fig. 4.— PELVIS OF HESPERORNIS. (As before, after Marsh.)
a, acetabulum ; il. ilium ; is. ischium ; p, pectineal process ; p', os pubis.

ornis as a Carinate Bird, exclusively adapted to aquatic life, and
having no affinity to the Batite, though since he regarded these last
as reduced Carinate its mutual relation to the Ratitaz was obvious,
and people began to confound them, speaking almost in M. Polio's

ODONTORNITHES 651

phrase of it as a " Swimming Ostrich." About the same time it
was found that the presence of teeth was a character apparently
common to all " Cretaceous " Birds. The opinions expressed by
Prof. Fiirbringer in the earlier portion of his great work need not
be here adduced, since they were modified in the course of its pro-
gress; but he finally declared (Untersuchungen, u. s. w. pp. 1543,
1565, 1580) that the Odontolcx were the ancestral relations of
his " Colymbo-Podicipites," with which they formed his Suborder
" Podicipitif ormes," while a similar view was taken in 1890 by
Prof. D'Arcy Thompson (Stud. Mus. Dundee, No. 10).

As to the Odontotormse Prof. Marsh has displayed commendable
caution. On account of some similarity, the significance of which
may or may not be important, he based his restoration of Ichthyornis
on Sterna (TERN), a fact which has led to exaggerated if not mis-
taken views, for he was careful to state that Ichthyornis seemed to
have points of resemblance to Ardea, Ciconia, Colymbus, Phalacro-
corax and even to the Accipitres, while its posterior extremities alone
indicated a structure similar to that of the Laridx and Alcidw. In
1893 Dr. Gadow (Thier-reich, Vb'gel, ii. p. 119) suggested that the low
characters of Ichthyornis shew it to be the beginning of the Carinatx.

In 1891 the present writer (Cat. Foss. B. Br. Mus. pp. 200 etseqq.),
while fully admitting both the Colymbine affinities of Hesperornis
and the Larine resemblances of Ichthyornis, proposed to retain the
term Odontornithes for a series of Birds ancestral to the modern series
of toothless Carinatde, adopting (op. cit. p. 2) for the latter, but in a
wider sense, Dr. Stejneger's name (Stand. Nat. Hist. iv. p. 64) of
Euornithes. In addition to the presence of teeth, the extinct series
differs from the Euornithes by the absence of union between the rami
of the mandible, and between the distal ends of the ilium and ischium.

Whatever may be the ultimate verdict on these points of
classification, it would seem probable that Hesperoi'nis should be
regarded as an offshoot from the same ancestral stock as the one
from which the modern Colymlidse have originated ; such ancestral
stock being characterized by the presence of teeth, absence of
ancylosis between the mandibular rami, and want of union
between the spike-like patella and the upwardly-produced cnemial
crest of the tibia. On the other hand, the abortion of the keel of
the sternum, as well as the general Eatite modification of the
scapular arch, are features peculiar to Hesperornis, and not common
to the ancestral type ; being, in fact, nearly analogous to those
presented by Didus among the Columbse. The typical species of
Hesperornis (H. regalis) was of large size, attaining a length of about
six feet ; while a second species (H. crassipes) was still more gigantic.
Both were aquatic, and probably very similar in their general
habits to the Divers. Probably more or less closely allied to this
genus was the much smaller Colymbiform bird from the Cambridge

652

ODONTORNITHES

Greensand, named by Prof. Seeley in 1869 Enaliornis, and the
closely allied Baptdrnis from the North American Cretaceous (see
FOSSIL BIRDS). While possessing heteroccelous cervicals, it is
believed that Enaliornis had its dorsal vertebrae amphicoelous.

Retaining in their amphicoelous vertebrae evidence of their
reptilian ancestry which is lost in the more specialized Hesperornis,

Fig. 6.

CERVICAL VERTEBRA OF ICHTHYORNIS,
FROM FRONT AND SIDE.
(As before, after Marsh.)

Fig. 5.— MANDIBLE OF ICHTHYORNIS. (As before after Mars'.i.)

the small Gull-like birds known as Ichthyornis may probably be
regarded as holding a somewhat more intimate relationship to the
modern LIMICOL^E and GAVLE than is presented by the former to
the PYGOPODES, the specialization connected with the absence of

flight in the former genus being want-
ing. Traces of affinity with Ichthyornis
are, indeed, indicated by the more
or less markedly opisthocoelous dorsal
vertebras of the Limicolaz and Gaviaz ;
but whereas both these groups have
an ectepicondylar process to the
humerus, and an extensor bony bridge
to the tibio- tarsus, neither of these
features are present in the cretaceous
genus. The fenestration of the meta-
carpus characteristic of the Gavise is, moreover, wanting in
Ichthyornis. Hence it would appear that we must regard all
the above-mentioned features characterizing the existing groups
named as of comparatively late origin ; while the differences
between the extinct and living forms appear to the writer far too
important to admit, as has been proposed, of their inclusion in
a single ordinal group. Although Apatornis, from the Yellow Chalk
of Kansas, and as yet imperfectly known, was apparently an allied
type, distinguished by the great development of the acromial pro-
cess of the scapula, and the stouter hind limbs, the remaining
genera of (? toothed) birds from the same horizon referred to the
Odontornithes are named on the evidence of such incomplete
remains, that it is impossible to speak of their affinities with
certainty ; all that can be said for them will be found in their
describer's magnificent work forming the first volume of the
Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Yale College.1

RICHARD LYDEKKER.

1 Odontornithes : a Monograph on the Extinct Toothed Birds of North America.
By Othniel Charles Marsh. Fol. New Haven, Conn. : 1880.

ODONTOTORM^E— OIL-GLAND 653

ODONTOTOKJVLE, see ODONTORNITHES.

(ESOPHAGUS (Greek o«ro<£ayos), so named by Aristotle, the
gullet or " swallow " of plain English (cf. DIGESTIVE SYSTEM, page
136), the part of the alimentary canal from the LARYNX (page
512) to the STOMACH. It passes down the right and dorsal side of
the TRACHEA, with which and other adjoining parts it is connected
by loose tissue, entering the thoracic cavity dorsally from the
BRONCHI (page 58), and when not distended it forms numerous
longitudinal folds owing to the yielding nature of the tunica mucosa
(page 137). Deglutition is aided by simple mucous glands, but in
many birds the middle portion of the (Esophagus forms a per-
manent dilatation, the CROP (page 113), to the outer surface of
which thin but broad bands of striped or voluntary muscle are
generally attached. These may arise from the FURCULA (page 296)
as in Pigeons, or from the skin of the neck as in the Gallinse, and
their action assists the conveyance of the food from the crop to the
stomach. During this process, especially if only little and dry food
be left, Birds, Parrots for instance, may 'be occasionally observed to
stretch their neck and gape widely with their mouth.

OIL-BIRD, see GUACHARO.

OIL-GLAND (glandula uropygialis), in Birds the only cutaneous
gland except some small organs in the external ear-passages. Con-
sisting of two symmetrical portions, more or less united posteriorly
in shape of a heart — since each half is broad and rounded in front
and pointed behind — it is seated upon the levator muscles at the
root of the tail. Internally it is formed of numerous secretory
tubules which gradually unite in a common cavity opening on the
surface through a variable number of orifices — there being from 3 to
5 of them in many Water-birds, though only one to each half in
Anseres — frequently prolonged in form of a nipple and occasionally
united in a single tube, the double origin of which is, however,
shewn by a median septum. In the HOOPOE alone, according to
Nitzsch, there is but one orifice to the common cavity, wherein the
stinking secretion of the gland, for which the female during incuba-
tion and the young while they stay in the nest are notorious, is
stored. The whole structure, which is surrounded by connective
tissue and unstriped muscular fibres, is innervated by the first
caudo-spinal nerves, and its blood-supply is in connexion with the
caudal arteries and veins.

In the majority of Birds this gland is well developed, being
largest in those of aquatic habit, and especially in the TUBINARES
and STEGANOPODES, as well as in Pandion (OSPREY) ; but it is also
large in Steatornis (GUACHARO). It exists, though hardly in a
functional condition, in certain PIGEONS (Ptilopus), Cacatua cristata
(COCKATOO), and most Caprimulgi (NIGHTJAR), while in other

654 OLD MAN—OLIGOMYOD^E

Pigeons as Didunculus (DODLET), Goura and Treron; in other
Cockatoos, in several PARROTS (Chrysotis and Pionus), in Podargus
(NIGHTJAR), Otis, Argusanus and the Eatitse it is absent. This irregu-
larity shews that it has not much value as a taxonomic character ;
but attention to other peculiarities in its form or structure has been
drawn by Nitzsch and Garrod, and especially to the presence or
absence of a circlet of feathers surrounding the nipple-like orifice,
and when that occurs the skin covering the gland is naked, while
when the circlet is wanting the whole is covered with down inter-
spersed with stiff feathers. Among the birds to which the last
condition applies are the Bucconidse, Caprimulgi (excl. Podargus),
Cariama, Coraciid&, Cuculidse, Cypseli, Galbulidte, Leptosomus, Mero-
pid%, Momotidaz, Steatornis and Trogonidx, while by far the greater
number of birds possess the tuft.

Analysis of the secretion of the Oil-gland shews that its com-
position closely resembles that of the sebaceous product of Mammals ;
but that it differs from milk through the absence of sugar. Its use
is probably the anointing of the plumage, and the presence of
POWDER-DOWNS in Cacatua, Chrysotis and Podargus may possibly
indicate some correlation between these organs and the oil-gland.1

OLD MAN, the name in Jamaica for Hyetornis pluvialis, one of
the CUCKOWS which is also called Rain-bird, as are others of the
Family.

OLD SQUAW and OLD WIFE are two of the many names of
the Long-tailed DUCK, the former necessarily of transatlantic origin.

OLE OR ANON, the proximal end of the ULNA, projecting back-
ward from and beyond its articulation with the HUMERUS, being
practically equivalent to the point of the elbow. It serves as a
lever during the extension of the wings, the tendons of the triceps
muscle being inserted on the Olecranon.

OLIGOMYOD^E, Prof. Huxley's name (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867,
p. 471) for the group of Passerine Birds having but few song-
muscles (SYRINX) which Johannes Miiller had previously called
PICARII.

1 It seems that it would be improper here to overlook a controversy on this
still unsettled question which, though now wholly forgotten, was carried on, to
the amusement of our predecessors, in the later volumes of London's Magazine
of Natural History, and in the early years of The Zoologist. Waterton, with
the mistaken zeal he so frequently exhibited, maintained that the gland had no
lubricating function, chiefly because he had observed that the so-called "rump-
less " breed of Fowls, in which the gland is wanting, kept their feathers as glossy
as other Fowls which possessed it. He was easily victorious so long as he had to
deal only with the late Mr. F. 0. Morris, but when he met with an adversary
like the late Mr. C. A. Bury, who knew something about birds, was a good
observer and could write rationally, Waterton's mistaken position seems to have
become plain to him, and he retired from the contest. — A. N.

OLIVE— ORANGE-BIRD 655

OLIVE, a local name of the OYSTER-CATCHER, and apparently
a corruption of OLAF, which is said also to be used (Christy,
B. Essex, p. 238), and if so the word should be more properly spelt
Olave, that being the English form of the sainted Danish king's
name. (Cf. KNOT, said to be from Cnut.)

OLPH (see ALP and NOPE), with the prefix " Blood " a local
name of the BULLFINCH, with that of " Green " of the GREENFINCH.

OMBRE or OMBRETTE, see HAMMER-HEAD.

0-0 (variously spelt), the name given in the Sandwich Islands
to birds of the genus Acrulocercus (Molioa of some writers), one of
the Melipliagidse (HONEY-SUCKER), of which 4 species, inhabiting as
many islands, have been described. The yellow axillary tufts of
one of them, A. nobilis, peculiar to Hawaii, have been greatly
sought for the beautiful featherwork of the natives since the Mamo 1
(DREPANIS) became rare.

OPEN-BILL (French Bec-ouvert), one of the names 2 given to
birds of the genus Anastomus,
allied if not actually belonging
to the Cicomidze (STORK), but by
some 3 regarded as constituting a
distinct Family. Two species

have long ^ been known— One In- BILL OF ANASTOMUS. (After Swainson.)

dian, parti-coloured, A. oscitans,

pondicerianus or coromandelianus ; the other African and dark
coloured, A. lamelligerus, so called from the curious flattening
and broadening into shining horny -plates of its feather -shafts,
especially on the lower parts. In 1880, Prof. Alphonse Milne-
Edwards described the form inhabiting Madagascar as distinct,
A. madagascariensis. It differs chiefly from the African in its
smaller size, and the deeper grooving of the bill.

OPISTHOCOMUS, see HOACTZIN.

ORANGE-BIRD, a name in Jamaica for Spindalis (properly
Spindasis) nigricephala, wrongly identified by Gosse (B. Jam. p. 231)
with the Fringilla zena of Linnaeus (which proves to be peculiar to
Bahama), one of the TANAGERS, and so-called, says the former,
"from the resemblance of its plump and glowing breast to that

1 At pages 166 and 225 this species was mentioned as extinct : an example,
however, was obtained in 1892, and its remains are in Mr. Rothschild's collec-
tion.

2 Others, and more recent, are Shell-eater, Shell-Ibis, and Snail-eater, of
which the first two are incorrect, and the latter far from distinctive, though these
birds feed chiefly on mollusks of the genera Ampullaria and Unio.

3 Cf. Gurney in Andersson's B. Damara Land, p. 283 ; Gates in Hume's
Nests and Eggs Ind. B. ed. 2, iii. p. 224.

656 ORGAN-BIRD—ORIOLE

beautiful fruit." He assigns to it also the name of Cashew-bird ;
but it is not the CASHEW-BIRD of older authors.

ORGAN -BIRD, the name in Tasmania for the species of
GYMNORHINA there found (Gould, Handb. B. Austral, i. p. 178).

ORGANIST, the English rendering of the Organiste of Buffon
(Hist. Nat. Ois. iv. p. 290), though it may be questionable whether
all the information he cites really refers to this species, which is the
Pipra musica of Gmelin, and Euphonia musica of modern ornithology,
an inhabitant of Hispaniola. Other congeneric species inhabit
Jamaica, Porto Rico and some of the Lesser Antilles, though none
is found in Cuba, while many more occur from Mexico throughout
Central and most parts of South America. Mr. Sclater recognizes
33 species in all (Cat. B. Br. Mus. xi. pp. 58-83).

ORIOLE, from the Old French Oriol and that from the Latin
aureolus, the name once applied, from its golden colouring, to the
bird generally admitted to be the Fireo or ICTERUS (page 457)
of classical authors — the Oriolus galbula of Linnaeus — but now
commonly used in a much wider sense. The Golden Oriole,
which is the type of the Family Oriclidx of modern ornithologists,
is a far from uncommon spring -visitor to the British Islands ;
but the conspicuous plumage of the male — bright yellow contrasted
with black, chiefly on the wings and tail — always attracts atten-
tion, and usually brings about its death. Yet a few instances are
known in which it is supposed to have bred in England. The nest
is a beautifully interwoven fabric, suspended under the horizontal
fork of a bough, to both branches of which it is firmly attached,
and the eggs are of a shining white sometimes tinged with pink,
and sparsely spotted with dark purple. On the Continent it is a
well-known though not an abundant bird, and its range in summer
extends so far to the east as Irkutsk, while in winter it is found in
Natal and Damaraland. In India it is replaced by a closely allied
form, 0. kundoo, chiefly distinguishable by the male possessing a
black streak behind as well as in front of the eye ; and both in
Asia and Africa are several other species more or less resembling
0. galbula, but some depart considerably from that type, assuming
a black head, or even a glowing crimson instead of the ordinary
yellow colouring, while others again remain constant to the dingy
type of plumage which characterizes the female of the more normal
form. Among these last are the aberrant species of the group
Mimetes or Mimeta, belonging to the Australian Region, respecting
which Mr. Wallace pointed out the very curious facts — as yet only
explicable on the theory of "unconscious MIMICRY" — of which
mention has already been made (pages 573, 574). The external
similarity of the Mimeta and the Philemon or Tropidorhynchus (FRIAR-
BIRD) of the island of Bouru is perfectly wonderful, and has again

ORNITHICHNITES—ORTHONYX 657

and again deceived some of the best ornithologists, though the
birds are structurally far apart. Another genus which has been
referred to the Oriolidte, and may here be mentioned, is Sphecotheres,
peculiar to the Australian Eegion, and distinguishable from the
more normal Orioles by a bare space round the eye.

The Baltimore Oriole, Orchard Oriole, and other North- American
birds to which the name has been applied, belong to the wholly
distinct Family Icteridas (ICTERUS).

ORNITHICHNITES, a word compounded from the Greek by
Hitchcock in 1832 (Am. Journ. Sc. xxix. p. 315) to signify the fossil
footprints of Birds, and hence taken as the generic name of the
animals which had left those marks, but are now generally believed
to have been Dinosaurs (FossiL BIRDS, page 277).

ORNITHOLITE, a stone containing the remains or impression
of the remains of a Bird.

ORNITHOLOGY, from the Greek 6pviO-, crude form of o/cws,
a bird (cognate with Scandin. 0rn and A.S. Earn, whence our ERNE),
and Aoyta, allied to Aoyos, commonly Englished a discourse. The
earliest use of the word thus spelt seems to be in the third edition
of Blount's GlossograpUa (1670), where it is explained as "the
speaking of birds : the title of a late Book " l (cf. Skeat, Etymol.
Diet. p. 407).

ORNITHOTOMY, the dissection of Birds, and hence the
science thereon founded.

ORTHONYX, the scientific name given in 1820, by Temminck,
to a little bird, which, from the straightness of its claws, — a
character somewhat exaggerated by him, — its large feet and spiny
tail, he judged to be generically distinct from any other form.
Concerning its affinities much doubt long prevailed. The typical
species, 0. maculatus or spinicauda, is from eastern Australia, where
it is said to be very local in its distribution, and strictly terrestrial
in its habits. In the course of time two other small birds from
New Zealand, where they are known as the " WHITEHEAD " and

1 This book was doubtless ' Ornitho-logie, | or | The Speech of | Birds. |
London, | Printed for John Stafford, and are to | be sold at his House, at the
George at | Fleet-bridge. 1655.' The authorship of the book, of which there are
several later editions, is ascribed by Lowndes (p. 848) to Thomas Fuller ; but
whether he was the celebrated writer of that name is doubtful. Mr. J. E. Bailey
in his Life of that worthy (London : 1874, pp. 761, 762) includes it among his
" spurious works," though a later biographer, Mr. Morris Fuller (London : 1884,
ii. p. 525) accepts it as genuine. Whoever may have been the author, the word
" Ornithologie " is used in a sense very different from the meaning applied to it a
few years after, for this treatise is a fable, perhaps, like the agnate ' Anthologia '
published with it, "Partly Morall, Partly Misticall," and possibly has also a
political significance.

42

658 ORTOLAN

" YELLOWHEAD," were referred to the genus, under the names of
0. albicilla l and 0. ochrocephala, and then the question of its affinity
became more interesting. By some systematists it was supposed
to belong to the otherwise purely Neotropical Dendrocolaptidse
(PICUCULE), and in that case would have been the sole representa-
tive of the Tracheophone Passeres in the Australian Region. Others
considered it one of the nearest relatives of Menura, and if that
view had been correct it would have added a third form to the
small section of " PsEUDOSCiNES " ; while Sundevall, in 1872,
placed it not far from Timelia, among a group the proper sorting of
which will probably for years tax the ingenuity of ornithologists.2
The late Mr. W. A. Forbes shewed (Proc. Zool Soc. 1882, p. 544)
that this last position was the more correct, as Orthonyx proved on
dissection to be one of the true Oscines, but yet to stand, so far as
is known, alone among birds of that group, or any other group of
Passeres, in consequence of the superficial course taken by the (left)
carotid artery, which is nowhere contained in the subvertebral
canal. Whether this discovery will require the segregation of the
genus as the representative of a separate Family Orthonycidse —
— which has been proposed by Mr. Salvin (Catal Coll. Strickland,
p. 294) — remains to be seen.3

The typical species of Orthonyx — for the scientific name has
been adopted in English — is rather larger than a Skylark, coloured
above not unlike a Hedge-Sparrow. The wings are, however,
barred with white, and the chin, throat and breast are in the male
pure white, but of a bright reddish-orange in the female. The
remiges are very short, rounded and much incurved, shewing a
bird of weak flight. The rectrices are very broad, the shafts stiff,
and towards the tip divested of barbs. Two other species that
seem rightly to belong to the genus have been described — 0. spal-
dingi from Queensland, of much greater size than the type, and
with a jet-black plumage, and 0. novw-guinese, from the great island
of that name.

ORTOLAN (Old Fr. Hortolan, mod. Fr. Ortolan), the Emberiza

1 It may be charitably conjectured that the nomenclator intended to write
albicapilla.

2 Dr. Sharpe naturally extended his generous hospitality to Orthonyx and
placed it in his Timeliidse (Oat. B. Br. Mus. vii. p. 329), but refused entrance to
Clitonyx, which Dr. Gadow had therefore to include (op. cit. viii. p. 75) among
the Paridae — a wrong position, according to Sir W. Buller.

3 Forbes also demonstrated that one at least of the two New-Zealand species
above mentioned, 0. ochrocephala, had been wrongly referred to this genus, and
they therefore at present stand as Clitonyx. This is a point of some little import-
ance in its bearing on the relationship of the fauna of the two countries, for
Orthonyx was supposed to be one of the few genera of Land-birds common to
both.

OSCINES 659

hortulana of Linnaeus, a bird so celebrated for the delicate flavour of
its flesh as to have become proverbial, and to have given its name
to others, not all of them nearly related, which are supposed to be
as well-tasted. A native of most European countries — the British
Islands (in which it occurs but rarely) excepted — as well as of
western Asia, it emigrates in autumn presumably to the southward
of the Mediterranean, though its winter-quarters cannot be said to
be accurately known, and returns about the end of April or
beginning of May. Its distribution throughout its breeding-range
seems to be very local, and for this no reason can be assigned. It
was long ago said in France, and apparently with truth, to prefer
wine-growing districts ; but it certainly does not feed upon grapes,
and is found equally in countries where vineyards are unknown —
reaching in Scandinavia even beyond the arctic circle — and there it
generally frequents corn-fields and their neighbourhood. In appear-
ance and habits it much resembles its congener the YELLOW-
HAMMER, but wants the bright colouring of that species, its head
for instance being of a greenish-grey instead of a lively yellow.
The somewhat monotonous song of the cock is also much of the
same kind ; and, where the bird is a familiar object to the country
people, who usually associate its arrival with the return of fair
weather, they commonly apply various syllabic interpretations to
its notes, just as our boys do to those of the Yellow-hammer. The
nest is placed on or near the ground, but the eggs seldom shew the
hair-like markings so characteristic of those of most Emberizida
(BUNTING). Ortolans are netted alive in great numbers, kept from
the light of day, and fed with millet, oats and other seeds. In a
short time they become enormously fat, and are then killed for the
table. If, as is supposed, the Ortolan be the Miliaria of Yarro, the
practice of artificially fattening birds of this species is very ancient.1
In Europe the " Beccafico " (FiG-EATER), whatever that may be,
shares with the Ortolan the highest honours of the dish, but the
former is not artificially fattened, and on this account is preferred
by some sensitive tastes to the latter.

OSCINES, the third Order of Birds according to the arrange-
ment in 1840 of Keyserling and Blasius (Wirldth. Europ.
pp. xxxvi. and 80), consisting of forms which, among other less
important characters, are distinguished by the possession of true
song-muscles (cf. SYRINX and INTRODUCTION).

1 In France the word is used so as to be almost synonymous with our " Bunt-
ing " ; but in some of the Antilles, where French is spoken, the Ortolan is a little
Ground-DovE of the genus Chamsepelia. In North America the name is one of
the many applied to the BOBOLINK, so justly celebrated for its excellent flavour,
as well as to the SORA or Carolina RAIL ; while by Anglo-Indians two species of
LARK (Calandrella brachydactyla and Pyrrhulauda grisea) are commonly called
Ortolans (Jerdon, B. Ind. ii. p. 373).

66o

OSPREY

OSPRAY or OSPKEY,1 a word said to be corrupted from " Ossi-
frage," in Latin Ossifraga or bone-breaker. The Ossifraga of Pliny
(Hist. Nat. x. 3) and some other classical
writers seems, as already said, to have been
the LAMMERGEYER (page 503); but the
name, not inapplicable in that case, has
been transferred — through a not uncommon
but inexplicable confusion — to another bird
which is no breaker of bones, save incident-
ally those of the fishes it devours.2 The
Osprey is a rapacious bird, of middling
size and of conspicuously-marked plumage,
the white of its lower parts, and often of
its head, contrasting sharply with the dark
brown of the back and most of its upper
parts when the bird is seen on the wing. It
is the Falco haliaetus of Linnaeus, but un-
questionably deserving generic separation
was, in 1810, established by Savigny (Ois.
de rfigypte, p. 35) as the type of a new genus
which he was pleased to term Pandion — a
name since pretty generally accepted. It
has commonly been kept in the Family
Fakonidse, but of late regarded as the repre-
sentative of a separate
Family, Pandionidw,
for which view not a
little can be said.3
Pandion differs from

1 In the so - called
"plume -trade" the word

is applied to the feathers J BONES OF OSPREY'S FOOT.
taken from the back of a> tarsometatarsal bridge over the ex-
certain EGRETS (cf. EXTER- tensor muscle of the toes '• fc' tibial
MINATION, p. 228).

2 Another supposed old form of the name is "Orfraie" ;
but that is said by M. Holland (Faune popul. France,
ii. p. 9, note) quoting M. Suchier (Zeitschr. Rom. PMlol.

i. p. 432), to arise from a mingling of two wholly different sources : — (1) Ori-
pelargus, Oriperagus, Orprais, and (2) Ossifraga. "Orfraie" again is occasionally
interchanged with Effraie (which, through such dialectical forms as Fresaie, Fres-
saia, is said "to come from the Latin prsesaga), the ordinary French name for the
Barn-Owl, Aluco flammeus (see OWL, infra, p. 679, note 2) ; but the subject is
too complex for any but an expert philologist to treat. According to Prof. Skeat
(Etymol. Diet. p. 408), "Asprey" is the oldest English form; but "Osprey"
dates from Cotgrave at least.

3 Dr. Sharpe goes further, and makes a " Suborder " Pandiones ; but the

OSPREY 66 1

the Falconidx not only pterylologically, as long ago observed by
Nitzsch, but also osteologically, as pointed out by M. Alphonse
Milne-Edwards (Ois. Foss. France, ii. pp. 413, 419), and it is a curious
fact that in some of the characters in which it differs structurally
from the Falconidze, it agrees with certain of the Owls, especially in
possessing a bony bridge or loop (a, in fig.) on the upper part of the
anterior face of the tarsometatarse, through which passes the
common extensor tendon of the toes ; 1 and in having the exterior
toe partly reversible ; but the most important parts of its internal
structure, as well as of its ptilosis, quite forbid a belief that there
is any near alliance of the two groups.

The Osprey is one of the most cosmopolitan Birds -of -Prey.
From Alaska to Brazil, from Lapland to Natal, from Japan to
Tasmania, and in some of the islands of the Pacific, it occurs as a
winter-visitant or as a native. The countries which it does not
frequent would be more easily named than those in which it is
found — and among the former are Ireland, Iceland and New
Zealand. Though migratory in Europe at least, it is generally
independent of climate. It breeds equally on the half -thawed
shores of Hudson's Bay and on the cays of Honduras, in the dense
forests of Finland and on the barren rocks of the Eed Sea, in
Kamchatka and in West Australia. Where, through abundance of
food, it is numerous — as in former days was the case in the eastern
part of the United States — the nests of the Fish-Hawk (to use its
American name) may be placed on trees to the number of three
hundred close together. Where food is scarcer and the species
accordingly less plentiful, a single pair will occupy an isolated rock,
and jealously expel all intruders of their kind, as happens in
Scotland.2 The lover of birds cannot see many more enjoyable
spectacles than an Osprey engaged in fishing — poising itself aloft,
with upright body, and wings beating horizontally, ere it plunges
like a plummet beneath the water, and immediately after reappears
shaking a shower of drops from its plumage. The feat of carrying
off an Osprey's eggs is often difficult, and attended with some risk,
but has more than once tempted the most daring of birds' nesters.
Apart from the dangerous situation not unfrequently chosen by the
birds for their eyry, — a steep rock in a lonely lake, only to be
reached after a long swim through chilly water, or the summit of a

characters on which he founds such an important division are obviously inade-
quate. The other genus associated with Pandion by him has been shewn by Mr.
Gurney (Ibis, 1878, p. 455) to be nearly allied to the ordinary Sea-EAGLES
(Haliaetus], and therefore one of the true Falconidse.

1 This character is possessed by the group of Owls of the subfamily Striginx,
according to the nomenclature of this work, but not by those of the Alucinas.

2 Two good examples of the different localities chosen by this bird for its nest
are illustrated in Ootheca Wolleyana, pis. B. & H.

662 OSSIFRAGE— OSTRICH

very tall tree, — their fierceness in defence of their eggs and young
is not to be despised. Men and boys have had their head gashed
by the sharp claw of the angry parent, and this, happening when
the robber is already in a precarious predicament and unable to
use any defensive weapon, renders the enterprise formidable. But
the prize is worthy of the danger. Few birds lay eggs so beautiful
or so rich in colouring : their white or pale ground is spotted,
blotched or marbled with almost every shade of purple, orange
and red — passing from the most delicate lilac, buff and peach-
blossom, through violet, chestnut and crimson, to a nearly absolute
black. A few years ago some of the best-informed ornithologists
were led to think that persecution had extirpated the Osprey in
Great Britain, except as a chance visitant. This opinion proved to
be incorrect, and at the present time the bird is believed still to
breed in at least two counties of Scotland, but the secret of its
resorts should be carefully guarded by those who wish to retain it
as a member of the country's fauna, for indiscreet publication would
endanger its occupancy.

OSSIFKAGE, see OSPREY.

OSTEICH (Old English, Estridge ; French, Autruche; Spanish,
Avestruz-, Latin, Avis struthio). Among exotic birds there can
be hardly one better known by report than the strange, majestic
and fleet-footed creature that " scorneth the horse and his rider,"
or one that from the earliest times to the present has been oftener
more or less fully described ; and there must be few persons in any
civilized country unacquainted with the appearance of this, the
largest of living birds, whose size is not insignificant in comparison
even with the mightiest of the plumed giants that of old existed
upon the earth, since an adult male will stand nearly 8 feet in
height, and weigh 300 pounds.

As to the ways of the Ostrich in a state of nature, not much has
been added of late years to the knowledge acquired and imparted
by former travellers and naturalists, many of whom enjoyed oppor-
tunities that will never again occur of discovering its peculiarities,
for even the most favourably-placed of their successors in recent
years seem to content themselves with repeating the older observa-
tions, and to want either leisure or patience to make additions
thereto, their personal acquaintance with the bird not amounting to
more than such casual meetings with it as must inevitably fall to
the lot of those who traverse its haunts. Thus there are still
several dubious points in its natural history. On the other hand we
unquestionably know far more than our predecessors respecting its
geographical distribution, which has been traced with great minute-
ness in the Fogel Ost-Afrikas of Drs. Finsch and Hartlaub, who have
therein given (pp. 597-607) the most comprehensive account of the

OSTRICH

663

are

bird that is to be found in the literature of ornithology.1 As
many conspicuous forms, the Ostrich is disappearing before the per-
secution of man, and this fact it is which gives the advantage to older
travellers, for there are several districts, some of wide extent, known
to have been frequented by the Ostrich within the present century,

OSTRICH.

especially towards the extremities of its African range — as on the
borders of Egypt and the Cape Colony — in which it no longer occurs,
while in Asia there is evidence, more or less trustworthy, of its

1 A good summary of it is contained in the Ostriches and Ostrich Farming of
Messrs. De Mosenthal and Harting, from which the accompanying figure is, with
permission, taken. Von Heuglin, in his Ornithologie Nordost- Africa's (pp. 925-
935), has given more particular details of the Ostrich's distribution in Africa.

664 OSTRICH

former existence in most parts of the south-western desert-tracts,
in few of which it is now to be found. Xenophon's notice of its
abundance in Assyria (Anabasis, i. 5) is well known. It probably
still lingers in the wastes of Kirwan in eastern Persia, whence
examples may occasionally stray northward to those of Turkestan,1
even near the Lower Oxus ; but the assertion, often repeated, as to
its former occurrence in Baloochistan or Sindh, though not incredible,
seems to rest on testimony as yet too slender for acceptance.
Apparently the most northerly limit of the Ostrich's ordinary range
at the present day cannot be further than that portion of the Syrian
Desert lying directly to the eastward of Damascus ; and, within the
limits of what may be called Palestine, Canon Tristram (Fauna and
Flora of Palestine, p. 139) regards it as but a straggler from central
Arabia, though we have little information as to its appearance and
distribution in that country. Africa, however, is still, as in ancient
days, the continent in which the Ostrich most nourishes, and from
the confines of Barbary to those of the European settlements in the
south it appears to inhabit every waste sufficiently extensive to
afford it the solitude it loves, and in many wide districts, where the
influence of the markets of civilization is feebly felt, to be still
almost as abundant as ever. Yet even there it has to contend with
deadly foes in the many species of wild beasts which frequent the
same tracts and prey upon its eggs and young — the latter especially ;
and Lichtenstein long ago remarked that if it were not for its
numerous enemies " the multiplication of Ostriches would be quite
unexampled." The account given of the habits of the species by
this naturalist, who had excellent opportunities of observing it
during his three years' travels in South Africa, is perhaps one of the
best we have, and since his narrative 2 has been neglected by most
of its more recent historians we may do well by calling attention
thereto. Though sometimes assembling in troops of from thirty to
fifty, and then generally associating with zebras or with some of the
larger antelopes, Ostriches commonly, and especially in the breeding-
season, live in companies of not more than four or five, one of which
is a cock and the rest are hens. All the latter lay their eggs in one
and the same nest, a shallow pit scraped out by their feet, with the
earth heaped around to form a kind of wall against which the outer-
most circle of eggs rest. As soon as ten or a dozen eggs are laid,
the cock begins to brood, always taking his place on them at night-
fall surrounded by his wives, while by day they relieve one another,

1 Drs. Finsch and Hartlaub quote a passage from Renmsat's Remarques sur
I 'extension de I' Empire Chinoise, stating that in about the seventh century of our
era a live " camel-bird" was sent as a present with an embassy from Turkestan
to China.

2 M. H. K. Lichtenstein, Reise im sudlichen Africa, ii. pp. 42-45 (Berlin:
1812).

OSTRICH 665

more it would seem to guard their common treasure from jackals
and small beasts-of-prey than directly to forward the process of
hatching, for that is often left wholly to the sun.1 Some thirty
eggs are laid in the nest, and round it are scattered perhaps as many
more. These last are said to be broken by the old birds to serve
as nourishment for the newly-hatched chicks, whose stomachs cannot
bear the hard food on which their parents thrive. The greatest
care is taken by them not only to place the nest where it may not
be discovered, but to avoid being seen when going to or from it,
and their solicitude for their tender young is no less. Andersson
in his Lake N' garni (pp. 253-269) has given a lively account of the
pursuit by himself and Mr. Francis Galton of a brood of Ostriches,
in the course of which the father of the family flung himself on the
ground and feigned being wounded to distract their attention from
his offspring. Though the Ostrich ordinarily inhabits the most arid
districts, it needs water to drink ; and, moreover, it will frequently
bathe, sometimes even, according to Von Heuglin, in the sea.

The question whether to recognize more than one species of
Ostrich, the Struthio camelus of Linnaeus, has been for some years
agitated without leading to a satisfactory solution.2 It has long
been known that, while eggs from North Africa present a perfectly
smooth surface, those from South Africa are pitted (see page 190,
note 4). It has also been observed that northern birds have the
skin of the parts not covered with feathers flesh-coloured, while
this skin is bluish in southern birds, and hence the latter have been
thought to need specific designation as S. australis. More recently
examples from the Somali country have been described as forming
a distinct species under the name of S. molyldophanes? from the
leaden colour of their naked parts.

The genus Struthio forms the type of one group of the Subclass
RATIT^E, which differs so widely from the rest, in points that have
been concisely set forth by Prof. Huxley (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867,
p. 419), as to justify us in regarding it as an Order, to which the
name Strutliiones may be applied ; but that term, as well as

1 By those whose experience is derived from the observation of captive
Ostriches this fact has been disputed. But, to say nothing of the effects of the
enforced monogamy in which such birds live, the difference of the circumstances
in which they find themselves, and in particular their removal from the heat-
retaining sands of the desert and its burning sunshine, is enough to account
for the change of habit. Von Heuglin also (p. 933) is explicit on this point.
That hen Ostriches while on duty crouch to avoid detection is only natural, and
this habit seems to have led hasty observers to suppose they were really brooding.

2 Dr. Gadow tells me that the discrepancy of several accounts of the Ostrich's
anatomy is such as to suggest the possibility of more than one species.

3 Apparently first noticed in a Berlin newspaper (Sonntagsb. d. Norddeutsch.
Allgem. Zeitung) by Dr. Reichenow, 16th Sept. 1883, and later, Mitth. Orn. Ver.
Wien, 1883, tab., and Jmirn.f. Orn. 1883, p. 399.

666 OUSEL

Struthionidaz, has been often used in a more general sense by system-
atists, even to signify the whole of the RATIT^E.1 The most
obvious distinctive character presented by the Ostrich is the pres-
ence of two toes only, the third and fourth, on each foot, — a
character absolutely peculiar to the genus Struthio.2

The great mercantile value of Ostrich -feathers, and the in-
creasing difficulty, due to the causes already mentioned, of pro-
curing them from wild birds, has led to the formation in the Cape
Colony and elsewhere of numerous " Ostrich-farms," on which these
birds are kept in confinement, and at regular times deprived of
their plumes. In favourable localities and with judicious manage-
ment these establishments are understood to yield very considerable
profit; while, as the ancient taste for wearing Ostrich -feathers
shews no sign of falling off, but seems rather to be growing, it is
probable that the practice will yet be largely extended.3

OUSEL or OUZEL, Anglo-Saxon Osle, equivalent of the German
Amsel (a form of the word found in several old English books, and
perhaps yet surviving in some parts of the country), apparently the
ancient name for what is now more commonly known as the BLACK-
BIRD, the Turdus merula of ornithologists, but at the present day
not often applied to that species, though, as will immediately be
seen, used in a compound form for two others. The adult male of
this beautiful and well-known bird scarcely needs any other descrip-
tion than that of the poet : —

" The Ousel-cock, so black of hue,
With orange-tawny bill."

— Midsummer Night's Dream, act iii. sc. 1.

But the female is of an uniform umber-brown above, has the chin,
throat and upper part of the breast orange-brown, with a few dark
streaks, and the rest of the plumage beneath of a hair-brown. The

1 At one time it was not uncommon to include the BUSTARDS among the
Struthionidae !

2 Remains of a true Ostrich have been recognized from the Sivalik formation
in India, and the petrified egg of an apparently allied form, Struthiolithus, has
been found in the south of Russia (see FOSSIL BIRDS, p. 285).

3 Among the more important treatises on this bird may be mentioned : — E.
D'Alton, Die Skelete der Straussartigen Vogel abgebildet und beschrieben, folio,
Bonn: 1827; P. L. Sclater, "On the Struthious Birds living in the Zoological
Society's Menagerie," Trans. Zool. Soc. iv. p. 353, containing the finest representa-
tion (pi. 67), by Mr. Wolf, ever published of the male Struthio camdus ;
Prof. Mivart, " On the Axial Skeleton of the Ostrich," op. cit. viii. p. 385 ; Prof.
Haughton, "On the Muscular Mechanism of the Leg of the Ostrich, Ann. Nat.
Hist. ser. 3, xv. pp. 262-272 — a subject more fully treated by M. Alix in his
Essai sur I'appareil locomoteur des Oiseaux (Paris : 1874) ; and Prof. Macalister,
"On the Anatomy of the Ostrich," Proc. JR. Irish Acad. ix. pp. 1-24.

OUSEL 667

young of both sexes resemble the mother. The Blackbird is found
in every country of Europe, even breeding — though rarely — beyond
the arctic circle, and in eastern Asia, as well as in Barbary and the
Atlantic islands. Resident in Britain as a species, its numbers yet
receive considerable accession of passing visitors in autumn, and in
most parts of its range it is very migratory. The song of the cock
has a peculiarly liquid tone, which makes it much admired, but it
is too discontinuous to rank the bird very high as a musician. The
species is very prolific, having sometimes as many as four broods in
the course of the spring and summer. The nest, generally placed
in a thick bush, is made of coarse roots or grass, strongly put
together with earth, and is lined with fine grass. Herein are laid
from four to six eggs of a light greenish-blue closely mottled with
reddish-brown. Generally vermivorous, the Blackbird will, when
pressed for food, eat grains and seeds, while berries and fruits in
their season are eagerly sought by it, thus earning the enmity of
gardeners. More or less allied to and resembling the Blackbird are
many other species which inhabit most parts of the world, except-
ing the Ethiopian Region, New Zealand and Australia proper, and
North America. Some of them have the legs as well as the bill
yellow or orange ; and, in a few of them, both sexes alike display a
uniformly glossy black. The only one that need here be particu-
larized is the RiNG-OuSEL, Turdus torquatus, which is at once dis-
tinguishable from the Blackbird by its conspicuous white gorget —
whence its name. It has also very different habits, frequenting
wild and open tracts of country, shunning woods, groves and planta-
tions, and preferring the shelter of rocks to that of trees. Its dis-
tribution is accordingly much more local, and in most parts of
England it is only known as a transitory migrant in spring and
autumn — from and to its hardly as yet ascertained winter
quarters.1

The WATER-OUSEL, or Water-Crow — now commonly named the
" DIPPER " — is the Cinclus aquaticus of most ornithologists, and the
type of a small but remarkable group of birds, the position of
which many taxonomers have been at their wits' end to determine.
It would be useless here to recount the various suppositions that
have been expressed ; suffice it to say that most ornithologists are
now agreed in regarding the genus Cinclus 2 as differing so much

1 The Ring-Ousel of central and southern Europe presents several differences,
having most of its feathers edged with white, and is regarded by some authorities
(Stejneger, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1886, pp. 365-372 ; Salvadori, Boll. Mus. Zool.
Torino, viii. No. 152) as a distinct species, T. alpestris (Brehm) ; but Mr.
Seebohm says (Ibis, 1888, pp. 310, 311) that intermediate forms occur, and that
further to the eastward, as in Caucasia and Persia, examples shew a still greater
divergence, forming a local race to which he applies the name orientalis.

2 Some writers have used for this genus the name Hydrdbata.

668

OUSEL

from other birds that, though essentially one of the true PASSERES
(i.e. OSCINES), it forms a distinct Family, Cindidse, which has no
very near allies. That some of its peculiarities (for instance, the
sternum in adult examples having the posterior margin generally
entire, and the close covering of down that clothes the whole body
— a character fully recognized by Nitzsch) are correlated with its
aquatic habit is probably not to be questioned; but this fact
furnishes no argument for associating it, as has often been done,
with the Turdidse (THRUSH), the Troglodytidse (WREN), or much less
with other groups to which it has undoubtedly no affinity. The
Dipper haunts rocky streams, into which it boldly enters, generally
by deliberately wading, and then by the strenuous combined action
of its wings and feet makes its way along the bottom in quest of
its living prey — freshwater mollusks, and aquatic insects in their
larval, pupal or mature condition. By the careless and ignorant it
is accused of feeding on the spawn of fishes, and it has been on that
account subjected to much persecution. Innumerable examinations
of the contents of its stomach have not only proved that the charge
is baseless, but that the bird clears off many of the worst enemies
of the precious product. Short and squat of stature, active and
restless in its movements, silky black above, with a pure white
throat and upper part of the breast, to which succeeds a broad
band of dark bay, it is a familiar figure to most fishermen on
the streams it frequents, while the cheerful song of the cock,
often heard in the hardest frost, helps to make it a favourite with

them in spite of the
obloquy under which
it labours. The "Water-
Ousel's nest is a very
curious structure, — out-
wardly resembling a
Wren's, but built on a
wholly different prin-
ciple, — an ordinary cup-
shaped nest of grass
lined with dead leaves,
placed in some con-
venient niche, but en-
cased with moss so as
to form a large mass
that covers it completely
except only a small hole

for the bird's passage. The eggs laid within are from four to
six in number, and are of a pure white. These remarks refer
to the Water -Ousel of central and western Europe, including
the British Islands; but, except as regards plumage, it is be-

MEXICANTJS.

O VAR Y—O VEN-BIRD

669

lieved that they will apply to all the other species, about a
dozen in number, which have been described. These inhabit
suitable places throughout the whole Palsearctic area as well
as the southern slopes of the Himalaya and the hill-country of
Formosa, besides the Kocky Mountains and a great part of the
Andes. Mr. Salvin, in a very philosophical paper on the genus
(Ibis, 1867, pp. 109-122), refers these species — some of them
wholly black and one slate-coloured — to five well-marked forms, of
which the other members are either " representative species " or
merely " local races " ; but all seem to occupy distinct geographical
areas, — the 0. mexicanus represented in the accompanying figure
having a wide range along the mountainous parts of North America
to Mexico ; and it is quite possible that their number may yet be
increased, for the general habits of the birds preclude much invasion
of territory, and thus produce practical isolation.

OVARY, OVIDUCT, see REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS.

OVEN-BIRD, a name locally given to several species that build
domed nests in England, especially to the Willow- WREN, and in

NEST OF OVEN-BIRD (Furnarius).
(From specimen given to the Cambridge Museum by Mr. J. Young.)

North America to Siurus auricapillus, otherwise known as the
Golden-crowned Thrush; but by most ornithologists applied to
birds of the genus Furnarius, belonging to the Neotropical Family
2kndrocolaptid& (PICUCULE), the best known of which is F. rufus,

the Hornero (Baker) or Casera of the Spanish-speaking population.

OVEN-BIRD

It seeks no concealment, for its wonderful nest l is placed in the
most conspicuous situations, on the top of a post, a bare rock or a
leafless branch, being a massive structure with strong thick walls,
composed of mud mixed with bits of straw or fibres, roughly

SECTION OF OVEN-BIRD'S NEST.

globular in form with an upright opening in front whence a
partition extends nearly to the back, forming an ante-chamber to
the portion which contains the 4 or 5 white eggs, laid on a bed of
soft dry grass. The habits of this species have been mentioned
by Mr. Darwin (Nat. Voy. chap, v.) and described at some length
by Mr. Hudson (Argent. Orn. i. pp. 167-170), beside Durnford (Ibis,

FURNARIUS.

^\

GEOBATES.

(After Swainson.)

GEOSITTA.

1877, p. 179) and Mr. E. Gibson (op. cit. 1880, pp. 16-18), to say
nothing of Burmeister (Syst. Uebers. Th. Brasil. Fogel, iii. pp. 3, 4)
and Dorbigny (Voy. Am6r. M6rid. Ois. p. 250).

Allied to Furnarius are the genera Geobates and Geositta, of. which

1 Not many figures of this have been given. There is one, such as a child
might draw, in Molina's Compendia (tav. 2, Bologna : 1776), and that in a
Natural History (iv. p. 113) edited by Duncan is hardly more instructive:
Dr. Goldi's figures (Zool. Gart. 1886, pp. 268, 271) are fair.

OWL 671

last one species, G. cunicularia, with many of the habits of a
WHEATEAR, bores a hole from 3 to 6 feet long in a bank or the
side of a biscacha's burrow, placing its nest at the end; but
Geobates, which is peculiar to the grassy plains (campos) of South-
eastern Brazil, has much the habits of a LARK or PIPIT, together
with the elongated cubital feathers characteristic of those forms,
while another, Upucerthia, inhabits the most sterile of the upland
deserts. None of these birds is of any particular beauty, but to
the ornithologist they form a most interesting group, the position
of which was for a long while wholly mistaken, and it was only
when their anatomical structure came to be known that their place
was determined among the TRACHEOPHON^E.

OWL, the Anglo-Saxon Ule, Swedish Uggla, and German Eule —
all allied to the Latin Ulula, and evidently of imitative origin — the
general English name for every nocturnal Bird-of-Prey,1 of which
group nearly two hundred species have been recognized. The Owls
form a very natural assemblage, and one about the limits of which
no doubt has for a long while existed. Placed by nearly all
systematists for many years as a Family of the Order Accipitres (or
whatever may have been the equivalent term used by the particular
taxonomer), there has been of late a disposition to regard them as
forming a group of higher rank. On many accounts it is plain that
they differ from the ordinary diurnal Birds-of-Prey, more than the
latter do among themselves ; and, though in some respects Owls
have a superficial likeness to the NIGHTJARS,2 and a resemblance
more deeply seated to the GUACHARO, even the last has not been
made out to have any strong affinity to them. A good deal is
therefore to be said for the opinion which would rank the Owls as
an independent Order, or at any rate Suborder, Striges. Whatever
be the position assigned to the group, its subdivision has always
been a fruitful matter of discussion, owing to the great resemblance
obtaining among all its members, and the existence of safe characters
for its division has only lately been at all generally recognized.
By the older naturalists, it is true, Owls were divided, as was first

1 The poverty of the English language — generally so rich in synonyms — is here
very remarkable. Though four well-known if not common species of Owls are
native to Britain, to say nothing of half a dozen others which occur with greater
or less frequency, none of them has ever acquired an absolutely individual name,
and various prefixes have to be used to distinguish them. It is almost the same
in other countries where English is spoken, though North America has its
"Saw- whet" and New Zealand its "Morepork" — each name from the bird's
call-note. In Greece and Italy, Germany and France, almost each indigenous
species has had its own particular designation in the vulgar tongue. The English
Owlet or Howlet is of course a simple diminutive only.

2 In many parts of England the Nightjar is known as the Churn-Owl or
Fern-Owl.

672 OWL

done by Willughby, into two sections — one in which all the species
exhibit tufts of feathers on the head, the so-called " ears " or
"horns," and the second in which the head is not tufted. The
artificial and therefore untrustworthy nature of this distinction was
shewn by Isidore Geoffroy-St. Hilaire (Ann. Sc. Nat. xxi. pp. 194-
203) in 1830 ; but he did not do much good in the arrangement of the
Owls which he then proposed ; and it was hardly until the publica-
tion, ten years later, of Nitzsch's Pterylographie that rational grounds
on which to base a division of the Owls were adduced. It then
became manifest that two very distinct types of pterylosis existed
in the group, and further it appeared that certain differences,
already partly shewn by Berthold (Beitr. Anat. pp. 166, 167), of
sternal structure coincided with the pterylological distinctions. By
degrees other significant differences were pointed out, till, as summed
up by Prof. Alphonse Milne-Edwards (Ois. foss. de la France, ii. pp.
474-492), there could no longer be any doubt that the bird known
in England as the Screech-Owl or Barn-Owl,1 with its allies, formed
a section which should be most justifiably separated from all the
others of the group then known. Space is here wanting to state
particularly the pterylological distinctions which will be found
described at length in Nitzsch's classical work (Eng. trans,
pp. 70, 71), and even the chief osteological distinctions must be
only briefly mentioned.2 These consist in the Screech-Owl section
wanting any manubrial process in front of the sternum, which has
its broad keel joined to the clavicles united as a furcula, while
posteriorly it presents an unbroken outline. In the other section,
of which the bird known in England as the Tawny or Brown Owl
is the type, there is a manubrial process ; the furcula, far from being
joined to the keel of the sternum, often consists but of two stylets
which do not even meet one another; and the posterior margin
of the sternum presents two pairs of projections, one pair on each
side, with corresponding fissures between them. Furthermore the
Owls of the same section shew another peculiarity in the bone
usually called the tarsus. This is a bony ring or loop bridging the
channel holding the common extensor tendon of the toes — which,
as already noticed, is possessed by the OSPREY, but does not appear
in the Screech-Owl section any more than in the majority of birds.
The subsequent examination by M. Milne-Edwards (Nouv. Arch.
Mus. Mem. ser. 2, i. pp. 185-200, pis. 4, 5) of the skeleton of an
Owl known as Pliodilus (more correctly Photodilus) badius, hitherto
attached to the Screech-Owl section, shewed that, though in most of
its osteological characters it must be referred to the Tawny-Owl

1 The Owl, however, which commonly breeds in barns in Sweden and perhaps
some other parts of Europe is our Tawny Owl, Strix stridula.

2 A few more distinctive characters are shewn by Mr. Beddard in his paper
on the classification of this group (Ibis, 1888, pp. 335-344).

OWL 673

section, in several of the particulars mentioned above it resembles
the Screech-Owls, and therefore we are bound to deem it a con-
necting link between them. The pterylological characters of
Photodilus seem not to have been fully investigated,1 but it is
found on the one hand to want the singular bony tarsal loop, as
well as the manubrial process, while on the other its clavicles are
not united into a furcula to meet the keel, and the posterior margin
of the sternum has processes and fissures like those of the Tawny-
Owl section. Photodilus having thus to be removed from the
Screech-Owl section, Prof. Milne-Edwards has replaced it by a new
form, Heliodilus, from Madagascar (Comptes Bendus, 1887, p. 1282),
described at length by him in M. Grandidier's great work on the
natural history of that island (Oiseaux, i. pp. 113-118, pis. xxxvi.
Ore). The unexpected results thus obtained preach caution in regard
to the classification of other Owls, and add to the misgivings that
every honest ornithologist must feel as to former attempts to
methodize the whole group — misgivings that had already arisen
from the great diversity of opinion displayed by previous classifiers,
hardly two of whom seem able to agree. Moreover, the difficulties
which beset the study of the Owls are not limited to their respective
relations, but extend to their scientific terminology, which has long
been in a state so bewildering that nothing but the strictest
adherence to the very letter of the laws of nomenclature, which
until lately have been approved in principle by all but an insignifi-
cant number of zoologists, can clear up the confusion into which the
matter has been thrown by heedless or ignorant writers — some of
those who are in general most careful to avoid error being not wholly
free from blame in this respect.

A few words are therefore here needed on this most unprofitable
subject.2 Under the generic term Strix, Linnaeus placed all the Owls
known to him ; but Brisson most justifiably divided that genus, and
in so doing fixed upon Strix stridula — the aforesaid Tawny Owl — as
its type, while under the name of Asia he established a second
genus, of which his contemporary's S. otus, presently to be men-
tioned, is the type. Some years later Savigny, who had very
peculiar notions on nomenclature, disregarding the act of Brisson,
chose to recognize the Linnaean S. fiammea — the Screech-Owl before
spoken of — as the type of the genus Strix, which genus he further
dissevered, and his example was largely followed until Fleming gave
to the Screech-Owl the generic name of Alucof by which it had been
known for more than three hundred years, and reserved Strix for
the Tawny Owl. He thus anticipated Nitzsch, whose editor (Bur-

1 Mr. Beddard has noticed a few points (Ibid, 1890, pp. 293-294).

2 It was dealt with at greater length in The Ibis for 1876 (pp. 94-105).

3 The word seems to have been the invention of Gaza, the translator of Aris-
totle, in 1503, and is the Latinized form of the Italian Allocco.

43

674 OWL

meister) was probably unacquainted with this fact when he allowed
the name Hybris to be conferred on the Screech-Owl. No doubt
inconvenience is caused by changing any general practice ; but, as
will have been seen, the practice was not
universal, and such inconvenience as may
arise is not chargeable on those who abide by
the law, as it is intended in this article to do.
The reader is therefore warned that the word
Strix will be here used in what is believed to
be the legitimate way, for the genus contain-
BILL OF ALUCO ™EUS. !ng the ^ 8iri^U °* Linnaeus, while Aluco
(After Swainson ) 1S retained for that including the o. jiammea

of the same naturalist.

Except the two main divisions just mentioned — Striginse and
Alucinse — any further arrangement of the Owls must at present be
deemed tentative, for the ordinary external characters, to which
most systematists trust, are useless if not misleading.1 Several
systematizers have tried to draw characters from the orifice of the
ear, and the parts about it; but hitherto these have not been
sufficiently studied to make the attempts very successful. If it be
true that the predominant organ in any group of animals furnishes
for that group the best distinctive characters, we may have some
hope of future attempts in this direction,2 for we know that few
birds have the sense of hearing so highly developed as the Owls, and
also that the external ear varies considerably in form in several of
the genera which have been examined. Thus in Surnia, the Hawk-
Owl, and in Nyctea, the Snowy Owl, the external ear is simple in
form, and, though proportionally larger than in most birds, it pos-
sesses no very remarkable peculiarities, — a fact which may be cor-
related with the diurnal habits of these Owls — natives of the far
north, where the summer is a season of constant daylight, and to
effect the capture of prey the eyes are perhaps more employed than
the ears.3 In Eubo^ the Eagle-Owl, though certainly more nocturnal
in habit, the external ear, however, has no very remarkable develop-

1 It is much to be regretted that an interesting form of Owl, Sceloglaux
albifacies, peculiar to New Zealand, the Whekau of the Maories, should be
rapidly becoming extinct, without any effort, so far as is known, being made to
ascertain its affinities. It would seeni to belong to the Strigine section, and is
remarkable for its very massive clavicles, that unite by a kind of false joint,
which in some examples may possibly be wholly ancylosed, in the median line.

2 This hope is strengthened by the very praiseworthy essay on the Owls of
Norway by Herr Collett in the Forhandlinger of Christiania for 1881.

3 But this hypothesis must not be too strongly urged ; for in Carine, a more
southern form of nocturnal (or at least crepuscular) habits, the external ear is
perhaps even more normal. Of course by the ear the real organ of hearing is here
meant, not the tuft of feathers often so called in speaking of Owls.

OWL 675

ment of conch, which may perhaps be accounted for by the

ordinary prey of the bird being the larger rodents, that from their

size are more readily seen, and hence

the growth of the bird's auditory

organs has not been much stimulated.

In Strix (as the name is here used),

a form depending greatly on its sense

of hearing for the capture of its prey,

the ear-conch is much enlarged, and BILL AND EAR OF BUBO.

(After Swamson.)

it has, moreover, an elevated flap or

operculum. In Asio, containing the Long-eared and Short-eared
Owls of Europe, Asia and America, the conch is enormously exag-
gerated, extending in a semicircular direction from the base of the
lower mandible to above the middle of the eye, and is furnished in
its whole length with an operculum.1 But what is more extraordinary
in this genus is that the entrance to the ear is asymmetrical — the
orifice on one side opening downwards and on the other upwards.
This curious adaptation is carried still further in the genus Nyctala,
containing two or three small species of the Northern hemisphere,
in which the asymmetry that in Asio is only skin-deep extends, in
a manner very surprising, to several of the bones of the head, as
may be seen in the Zoological Society's Proceedings (1871, pp. 739-
743), and in the large series of figures given by Messrs. Baird,
Brewer and Eidgway (N.-Am. Birds, iii. pp. 97-102).

Among Owls are found birds which vary in length from 5
inches — as Glauddium cobanense, which is therefore much smaller
than a Skylark — to more than 2 feet, a size that is attained by
many species. -Their plumage, none of the feathers of which pos-
sesses an aftershaf t, is of the softest kind, rendering their flight al-
most noiseless. But one of the most characteristic features of this
whole group is the ruff, consisting of several rows of small and
much-curved feathers with stiff shafts — originating from a fold of
the skin, which begins on each side of the base of the beak, runs
above the eyes, and passing downwards round and behind the ears
turns forward, and ends at the chin — and serving to support the
longer feathers of the "disk" or space immediately around the
eyes, which extend over it. A considerable number of species of
Owls, belonging to various genera, and natives of countries most
widely separated, are remarkable for exhibiting two phases of colora-
tion— one in which the prevalent browns have a more or less rusty-
red tinge, and the other in which they incline to grey. Another
characteristic of nearly all Owls is the reversible property of their
outer toes, which are not unfrequently turned at the bird's pleasure

1 Figures of these different forms are given by Macgillivray (Brit. Birds, iii.
pp. 396, 403, and 427), and of Asio otus in the Fourth Edition of Yarrell's British
Birds (i. p. 162).

676 OWL

quite backwards. Many forms have the legs and toes thickly
clothed to the very claws ; others have the toes, and even the tarsi,
bare, or only sparsely beset by bristles. Among the bare-legged Owls
those of the Indian genus Ketupa are conspicuous, and this feature is
usually correlated with their fish -catching habits ; but certainly
other Owls that are not known to catch fish present much the same
character.

From the multitude of Owls there is only room here to make
further mention of a few of the more interesting. First must be
noticed the Tawny Owl — the Strix stridula of Linnaeus, the type, as
has been above said, of the whole group, and especially of the
Strigine section as here understood. This is the Syrnium aluco of
many authors, the Chat-huant of the French, the species whose
tremulous hooting "tu-whit, to -who," has been celebrated by
Shakespear, and, as well as the plaintive call, "keewick," of the
young after leaving the nest, will be familiar sounds to many readers,
for the bird is very generally distributed throughout most parts
of Europe, extending its range through Asia Minor to Palestine, and
also to Barbary — but not belonging to the Ethiopian Region or to
the eastern half of the Palaearctic area. It is the largest of the
Owls indigenous to Britain, and chiefly affects woodlands, only occa-
sionally choosing any other place for its nest than a hollow tree.
Its food consists almost entirely of small mammals, especially rats ;
but, though on this account most deserving of protection from all
classes, it is subject to the stupid persecution of the ignorant, and
is rapidly declining in numbers.1 Its nearest allies in North
America are the S. nebulosa, with some kindred forms, one of which,
the S. occidentalis of California and Arizona, is here figured ; but
none of them seems to have the " merry note " that is uttered by
the European species. Common to the most northerly forest-tracts
of both continents (for, though a slight difference of coloration is
observable between American examples and those from the Old
World, it is impossible to consider it specific) is the much larger
S. cinerea or S. lapponica, whose small eyes, with their yellow iris,
iron-grey plumage, delicately mottled with dark brown, and the con-
centric circles of its facial disks make it one of the most remarkable
of the group. Then may be noticed the genus Bubo — containing
several species which from their size are usually known as Eagle-Owls.
Here the Nearctic and PalaBarctic forms are sufficiently distinct —

1 All Owls have the habit of casting up the indigestible parts of the food
swallowed in the form of pellets, which may often be found in abundance under
the Owl-roost, and reveal without any manner of doubt what the prey of the bird
has been. The result in nearly every case shews the enormous service they
render to man in destroying rats and mice. Details of many observations to this
effect are recorded in the Bericht uber die XIV. Versammlung der Deutschen
Ornithologen-Gesellschaft (pp. 30-34).

OWL 677

the latter, B. ignavus? the Due or Grand Due of the French, ranging
over the whole of Europe and Asia north of the Himalayas, while the
former, E. virginianus, extends over the whole of North America.
A contrast to the generally sombre colour of these birds is shewn by
the Snowy Owl, Nyctea scandiaca, a circumpolar species, and the only
one of its genus, which disdains the shelter of forests and braves
the most rigorous arctic climate, though compelled to migrate south-
ward in winter when no sustenance is left for it. Its large size and
white plumage, more or less mottled with black, distinguish this

STRIX OCCIDENTALIS.

from every other Owl. Then may be mentioned the birds commonly
known in English as " Horned " Owls — the Hibous of the French,
belonging to the genus Asio. One, A. otus (the Otus vulgaris of
some authors), inhabits woods, and, distinguished by its long tufts,
usually borne erected, would seem to be common to both America
and Europe — though experts profess their ability to distinguish
between examples from each country. Another species, A.

1 This species bears confinement very well, and propagates freely therein. The
Owls so well known as formerly kept at Arundel Castle were always referred to
it, until Mr. Borrer (B. Sussex, Introd. p. xvii.) shewed that they belonged to the
kindred B. mrginmnus.

678 O WL

acdpitrinus (the Otus brachyotus of many authors), has much shorter
tufts on its head, and they are frequently carried depressed so as
to escape observation. This is the "Woodcock -Owl" of English
sportsmen, for, though a good many are bred in Great Britain, the
majority arrive in autumn from Scandinavia, just about the time
that the immigration of Woodcocks occurs. This species frequents
heaths, moors, and the open country generally, to the exclusion of
woods, and has an enormous geographical range, including not only
all Europe, North Africa, and northern Asia, but the whole of
America, — reaching also to the Falklands, the Galapagos and the
Sandwich Islands, — for the attempt to separate specifically examples
from those localities only shews that they possess more or less ill-
defined local races. Commonly placed near Asio, but whether
really akin to it cannot be stated, is the genus Scops, of which nearly
forty species, coming from different parts of the world, have been
described; but this number should probably be reduced by one
half. The type of the genus, S. giu, the Petit Due of the French, is
a well-known bird in the south of Europe, about as big as a Thrush,
with very delicately-pencilled plumage, occasionally visiting Britain,
emigrating in autumn across the Mediterranean, and ranging very
far to the eastward. Further southward, both in Asia and Africa,
it is represented by other species of very similar size, and in the
eastern part of North America by S. asio, of which there is a
tolerably distinct western form, S. kennicotti, besides several local
races. S. asio is one of the Owls that especially exhibits the
dimorphism of coloration above mentioned, and it was long before
the true state of the case was understood. At first the two forms
were thought to be distinct, and then for some time the belief
obtained that the ruddy birds were the young of the greyer form
which was called S. nsevia ; but now the " Eed Owl " and the
" Mottled Owl " of the older American ornithologists are known to
be one species.1 One of the most remarkable of American Owls is
Speotyto cunicularia, the bird that in the northern part of the con-
tinent inhabits the burrows of the prairie-dog, and in the southern
those of the biscacha, where the latter occurs — making holes for
itself, says Darwin, where that is not the case, — rattlesnakes being
often also joint tenants of the same abodes. The odd association
of these animals, interesting as it is, cannot here be more than
noticed, for a few words must be said, ere we leave the Owls of this
section, on the species which has associations of a very different
kind — the bird of Pallas Athene, the emblem of the city to which
science and art were so welcome. There can be no doubt, from the

1 See the remarks of Mr. Bidgway in the work before quoted (B. N. America,
iii. pp. 9, 10), where also response is made to the observations of Mr. Allen in the
Harvard Bulletin (ii. pp. 338, 339), as well as the former's elaborate review of
the American species of the genus (Proc. U.S. Nat. MILS. i. pp. 85-117.)

OWL

679

HEAD OF CARINE.
(After Swainson.)

many representations on coins and sculptures, as to their subject
being the Carine noclua of modern ornithologists, but those who
know the grotesque actions and ludicrous
expression of this veritable buffoon of birds
can never cease to wonder at its having been
seriously selected as the symbol of learning,
and can hardly divest themselves of a sus-
picion that the choice must have been made
in the spirit of sarcasm. This Little Owl (for
that is its only English name — though it is
not even the smallest that appears in England), the Chevdche of
the French, is spread throughout the greater part of Europe, but
it is not a native of Britain.1 It has a congener in C. brama, a bird
well known to all residents in India.

Finally, we have Owls of the second section, those allied to the
Screech -Owl, Aluco flammeus, the E/raie2 of the French. This,
with its discordant scream, its snoring, and its hissing, is far too
well known to need description, for it is one of the most widely-
spread of birds, and is
the Owl that has the
greatest geographical
range, inhabiting almost
every country in the
world, — Sweden and
Norway, America north
of lat. 45°, and New
Zealand being the prin-
cipal exceptions. It
varies, however, not in-
considerably, both in
size and intensity of
colour, and several orni-
thologists have tried to
found on these varia-
tions more than half a
dozen distinct species.
Some, if not most of
them, seem, however,
hardly worthy to be considered geographical races, for their differences
do not always depend on locality. Dr. Sharpe, with much labour and

1 A very large number have first and last been liberated in this country by
Lord Lilford and Mr. Meade- Waldo ; but though they have been known to breed
in their feral state, they can hardly be said to have established themselves.

2 Through the dialectic forms Fresaie and Presaie, the origin of the word is
easily traced to the Latin praesaga — a bird of bad omen ; but it has also been
confounded with Orfraie, a name of the OSPREY.

ALUCO FLAMMEUS. (After Wolf.)

68o OX-BIRD— OX-PECKER

in great detail, has given his reasons (Cat. B. Brit. Mus. ii. pp. 291-309 ;
and Ornith. Miscell. i. pp. 269-298 ; ii. pp. 1-21) for acknowledging
four "subspecies" of A. flammeus, as well as five other species. Of
these last, A. tenebricosus is peculiar to Australia, while A. novse-
hollandise inhabits also New Guinea, and has a "subspecies," A.
castanops, found only in Tasmania ; a third, A. candidus, has a wide
range from Fiji and northern Australia through the Philippines
and Formosa to China, Burma and India; a fourth, A. capensis, is
peculiar to South Africa ; while A. thomensis is said to be confined
to the African island of St. Thomas. There is also the extinct A.
sauzieri of Mauritius (Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. p. 286), and to these will
perhaps have to be added a species from New Britain, described by
Count T.- Salvador! as Strix aurantia, though it may prove on further
investigation not to be an Alucine Owl at all.

OX-BIRD, a common name for the DUNLIN, and in connexion
therewith Mr. Harting, in the Introduction (p. xvii.) to Eodd's Birds
of Cornwall, reasonably refers OXEN-AND-KINE, by which name
some apparently small wildfowl were of old times known in the
west country (cf. Carew, Survey of Cornwall, fol. 35, and a curious
paper printed in the Camden Miscellany^- iv. pp. 10, 26).

OX-EYE seems once to have been synonymous with OX-BIRD,
but is now only known as a local name for the Great TITMOUSE
(cf. Sw. Talgoxe = fat ox).2

OX-PECKER, a rendering of the French Pique-bceuf, bestowed
on a small, dull-coloured bird discovered by Adanson in Senegal,
the Buphaga africana of Linnaeus, which has
been almost invariably referred to the Family
Sturnidx (STARLING), chiefly, it would seem,
because it flies in flocks, and settles on the
back of cattle in search of the bots or ticks
with which they are infested. Though the
animals are at first alarmed at the visitation,
OXPECKER. they soon get over the fright, regarding, it is

said, with evident pleasure the way in which
the birds creep about them and rid them of the pests. A second

1 The Editor of this, Mr. W. D. Cooper, suggests that the birds were Ruffs and
Reeves, but there is no evidence that those birds were ever to be had in Devon or
Cornwall ; however, Mr. C. Swainson (Prov. Names Br. B. p. 195) accepts the
suggestion as if it were a fact. Mr. Sclater (List Vert. Anim. Gardens of the
Zool. Soc. 1883, p. 246) applies "Ox-bird" to Textor alUrostris or alecto, one of
the WEAVER-BIRDS.

2 A copy of Belon's Portraits d'Oyseaux (1557) in the Public Library of the
University of Cambridge (M. 15. 43) has the English names of many of the birds
written in an ancient hand. To the figure of Himantopus (STILT) the name
Ox-eye is applied.

OXYNOTUS—O YSTER-CA TCHER 681

species, B. erythrorhyncha, with a wholly red instead of a yellow
bill was afterwards found in Abyssinia, and thought for some time
to be peculiar to the more northern part of Africa, but it is now
known to occur so far south as Natal, while the first has been
observed in Damaraland and the Transvaal. Very little more
seems to be known of the habits of either, and the systematic
position of the genus must be held uncertain.

OXYNOTUS, the name of a genus of birds now ascertained
to be peculiar to two of the Mascarene Islands — Mauritius and
Reunion (Bourbon) — where the name of Cuisinier is applied to
them, and remarkable for the fact, nearly if not quite unique in
Ornithology,1 that, while the males of both species are almost
identical in appearance, the females are wholly unlike each other.
Though the habits of the Mauritian species, 0. rufiventer, have been
very fairly observed, there seems to be nothing in them that might
account for the peculiarity. The genus Oxynotus is generally placed
in the group known as Cbmpephagidx, most or all of which are
distinguished from the Laniidse (to which they seem nearly
allied) by the feathers on the lower part of the back and on the
rump having the basal portion of the shaft very stiff and the distal
portion soft — a structure which makes that part of the body, on
being touched by the finger, feel as though it were beset with blunt
prickles. Hence the name of the genus conferred by Swainson,
and intended to signify "prickly back." The males, which look
rather like miniature Grey Shrikes (Lanius excubitor and others), are
— except on close examination, when some slight differences of
build and shade become discernible — quite indistinguishable ; but
the female of the one species has a reddish -brown back, and is
bright ferruginous beneath, while the female of the other species is
dull white beneath, transversely barred, as are the females of some
Shrikes, with brown. Both sexes of each species, and the young of
one of them, are described and figured in The Ibis for 1866 (pp.
275-280, pis. vii. and viii.)

OYSTER-CATCHER, a bird's name which does not seem to
occur in books until 1731, when Catesby (Nat. Hist. Carolina, i.
p. 85) used it for a species which he observed to be abundant on
the oyster-banks left bare at low water in the rivers of Carolina,
and believed to feed principally upon those mollusks. In 1773
Pennant applied the name generically, though he and for nearly two
hundred years other British writers had called the allied British
species the " Sea-Pie." The change, in spite of the misnomer — for,
whatever may be the case elsewhere, in England the bird does not

1 The only other instance cited by Darwin (Descent of Man, ii. pp. 192, 193)
is that of two species of Paradisea ; but therein the males differ from one another
to a far greater degree than do those of Oxynotus.

682 OYSTER-CATCHER

feed upon oysters — met with general approval, and the new name
has, at least in books, almost wholly replaced what seems to have
been the older one.1 The Oyster-catcher of Europe is the Hsema-
topus 2 ostralegus of Linnaeus, belonging to the group now called
Limicolse, and is generally included in the Family Charadriidse ;
though some writers have placed it in one of its own, HstmcUopodidaf,
chiefly on account of its peculiar bill — a long thin wedge, ending in
a vertical edge. Its feet also are much more fleshy than are gener-
ally seen in the Plover Family. In its strongly-contrasted plumage
of black and white, with a coral-coloured bill, the Oyster-catcher is
one of the most conspicuous birds of the European coasts, and in
many parts is still very common. It is nearly always seen paired,
though the pairs collect in prodigious flocks ; and, when these are
broken up, its shrill but musical cry of " tu-lup," " tu-lup," some-
what pettishly repeated, helps to draw attention to it. Its wari-
ness, however, is very marvellous, and even at the breeding-season,
when most birds throw off their shyness, it is not easily approached
within ordinary gunshot distance. The hen-bird commonly lays
three clay -coloured eggs, blotched with black, in a very slight
hollow on the ground, not far from the sea. As incubation goes
on the hollow is somewhat deepened, and perhaps some haulm is
added to its edge, so that at last a very fair nest is the result.
The young, as in all Limicolte, are at first clothed in down, so
mottled in colour as closely to resemble the shingle to which, if
they be not hatched upon it, they are almost immediately taken by
their parents, and there, on the slightest alarm, they squat close to
elude observation. This species occurs on the British coasts (very
seldom shewing itself inland) all the year round ; but there is some
reason to think that those we have in winter are natives of more
northern latitudes, while our home-bred birds leave us. It ranges
from Iceland to the shores of the Red Sea, and lives chiefly on
marine worms, Crustacea, and such mollusks as it is able to obtain.
It is commonly supposed to be capable of prizing limpets from their
rock, and of opening the shells of mussels ; but, though undoubt-
edly it feeds on both, further evidence as to the way in which it

1 It seems however very possible, judging from its equivalents in other
European languages, such as the Frisian Oestervisscher, the German Austcrmann,
Austernfischer, and the like, that the name " Oyster-catcher " may have been not
a colonial invention but indigenous to the mother-country, though it had not
found its way into print before. The French Huitrier, however, appears to be a
word coined by Brisson. " Sea-Pie " has its analogues in the French Pie-de-Mer,
the German Meerelster, Seeelster, and so forth.

2 Whether it be the Hs&matopus whose name is found in some editions of
Pliny (lib. x. cap. 47) is at best doubtful. Other editions have Himantopus ;
but Hardouin prefers the former reading. Both words have passed into modern
ornithology, the latter as the generic name of the STILT ; and some writers have
blended the two in the strange and impossible compound H&mantopus.

PAAUW— PALATE 683

procures them is desirable. Mr. Harting informs us that the bird
seems to lay its head sideways on the ground, and then, grasping
the limpet's shell close to the rock between the mandibles, use
them as scissor-blades to cut off the mollusk from its sticking-place.
The Oyster-catcher is not highly esteemed as a bird for the table.

Differing from this species in the possession of a longer bill, in
having much less white on its back, in the paler colour of its
mantle, and in a few other points, is the ordinary American species,
already mentioned, H. palliatus. Except that its call-note, judging
from description, is unlike that of the European bird, -the habits of
the two seem to be perfectly similar ; and the same may be said
indeed of all the other species. The Falkland Islands are fre-
quented by a third, H. leucopus, very similar to the first, but with
a black wing-lining and paler legs, and Mr. Ridgway (Auk, 1886,
p. 331) thinks the Galapagos have a distinct species, H. galapagensis,
while the Australian Region possesses another, H. longirostris, with
a very long bill as its name intimates, and no white on its primaries.
China, Japan and possibly eastern Asia in general have an Oyster-
catcher which seems to be intermediate between the last and the first.
This has received the name of H. osculans ; but doubts have been
expressed as to its deserving specific recognition. Then we have a
group of species in which the plumage is wholly or almost wholly
black, and among them only do we find birds that fulfil the implica-
tion of the scientific name of the genus by having feet that may
be called blood-red. H. niger, which frequents both coasts of the
northern Pacific, has, it is true, yellow legs, but towards the
extremity of South America its place is taken by H. ater, in which
they are bright red, and this bird is further remarkable for its
laterally compressed and much upturned bill. The South-African
H. capensis has also scarlet legs ; but in the otherwise very similar
bird of Australia and New Zealand, H. unicolor, these members are
of a pale brick-colour.

PAAUW (Peafowl), the Dutch name applied generally in South
Africa to some of the BUSTARDS.

PADDA, see JAVA SPARROW.

PADDY-BIRD, the Anglo-Indian name for any of the smaller
EGRETS, from their frequenting the rice-fields (padda).

PALAMEDEA, see SCREAMER.

PALATE, the roof of the mouth, whence PALATAL (commonly
Palatine) Bones, being the pair of bones which connect the MAXILLA

684 PAMPRODACTYL^E— PARROT

with the PTERYGOIDS, and rest by articulating facets on the ventral
side of the sphenoidal rostrum of the SKULL. They have consider-
able taxonomic importance.

PAMPRODAOTYL^E, Dr. Murie's name (Ibis, 1873, p. 190,
note) for the group consisting of the Coliidas (MOUSE-BIRD).

PANCREAS, a conglomeration of glands, forming one or more
lobes, and placed between the two branches of the duodenal loop
(DIGESTIVE SYSTEM, pages 141-143). Its secretion, the Pancreatic
Juice, contains a ferment important for digestion and enters the
duodenum through from one to three short ducts, which in most
birds open into its ascending branch between the hepato-enteric and
cystico-enteric ducts. The size and position of the Pancreas are
very variable and of little general interest.

PARADISE-BIRD, see BIRD-OF-PARADISE; -DUCK, see SHELD-

DRAKE.

PARAKEET, variously spelt, see PARROT.

PARAPTERON, Sundevall's name for the row or rows of
feathers commonly known as upper wing-coverts.

PARDALOTE, see DIAMOND-BIRD.
PARRA, see JACANA.

PARROT, according to Prof. Skeat (Etym. Diet. p. 422), from
the French Perrot or Pierrot, a proper name and the diminutive of
Pierre,1 the name given generally to a large and very natural group
of Birds, which for more than a score of centuries have attracted
attention, not only from their gaudy plumage, but, at first and
chiefly it would seem, from the readiness with which many of them
learn to imitate the sounds they hear, repeating the words and even
phrases of human speech with a fidelity that is often astonishing.
It is said that no representation of any Parrot appears in Egyptian
art, nor does any reference to a bird of the kind occur in the Bible,
whence it has been concluded that neither the painters nor the writers

1 "Parakeet" (in Shakespear, 1 Hen. IF", ii. 3, 88, "Paraquito") is said
by the same authority to be from the Spanish Periquito or Perroqueto, a small
Parrot, diminutive of Perico, a Parrot, which again may be a diminutive from
Pedro, the proper name. Parakeet (spelt in various ways in English) is usually
applied to the smaller kinds of Parrots, especially those which have long tails,
not as Perroquet in French, which is used as a general term for all Parrots,
Perruche, or sometimes Perriche, being the ordinary name for what we call
Parakeet. The old English "POPINJAY" and the old French Papegaut have
almost passed out of use, but the German Papagei and Italian Papagaio still
continue in vogue. Some trace these names to the Arabic Bdbaghd ; but others
think that word a corruption of the Spanish Papagayo. The Anglo-Saxon name
of the Parret, a river in Somerset, is Pedreda or Pedrida, which at first sight looks
as if it had to do with the proper name, Petrus ; but Prof. Skeat believes there is
no connexion between them — the latter portion of the word being rid, a stream.

PARROT 685

concerned had any knowledge of it. Aristotle is commonly sup-
posed to be the first author who mentions a Parrot ; but this is an
error, for nearly a century earlier Ctesias in his Indica, (cap. 3),1 under
the name of /Sn-ra/cos (Bittacus), so neatly described a bird which
could speak an " Indian " language — naturally, as he seems to have
thought — or Greek — if it had been taught so to do, — about as big
as a Sparrow-Hawk (Hierax), with a purple face and a black beard,
otherwise blue-green (cyaneus) and vermilion in colour, so that there
cannot be much risk in declaring that he must have had before him
a male example of what is now commonly known as the Blossom-
headed Parakeet, and to ornithologists as Palseornis cyanocephahis, an
inhabitant of many parts of India. Much ingenuity has been exer-
cised in the endeavour to find the word whence this, and the later
form of the Greek name, was derived, but to little or no purpose.
After Ctesias comes Aristotle's i/sirraur) (Psittace), which Sundevall
supposes him to have described only from hearsay ; but this matters
little, for there can be no doubt that the Indian conquests of Alex-
ander were the means of making the Parrot better known in Europe,
and it is in reference to this fact that another Eastern species of
Palazornis now bears the name of P. alexandri, though from the
localities it inhabits it could not have had anything to do with the
Macedonian king. That Africa had Parrots does not seem to have
been discovered by the ancients till long after, as Pliny tells us
(vi. 29) that they were first met with by explorers employed by
Nero beyond the limits of Upper Egypt. These birds, highly
prized from the first, reprobated by the moralist, and celebrated by
more than one classical poet, as time went on were brought in great
numbers to Rome, and ministered in various ways to the luxury of
the age. Not only were they lodged in cages of tortoise-shell and
ivory, with silver wires, but they were professedly esteemed as
delicacies for the table, and one emperor is said to have fed his
lions upon them ! But there would be little use in dwelling longer
on these topics. With the decline of the Roman empire the demand
for Parrots in Europe lessened, and so the supply dwindled, yet all
knowledge of them was not wholly lost, and they are occasionally
mentioned by one writer or another until in the fifteenth century
began that career of geographical discovery which has since pro-
ceeded uninterruptedly. This immediately brought with it the
knowledge of many more forms of these birds than had ever before
been seen, for whatever races of men were visited by European
navigators — whether in the East Indies or the West, whether in
Africa or in .the islands of the Pacific — it was almost invariably
found that even the most savage tribes had tamed some kind of
Parrot ; and, moreover, experience soon shewed that no bird was
1 The passage seems to have escaped the notice of all naturalists until Broderip
mentioned it in his article " Psittacidae " in the Penny Cyclopaedia (xix. p. 83).

686 PARROT

more easily kept alive on board ship and brought home, while, if
it had not the merit of " speech," it was almost certain to be of
beautiful plumage. Yet so numerous is the group that even now
new species of Parrots are not uncommonly recognized, though,
looking to the way in which the most secluded parts of the world
are being ransacked, we must soon come to an end of this.

The home of the vast majority of Parrot-forms is unquestionably
within the tropics, but the popular belief that Parrots are tropical
birds only is a great mistake. In North America the Carolina Para-
keet, Conurus carolinensis, at the beginning of the present century
used to range in summer as high as the shores of Lakes Erie and
Ontario — a latitude equal to that of the south of France ; and even
within the last forty years it reached, according to trustworthy
information, the junction of the Ohio and the Mississippi, though
now its limits have been so much curtailed that its occurrence in
any but the Gulf States is doubtful, and its extirpation as a species
seems to be only a question of time.1 In South America, at least
four species of Parrots are found in Chili or La Plata, and one,
Conurus or Cyanolyseus patagonus, is pretty common on the bleak coast
of the Strait of Magellan. In Africa, it is true that no species
is known to extend to within some ten degrees of the tropic of
Cancer ; but Pceocephalus robustus inhabits territories lying quite as
far to the southward of the tropic of Capricorn. In India the
northern range of the group is only bounded by the slopes of the
Himalaya, and further to the eastward Parrots are not only abundant
over the whole of the Malay Archipelago, as well as Australia and
Tasmania, but two very well-defined Families are peculiar to New
Zealand and its adjacent islands (KAKAPO and NESTOR), while the
genus Platycercus, or that section of it called Cyanorhynchus, has several
representatives in the Region last named, one species, P. erythrotis,
reaching the Macquarrie Islands in lat. 55° S.,'the highest attained
by any of the Order. No Parrot has recently inhabited the Palse-
arctic area,2 nor are Parrots represented by many different forms
in either the Ethiopian or the Indian Eegion. In continental
Asia the distribution of Parrots is rather remarkable. None extend
further to the westward than the valley of the Indus,3 which, con-

1 Cf. inter alias, W. W. Cooke, Eep. Bird Migr. Mississippi, p. 124 (1888) ;
W. Brewster, Auk, 1889, p. 337 ; A. W. Butler, op. cit. 1892, pp. 49-56.

2 A few remains of a Parrot have been recognized from the Miocene of the
Allier in France, by Prof. A. Milne-Edwards (Ois. Foss. France, ii. p. 525, pi.
cc.), and are said by him to shew the greatest resemblance to the common Grey
Parrot of Africa, Psittacus erithacus, though having also some affinity to the
Ring-necked Parakeet of the same country, Pal&ornis torquatus. He refers
them, however, to the same genus as the former, under the name of Psittacus
verreauxi.

3 The statements that have been made, and even repeated by writers of
authority, as to the occurrence of " a green parrot" in Syria (Chesney, Exped.

PARROT 687

sidering the nature of the country in Baloochistan and Affghanistan,
is perhaps intelligible enough ; but it is not so easy to understand
why none are found either in Cochin China or China proper ; and
they are also wanting in the Philippine Islands, which is the more
remarkable and instructive when we find how abundant they are in
the groups a little further to the southward. Indeed Mr. Wallace
has well remarked that the portion of the earth's surface which
contains the largest number of Parrots, in proportion to its area,
is undoubtedly that covered by the islands extending from Celebes
to the Solomon group. " The area of these islands is probably not
one-fifteenth of that of the four tropical regions, yet they contain
from one-fifth to one-fourth of all the known Parrots " (Geogr. Distr.
Anim. ii. p. 330). He goes on to observe also that in this area are
found many of the most remarkable forms — all the red Lories, the
great black Cockatoos, the pigmy Nasiternse, and other singularities.
In South America the species of Parrots, though numerically nearly
as abundant, are far less diversified in form, and all of them seem
capable of being referred to two or, at most, three sections. The
species that has the widest range, and that by far, is the common
Ring-necked Parakeet, Palxornis torquatus, a well-known cage-bird
which is found from the mouth of the Gambia across Africa to the
coast of the Red Sea, as well as throughout the whole of India,
Ceylon and Burma to Tenasserim.1 On the other hand there are
plenty of cases of Parrots which are restricted to an extremely
small area — often an island of insignificant size, as Conurus pertinax,
confined to the island of St. Thomas in the Antilles, and Palseornis
exsul, to that of Rodriguez in the Indian Ocean (Ibis, 1872, pp. 31-
34, 1875, p. 342, pi. vii.) — to say nothing of the remarkable instance
afforded by Nestor produdus 2 (see pp. 223, 224 and 628).

Survey Euphrates and Tigris, i. pp. 443, 537) and of a Parrot in Turkestan
(Jour. As. Soc. Bengal, viii. p. 1007) originated with gentlemen who had no
ornithological knowledge, and are evidently erroneous. Some species of ROLLER
possibly gave rise to the assertions.

1 It is right to state, however, that the African examples of this bird are
said to be distinguishable from the Asiatic by their somewhat shorter wings and
weaker bill, and hence they are considered by some authorities to form a distinct
species, P. docilis ; but in thus regarding them the difference of locality seems
to have influenced opinion, and without that difference they would scarcely have
been separated, for in many other groups of birds distinctions so slight are
regarded as barely evidence of local races. Even West- African examples are said
by Count T. Salvador! (Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xx. p. 448) to have larger bills than
those from the eastern side, which have been further distinguished as P.
parvirostris.

2 A case very like that of Nestor produdus (pp. 223, 628) is presented by the
"Mascarin" (PI. Enl. 35) a Parrot which formerly inhabited the island of Bour-
bon (Reunion). The last known living example was in the royal menagerie at
Munich and was figured in 1835 by Hahn (Orn. Atlas, Papegeien, p. 54, pi. 39) ;

688 PARROT

The systematic treatment of this very natural group has long
been a difficult subject, and almost the only approach to unanimity
among those who have made it their study, lies in the somewhat
general belief which has grown up within the last half of this
century that the Parrots should be regarded as forming a distinct
Order. A few systematists, among whom Bonaparte was chief,
placed them at the top of the Class, conceiving that they were the
analogues of the Primates among Mammals. Prof. Huxley has
recognized the Psittacomorpliaz as forming one of the principal groups
of Carinatse, and, by whatever name we call them, that much seems
to be evident. It will here, however, be unnecessary to discuss the
rank which the Parrots should hold, and it is quite enough of a
task to consider the most natural or — if we cannot hope at present
to reach that — at least the most expedient way of subdividing
them. It is a reproach to ornithologists that so little satisfactory
progress has been made in this direction, and the result is all
the more disheartening, seeing that there is no group of exotic
birds that affords equal opportunities for anatomical examination,
since almost every genus extant, and more than two-thirds of the
species, have within recent times been kept in confinement in
one or another of our zoological gardens, and at their death have
furnished subjects for dissection. Yet the laudable attempt of M.
Blanchard (Compt. Rend, xliii. 1097-1100 and xliv. 518-521) was not
successful, and it cannot be affirmed that the latest arrangement of
the Psittati is really much more natural than that planned by
Buffon in 1779.1 He was of course unaware of the existence of some
of the most remarkable forms of the group, in particular of Stringops
and Nestor ; but he began by making two great divisions of those that
he did know, separating the Parrots of the Old World from the
Parrots of the New, and subdividing each of these divisions into
various sections somewhat in accordance with the names they had
received in popular language — a practice he followed on many other
occasions, for he seems to have held a belief that there is more
truth in the discrimination of the unlearned than the scientific are
apt to allow. The end was that he produced a plan which is com-
paratively simple and certainly practical, while as just stated it can-
not be confidently declared to be unnatural. However, not to go very

but all trace of it has since been lost, and the only two specimens that exist in
Museums are at Paris and Vienna respectively— the latter having been obtained
on the dispersal of the Leverian Museum in 1806, when it formed lot 5828 in the
sale catalogue, and was there said to be from America ! (Of. Von Pelzeln, Ibis,
1873, p. 32 ; A. Milne-Edwards, Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 5, vi. pi. ii. fig. 4, pi. iii. fig.
8 ; the same and Oustalet in the centenary volume of the Museum of Natural
History at Paris, pp. 7-21, pi. i. ; and W. A. Forbes, Ibis, 1879, pp. 303-307.)

1 This is virtually admitted by Count T. Salvadori (torn. cit. Introd. p. viii.),
the latest reviser of the Order.

PARROT 689

far back: in 1867-68 Dr. Finsch published an excellent monograph
of the Parrots,1 regarding them as a Family, in which he admitted 26
genera, forming 5 subfamilies ; but only in the single group NESTOR
did he recognize characters that were not external. In 1874 Garrod
communicated to the Zoological Society the result of his dissection of
examples of 82 species of Parrots, which had lived in its gardens, and
these results were published in its Proceedings for that year (pp. 586-
598, pis. Ixx. Ixxi.) The principal points to which he attended were
the arrangement of the CAROTID artery, and the presence or absence
of an AMBIENS muscle, an OIL-GLAND and a FURCULA ; but except as
regards the last character he unfortunately almost wholly neglected the
rest of the skeleton, looking upon such osteological features as the
formation of an orbital ring and peculiarities of the atlas as "of
minor importance " — an estimate to which nearly every anatomist
will demur. Indeed the investigations of Prof. A. Milne-Edwards
(Ann. Sc. Nat. Zoologie, ser. 5, vi. pp. 91-111 ; viii. pp. 145-156)
on the bones of the head in Parrots make it clear that these alone,
and especially the maxilla, present features of much significance, and
if his investigations had not been carried on for a special object, but
had been extended to other parts of the skeleton, there is little doubt
that they would have removed some of the greatest difficulties. The
one osteological character to which Garrod trusted, namely, the con-
dition of the furcula, contributes little towards a safe basis of classi-
fication. That it is wholly absent in some genera of Parrots had long
been known, but its imperfect ossification, it appears, is not attended
in some cases by any diminution of volant powers, which tends to
shew that it is an unimportant character, an inference confirmed by
the fact that it was found wanting in genera placed geographically
so far apart that the loss must have had in some of them an in-
dependent origin. Thus grounded, his scheme was so manifestly
artificial that further criticism would here be useless ; the greatest
merit of his method is that, as before mentioned (LOVE-BIRD), he
gave sufficient reasons for distinguishing between the genera
Agapornis and Psittacula. In the Journal fur Ornithologie for 1881
Dr. Reichenow published a Conspectus Psittacorum, founded, as so
many others 2 have been, on external characters only. He made 9
Families of the group, and recognized 45 genera, and 442 species,
besides subspecies. In 1883 he brought to completion a work,3
finely illustrated by Herr G. Miitzel, which forms a concise mono-
graph. His grouping is generally very different from Garrod's, but

1 Die Papageien monographiscfi bearbeitet. Leiden : 1867-68. 2 vols. 8vo.

2 Such, for instance, as Kuhl's treatise with the same title, which appeared in
1820, and Wagler's Monographic/, Psittacorum, published in 1832 — both good of
their kind and time.

3 Vogelbilder ausfernen Zonen. AbbildungenundSeschreibungender Papageien.
Kassel: 1878-83.

44

690 PARROT

displays as much artificiality ; for instance, Nestor is referred to the
Family which is otherwise composed of the Cockatoos. Almost
simultaneously with the last came the arrangement followed by Mr.
Sclater in the List of those exhibited of late years in the gardens of
the Zoological Society, and published in 1883. This seemed to be
a manifest improvement on anything before proposed ; but more
recently we have Count T. Salvadori, who, while cataloguing the
collection of specimens in the British Museum (Cat. B. Brit. Mus.
xx.), came to the conclusion that 6 Families are needed. These are
Nestoridse (NESTOR); Loriidse (LORY),1 with 14 genera and 71 species;
Cyclopsittacidse (2 genera, 18 species); Cacatuidse (COCKATOO), with
2 subfamilies — Cacatuinse (5 or 6 genera, 26 or 27 species) and
the other consisting of the well-known Calopsitta (COCKATEEL);
Psittacidse, with 6 subfamilies — Nasiterninee (1 genus, 9 species),
Conurinze, including the MACCAWS (15 genera, 102 species), Pionines
(10 genera, 91 species), Psittacinse (3 genera, 8 species) Palxornithinse
(16 genera, 114 species) and Platycercinse(l 1 genera, 50 species); while
Stringopidse (KAKAPo) completes the group. That this scheme is
worthy of its author's name none can doubt, but he himself remarks
that materials are not yet "sufficient for a complete study of
Parrots." The separation of the first and last of these Families is
unquestionably required, since they stand on a very different and
much firmer footing than the other four, and the recognition of
Cacatuidze and Loriidse is probably justifiable, as they can be without
much difficulty defined, but exception may be taken to Cyclopsittacidse
as a Family, and the grouping of the genera of Psittacidse proper is
open to objection. Pionus and Psittacus certainly seem to furnish
two different types, to the former of which, rather than to Conurus,
Psittacula appears to be attached, bearing much the same relation
thereto that Agapornis, placed by the Count near Palaeornis, does to
the latter. Details of this kind, however, must be expected to
produce some divergence of opinion. Among the genera Chrysotis,
Palxornis and Psittacus are probably to be found the most highly
organized forms, and it is these birds in which the faculty of so-
called " speech " reaches its maximum development. But too much
importance must not be assigned to that fact ; since, while Psittacus
erithacus — the well-known Grey Parrot2 with a red tail — is the
most accomplished spokesman of the whole group, it is fairly

1 I take this opportunity of correcting an error (p. 520) as to tlie plumage of
the young of Eclectus, which has been proved by Dr. A. B. Meyer (Zeitschr. f.
gesammte Zool. 1882, i. pp. 146-162, 1884, i. p. 274, pi. xvi. and Ibis, 1890, pp.
26-29, pi. i.) to resemble that of the adult.

2 In many foreign works this species is said to be called in English "The
Jacko," but no such practice is known to me, and the assertion probably originated
in the general application of the name of some particular captive. Bishop Stanley
had a bird so called (Prothero, Life of Dean Stanley, p. 18).

PARSON-BIRD 691

approached by some species of Chrysotis — usually styled Amazons —
and yet its congener P. timneh is not known to be talkative.1

Considering the abundance of Parrots both as species and in-
dividuals, and their wide extent over the globe, it is surprising how
little is known of their habits in a wild state. Even the species
with which Englishmen and their descendants, have been more in
contact than any other has an almost unwritten history, compared
with that of many other birds ; and, seeing how many are oppressed
by and yielding to man's occupation of their ancient haunts, the
extirpation of some is certain, and will probably be accomplished
before several interesting and some disputed points in their economy
have been decided. The experience of small islands only fore-
shadows what will happen in tracts of greater extent, though there
more time is required to produce the same result ; but, the result
being inevitable, those who are favourably placed for observations
should neglect no opportunities of making them ere it be too late.

PARSON-BIRD (so-called by the English in New Zealand from
the two tufts of curled and filamentary white feathers hanging
beneath its chin, which were supposed to resemble the bands worn
until lately by clerics), the Prosthematodera novse-zealandise of modern
ornithology. Made known on the publication of Cook's First
Voyage (i. p. 98), where it is figured as the Poe or Poy-bird,2 in
1776 it was technically described by Pennant and figured by Peter
Brown (Illustr. Zool. p. 18, pi. ix.) from a specimen in Tunstall's
collection still existing in the Museum at Newcastle-on-Tyne (Fox,
Synops. Newc. Mus. p. 138). The bird belongs to the Meliphagidse
(HONEY-EATER), and is in many ways one of the most remarkable
of them, being generally of glossy black with vivid green or blue
reflexions, while in addition to the white gular tufts, the feathers on
the sides of the neck are curved forwards and white-shafted, the
greater wing-coverts also being white. It is a fine songster, and
a great favourite in captivity, learning to mimic various noises,

1 In connexion with the "speaking" of Parrots, one of the most curious cir-
cumstances is that recorded by Humboldt, who states (Ansichten der Natur, ed.
3, i. p. 285, Engl. transl. p. 172) that in South America he met with a vener-
able bird which remained the sole possessor of a literally dead language, the
whole tribe of Indians, Atures by name, who alone had spoken it, having become
extinct. This incident was the theme of a poem by Curtius, printed in Hum-
boldt's volume, and how cleverly it has been worked into a romance by a recent
novelist all well know ; but unfortunately there are people who will have it that
the romance of the story did not begin with Mr. Grant Allen.

2 This name, for a long while used in the books, was given by Cook's people,
who compared the bird's remarkable gular tufts to the earrings worn by the
Tahitians, and called Poies, as the word was then written. But Kago is given as
the native name of the bird, and in the form Koko is still used, though Tui is
the commoner appellation.

692 PARSON-GULL—PARTRIDGE

including the human voice.1 In fine weather, as remarked by Mr.
Layard (Ibis, 1863, p. 243), this species has the habit of mounting
aloft in parties of half a dozen or more and indulging in various
aerial evolutions. Another merit it possesses is that of being an
excellent bird for the table, but probably few in future will have
the opportunity of tasting its good qualities. Dr. Gadow has de-

PROSTHEMATODERA. (After Buller.)

scribed (Proc. Zool Soc. 1883, pp. 67-69, pi. xvi. figs. 6, 7) the
peculiar lingual apparatus and mode of feeding of this bird.

PARSON-GULL, a common name for the adult of either of the
Black-backed GULLS, Larus marinus and fuscus.

PARTRIDGE, in older English Pertriche, Scottish Patrick,
Dutch Patrijs, French Perdrix, all from the Latin Perdix, which
word in sound does not imitate badly the call-note of this bird, so
well known throughout the British Islands and the greater part of
Europe 2 as to need no description or account of its habits here.
The English name properly denotes the only species indigenous to
Britain, often nowadays called the Grey Partridge 3 (to distinguish
it from others, of which more presently), the Perdix cinerea of

1 Sir "W. Buller tells us how that having addressed a Maori assemblage in
the course of a negotiation, at the end of his speech the chiefs tame Tui ex-
claimed "Tita" (false), whereupon the dignitary remarked that the arguments
were no doubt good, but they had failed to convince his bird.

2 More than one local form has been said to exist on the continent if not in
Britain. One such, inhabiting the north-west of Spain, seems worthy of notice.
It was described by Df. Reichenow (Journ. fur Orn. 1892, p. 226) as P. his-
paniensis, which Dr. Sharpe (Zool. Rec. xxix. Aves, p. 27) has rendered P. his-
paniolensis.

3 In India the name Grey Partridge is used for Ortygornis ponticerianus,
which is perhaps a FRANCOLIN (cf. Jerdon, B. Ind. iii. p. 569).

PARTRIDGE 693

ornithologists, a species which may be regarded as the model game-
bird — whether from the excellence of the sport it affords in the
field, or the no less excellence of its flesh at table, which has been
esteemed from the time of Martial to our own — while it is on all
hands admitted to be wholly innocuous, and at times beneficial to
the agriculturist. It is an undoubted fact that the Partridge
thrives with the highest system of cultivation ; and the lands that
are the most carefully tilled, and bear the greatest quantity of
grain and green crops, generally produce the greatest number of
Partridges. Yielding perhaps in economic importance to the Eed
GROUSE, what may be called the social influence of the Partridge is
greater than that excited by any other wild bird, for there must be
few rural parishes in the three kingdoms of which the inhabitants
are not more or less directly affected in their movements and busi-
ness by the coming in of Partridge-shooting, and therefore a few
words on this theme may not be out of place.

From the days when men learned to " shoot flying " until the
latter half of this century, dogs were generally if not invariably
used to point out where the " covey," as a family-party of Part-
ridges is called, was lodged, and the greatest pains were taken to
break in the " pointers " or " setters " to their duty. In this way
marvellous success was attained, and the delight lay nearly as much
in seeing the dogs quarter the ground, wind and draw up to the
game, helping them at times (for a thorough understanding between
man and beast was necessary for the perfection of the sport) by
word or gesture, as in bringing down the bird after it had been
finally sprung. There are many who lament that the old-fashioned
practice of shooting Partridges to dogs has, with rare exceptions,
fallen into desuetude, and it is commonly believed that this result
has followed wholly from the desire to make larger and larger bags
of game. The opinion has a certain amount of truth for its base ;
but those who hold it omit to notice the wholly changed circum-
stances in which Partridge-shooters now find themselves. In the
old days there were plenty of broad, tangled hedgerows which
afforded permanent harbour for the birds, and at the beginning of
the shoo ting -season admirable shelter or "lying" (to use the
sportsman's word) was found in the rough stubbles, often reaped
knee-high, foul with weeds and left to stand some six or eight
weeks before being ploughed, as well as in the turnips that were
sown broadcast. Throughout the greater part of England now the
fences are reduced to the narrowest of boundaries and are mostly
trimly kept; the stubbles — mown, to begin with, as closely as
possible to the ground — are ploughed within a short time of the
corn being carried, and the turnips are drilled in regular lines,
offering inviting alleys between them along which Partridges take
foot at any unusual noise. Pointers in such a district — and to this

694 PARTRIDGE

state of things all the arable part of England is tending — are simply
useless, except at the beginning of the season, when the young
birds are not as yet strong on the wing, and the old birds are still
feeble from moulting their quill-feathers. Of late years therefore
other modes of shooting Partridges have had to be employed, of
which methods the most popular is that known as " driving " — the
" guns " being stationed in more or less concealment at one end of
the field, or series of fields, which is entered from the other by
men or boys who deploy into line and walk across it making a
noise. It is the custom with many to speak depreciatingly of this
proceeding, but it is a fact that as much knowledge of the ways of
Partridges is needed to ensure a successful day's " driving " as was
required of old when nearly everything was left to the intelligence
of the dogs, for the course of the birds' flight depends not only on
the position of the line of beaters, but almost on the station of each
person composing it, in relation to the force and direction of the
wind and to the points on which it is desired that the Partridges
should converge. Again, the skill and alacrity needed for bringing
down birds flying at their utmost velocity, and often at a consider-
able height, is enormously greater than that which sufficed to
stop those that had barely gone 20 yards from the dog's nose,
though admittedly Partridges rise very quickly and immediately
attain great speed. Moreover, the shooting of Partridges to pointers
came to an end in little more than six weeks, whereas " driving "
may be continued for the whole season, and is never more success-
ful than when the birds, both young and old, have completed their
moult, and are strongest upon the wing. But, whether the new
fashion be objectionable or not, it cannot be doubted that the old
one could not be successfully restored without a reversion to the
slovenly methods of agriculture followed in former years, and there-
fore is as impossible as would be a return to the still older practice
of taking Partridges in a setting-net, described by Gervase Mark-
ham or Willughby.

The Partridge has doubtless largely increased in numbers in
Great Britain since the beginning of the present century, when
so much down, heath and moorland was first brought under the
plough, for its partiality to an arable country is very evident. It
has been observed that the birds which live on grass lands or
heather only are apt to be smaller and darker in colour than the
average ; but in truth the species when adult is subject to a much
greater variation in plumage than is commonly supposed, and the
well-known chestnut horse-shoe mark, generally considered distinc-
tive of the cock, is very often absent.1 In Asia our Partridge seems

1 Mr. W. R. Ogilvie Grant has indicated certain characters in the plumage of
the two sexes of this species whereby they maybe unfailingly distinguished. In
the adult cock the sides of the neck are grey, but in the hen olive-brown, while

PARTRIDGE 695

to be unknown, but in the temperate parts of Eastern Siberia its
place is taken by a very nearly allied form, P. barbata, and in Tibet
there is a bird, P. hodgsonise, which can hardly with justice be
generically separated from it. The relations of some other forms
inhabiting the Indian Region are at present too obscure to make
any notice of them expedient here.

The common Red-legged Partridge of Europe, generally called
the French Partridge, Caccabis rufa, seems to be justifiably con-
sidered the type of a separate group.1 This bird was introduced
into England toward the end of the eighteenth century, and
has established itself in various parts of the country, notwith-
standing a widely - spread, and in some respects unreasonable
prejudice against it. It has certainly the habit of trusting nearly
as much to its legs as to its wings, and it thus incurred the
obloquy of old-fashioned sportsmen, whose dogs it vexatiously
kept at a running-point ; but when it was also accused of driving
away the grey Partridge, the charge only shewed the ignorance
of those that brought it, for as a matter of fact the French
Partridge rather prefers ground which the common species avoids
— such as the heaviest clay-soils, or the most infertile heaths.
But even where the two species meet, the present writer can
declare from the personal observation of many years that the
alleged antipathy between them is imaginary, and unquestionably
in certain parts of the country the " head of game " has been
increased by the introduction of the foreigner.2 The French
nearly each feather shews a buff shaft-stripe. Again the median upper wing-
coverts in the cock are of a sandy-brown blotched with chestnut and black trans-
verse lines, while in the hen the corresponding feathers are blackish -brown with
conspicuous buff crossbars. I am much indebted to Lord Lilford and Mr. Beilby
Oakes for kindly informing me that, after examining a great many Partridges,
they can wholly confirm Mr. Grant's observations, which having been originally
published in a newspaper (Field, 21 Nov. 1891 and 9 April 1892), and only
incidentally mentioned by him in a scientific work (Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxii. p.
185). will be new to many persons.

1 The late Prof. Parker first (Trans. Zool. Soc. v. p. .155) and, after him,
Prof. Huxley (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, pp. 299-302) pointed out that the true
Gallinse offer two types of structure, ' ' one of which may be called Galline,
and the other Tetraonine, " to use the latter's words, though he is ' ' by no means
clear that they do not graduate into one another " ; and, according to the char-
acters assigned by him, Caccabis lies "on the Galline side of the boundary,"
while Perdix belongs to the Tetraonine group. Further investigation of this
matter is very desirable, and, with the abundant means possessed by those who
have access to zoological gardens, it might easily be carried out.

2 It is a singular fact that the game -preservers who object most strongly to
the Red-legged Partridge are not agreed on the exact grounds of their objection.
One party will declare that it vanquishes the Grey Partridge, while the other
holds that, though the latter, the " English" Partridge, is much vexed by the
Introduced species, it invariably beats off the " Frenchman " !

696 PASSAGE-HA WK— PASSENGER-PIGEON

Partridge has several congeners, all with red legs and plumage of
similar character. In Africa north of the Atlas there is the
Barbary Partridge, C. petrosa; in southern Europe another, C.
saxatilis, which extends eastward till it is replaced by C. chukar,
which reaches India, where it is a well-known bird. Two very
interesting desert-forms, supposed to be allied to Caccalis, are the
Ammoperdix heyi of North Africa and Palestine and the A. bonhami
of Persia ; but the absence of the metatarsal knob, or incipient
spur, suggests (in our ignorance of their other osteological characters)
an alliance rather to the genus Perdix. On the other hand the
groups of birds known as FRANCOLINS and Snow-Partridges are
generally furnished with strong but blunt spurs, and therefore prob-
ably belong to the Caccabine group. Of the former, containing
many species, there is only room here to mention, in addition to
what has been before (page 291) said of that which used to occur
in Europe, the possibility, as some think, of its having been the
Attagas or Attagen of classical authors,1 a bird celebrated for its
exquisite flavour. Of the latter it is only to be said here that
those of the genus Tetmogallus, often called Snow-PHEASANT, are the
giants of their kin, and that nearly every considerable range of
mountains in Asia seems to possess its specific form; while the
genus Lerwa contains but a single species, L. nivicola, which is
emphatically the Snow-Partridge of Himalayan sportsmen.

By English colonists the name Partridge has been very loosely
applied, and especially so in North America. Where a qualifying
word is prefixed no confusion is caused, but without it there is
sometimes a difficulty at first to know whether the Ruffed GROUSE
(Bonasa umbellus) or the Virginian COLIN (Ortyx virginianus) is
intended, while the " Partridge-Hawk " of the same country is
Astur atricapillus (GOSHAWK), and the " Partridge - Pigeon " of
Australia is a species of Geophaps (BRONZE- WING).

PASSAGE-HAWK, in modern falconers' language, is one taken
on its passage or migration, generally in Holland. It is therefore
always what in old time was called a " Haggard," and when trained
is more valued than a NiAS.

PASSENGEE-PIGEON, so-called in books, but in North
America commonly known as the " Wild Pigeon," the Ectopistes
migratorius of ornithology, the bird so famous in former days for
its multitude, and still occasionally to be found plentifully in some
parts of Canada and the United States, though no longer appearing
in the countless numbers that it did of old, when a flock seen by
Wilson was estimated to consist of more than 2230 millions. The

1 However, many naturalists have maintained a different opinion — some
making it a WOODCOCK, a GODWIT, or even the Hazel-hen (GROUSE). The ques-
tion has been well discussed by Lord Lilford (Ibis, 1862, pp. 352-356).

PASSERES— PASSERINE 697

often-quoted descriptions given by him and Audubon of Pigeon-
haunts in the then " back- woods " of Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana
need not here be reproduced. That of the latter was declared by
Waterton to be a gross exaggeration if not an entire fabrication ;
but the critic would certainly have changed his tone had he known
that, some hundred and fifty years earlier, Wild Pigeons so swarmed
and ravaged the colonists' crops near Montreal that a bishop of his
own Church was constrained to exorcise them with holy water as if
they had been demons.1 The rapid and sustained flight of these
Pigeons is also as well-established as their former overwhelming
abundance — birds having been killed in the State of New York
whose crops contained undigested grains of rice that must have
been not long before plucked and swallowed in South Carolina or
Georgia. The Passenger-Pigeon is about the size of a common
Turtle-DoVE, but with a long, wedge-shaped tail. The male is of
a dark slate-colour above, and purplish-bay beneath, the sides of
the neck being enlivened by gleaming violet, green and gold.
The female is drab-coloured above and dull white beneath, with
only a slight trace of the brilliant neck-markings 2 (see PIGEON).

PASSERES, the name given by Linnaeus to his Sixth Order of
Birds, which though for a time set aside in favour of other designa-
tions, INSESSORES and the like, or modified into such a form as
PASSERINE,3 has been restored to use of late years, and approximately
in its author's sense — the genera Certhia, Sitta, Oriolus, Gracula,
Corws and Paradisea, which he had placed in his PICLE, being
added, while Caprimulgus, the portion of Hirundo containing the
SWIFTS, and Columba have been removed. For further subdivision
of the Order, which, though offering comparatively little variation of
essential importance, comprehends far more genera and species than
all the others put together, see INTRODUCTION.

PASSERINE, a group so named of Nitzsch in 1820 (Deutsche
Archiv fur Physiol. vi. p. 253) to include the genera Sturnus, Oriolus,
Lanius, Muscicapa, Ampelis, Hirundo, Turdus, Accentor, Sylvia, Motor
cilia, Anthus, Alauda, Parus, Sitta, Certhia (with Tichodroma),

1 Voyages du Baron de la Hontan dans I'Ameriqice septentrionale, ed. 2,
Amsterdam : 1705, vol. i. pp. 93, 94. In the first edition, published at The
Hague in 1703, the passage, less explicit in details but to the same effect, is at
p. 80. The author's letter, describing the circumstance, is dated May 1687.

2 There are several records of the occurrence in Britain of this Pigeon, but in
most cases the birds noticed cannot be supposed to have found their own way
hither. One, which was shot in Fife in 1825, may, however, have crossed the
Atlantic unassisted by man.

3 The names Passeriformes and lately even Passeridse ( !) have been in some
instances employed ; with very slight or no modification they signify the same
thing as Passerinse.

698 PASSERINI—PA TELLA

Eiriberiza, Fringilla, Loxia, Cindus(1) and Corvus — thus differing
somewhat from Johannes Muller's application of the cognate term

PASSERINI (AWiandl K. Akad. Berlin, Phys. Kl 1847, p.
366), which he regarded as equivalent to the Order INSESSORES
(as it was then called), separating its members into Passerini
POLYMYODI (or OSCINES), TRACHEOPHONES and PlCARII, though
cautiously declaring these to be not so much the names of groups,
but as merely indicating different laryngeal formations.

PASTOE, Temminck's generic name in 1815 for a beautiful
bird, the Turdus roseus of Linnaeus, very commonly known in Eng-
lish as the Eose-coloured Pastor, one of the Sturnidse (STARLING),
which is not an infrequent visitor to the British Islands. It is a

bird of most irregular and erratic
habits — a vast horde suddenly arriv-
ing at some place to which it may
have hitherto been a stranger, and
at once making a settlement there,
leaving it wholly deserted so soon
PASTOR. (After Swainson.) as the young are reared. This

happened in the summer of 1875 at Villafranca, in the province of
Verona, the castle of which was occupied in a single day by some
12,000 or 14,000 birds of this species, as has been graphically told
by Sig. de Betta (Atti del R. 1st. Veneto, ser. 5, vol. ii.) ; but similar
instances have been before recorded, — as in Bulgaria in 1867, near
Smyrna in 1856, and near Odessa in 1844, to mention only some of
which particulars have been published,1 and a concise account of
them will be found in the Fourth Edition of Yarrell's British Birds
(ii. pp. 245-250). The Rose-coloured Starling hardly ever occurs
in Africa, but is a well-known bird in India, over nearly the whole
of which it regularly appears, and generally in the cold weather.

PASTURE -BIRD, a name indiscriminately given in parts of
North America and the West Indies to any of the STINTS and
smaller SANDPIPERS met with on their autumnal migration, and
then mostly resorting to the cattle-pastures.

PATELLA, a sesamoid bone interposed in the tendon of the
extensor -cruris muscle, and connected with the upper end of the
TIBIA by the Patellar Ligament, which in old birds is often ossified.
The most remarkable variations of condition are shewn in Colymbus,

1 It is remarkable that on almost all of these occasions the locality pitched
upon has been, either at the time or soon after, ravaged by locusts, which the
birds greedily devour. Another fact worthy of attention is that they are often
observed to affect trees or shrubs bearing rose-coloured flowers, as Nerium
oleatider and Robinia viscosa, among the blossoms of which they themselves may
easily escape notice, for their plumage is rose-pink and black shot with blue.

PEACOCK 699

where the Patella is reduced to a small ossicle within the tendon,
its function being taken by the greatly-developed pyramidal p'o-
cessus tibialis anterior, and in Podidpes and Hesperornis, where it
is almost as large as the cnemial process with which it freely
articulates.

PEACOCK (the first syllable from the Latin Pavo, in Anglo-
Saxon Pawe, Dutch Paauw, German Pfau, French Paon), the bird
so well known from the splendid plumage of the male, and as the
proverbial personification of pride. A native of the Indian penin-
sula and Ceylon, in some parts of which it is very abundant, its
domestication dates from times so remote that nothing can be posi-
tively stated on that score. Setting aside its importation to Pales-
tine by Solomon (1 Kings x. 22 ; 2 Chron. ix. 21), its assignment
in classical mythology as the favourite bird of Hera or Juno testifies
to the early acquaintance the Greeks must have had with it ; but,
though it is mentioned by Aristophanes and other older writers,
their knowledge of it was probably very slight until after the con-
quests of Alexander. Throughout all succeeding time, however, it
has never very willingly rendered itself to domestication, and, retain-
ing much of its wild character, can hardly be accounted an inhabit-
ant of the poultry-yard, but rather an ornamental denizen of the
pleasure-ground or shrubbery ; while, even in this condition, it is
seldom kept in large numbers, for it has a bad reputation for doing
mischief in gardens, it is not very prolific, and, though in earlier
days highly esteemed for the table,1 it is no longer considered the
delicacy it was once thought.

As in most cases of domestic animals, pied or white varieties of
the ordinary Peacock, Pavo cristatus, are not unfrequently to be
seen ; and, though lacking the gorgeous resplendence for which the
common bird stands unsurpassed, they are valued as curiosities.
Greater interest, however, attends what is known as the " japanned "
Peacock^ often erroneously named the Japanese or Japan Peacock,
a form which has received the name of P. nigripennis, as though it
were a distinct species. In this form the cock, beside other less
conspicuous differences, has all the upper wing-coverts of a deep
lustrous blue instead of being mottled with brown and white, while
the hen is of a more or less greyish-white, deeply tinged with dull
yellowish-brown near the base of the neck and shoulders. It
" breeds true " ; but occasionally a presumably pure stock of birds
of the usual coloration throws out one or more having the

1 Classical authors contain many allusions to its high appreciation at the most
sumptuous banquets ; and mediaeval bills of fare on state occasions nearly always
include it. In the days of chivalry one of the most solemn oaths was taken " on
the Peacock," which seems to have been served up garnished with its gaudy
plumage.

;oo

PEACOCK

" japanned " plumage, leading to the conclusion that the latter may
be due to " reversion to a primordial and otherwise extinct condi-
tion of the species," and it is to be observed that the " japanned "
male has in the coloration of the parts mentioned no little re-
semblance to that of the second indubitably good species, the
P. muticus (or P. spicifer of some writers) of Burma and Java,
though the character of the latter's crest — the feathers of which
are barbed along their whole length instead of at the tip only — and

JAPANNED" PEAFOWLS. (After Wolf in Elliot's ' Phasianidse.")

its golden-green neck and breast furnish a ready means of distinc-
tion. The late Sir R. Heron was confident that the " japanned "
breed had arisen in England within his memory,1 and Darwin
(Anim. and Plants under Domestic, i. pp. 290-292) was inclined to
believe it only a variety ; but its abrupt appearance, which rests on
indisputable evidence, is most suggestive in the light that it may

1 This may have been the case as regards England ; but I have a distinct
recollection of having seen a bird of this form represented in an old Dutch
picture, though when or where I cannot state. An instance of its sudden pro-
duction from the ordinary stock occurred to my own knowledge as mentioned by
Mr. Darwin.

PEASEWEEP—PECTINEAL PROCESS 701

one day throw on the question of evolution as exhibited in the
origin of "species." It should be stated that the "japanned" bird
is not known to exist anywhere as a wild race.

The Peafowls belong to the Gallinaz, from the normal members
of which they do not materially differ in structure ; and, though
by some systematists they are raised to the rank of a Family,
Pavonidte, most are content to regard them as a subfamily of
Phasianidse (PHEASANT).1 Akin to the genus Pavo is Polyplectrum,
of which the males are armed with two or more spurs on each leg,

POLYPLECTRUM. ARGUS-PHEASANT.

(After Swainson.)

and near them is generally placed the genus Argusianus, containing
the ARGUS-Pheasants, remarkable for their wonderfully ocellated
plumage, and the extraordinary length of the secondary quills of
their wings, as well as of the tail-feathers. It must always be re-
membered that the so-called " tail " of the Peacock is formed not
by the rectrices or true tail-feathers, but by the singular develop-
ment of the tail-coverts, a fact of which any one may be satisfied
by looking at the bird when these magnificent plumes are erected
and expanded in disk-like form, as is his habit when displaying his
beauty to his mates.

PEASEWEEP (spelling uncertain), the Scottish form of PEWIT,
but applied to the LAPWING only.

PEC TEN, a fan-like lamella which projects into the posterior
chamber of the EYE, near the entrance of the optic nerve, and is
found in all Birds except Apteryx.

PECTINEAL PROCESS (so called from the attachment to it of
the Pectineal muscle), a process, near the anterior margin of the
acetabulum (see ODONTORNITHES, fig. 4 a, page 650), and is in Birds
formed by the os pubis alone, by the os pubis and ilium jointly, or
occasionally by the ilium alone. When formed wholly by the pubic
bone and well developed, as in Apteryx and Centrococcyx, it strongly
resembles the so-called "prepubis" of Dinosaurs and other
Keptiles.

1 As Mr. Elliot does in his magnificent Monograph of the Phasianidae.

702 PEEP— PELICAN

PEEP, used chiefly in North America for any of the STINTS or
small SANDPIPERS from their cry.

PEGGY, a common name of the WHITETHROAT.

PELAEGOMOEPH^E, Prof. Huxley's name (Proc. Zool Soc.
1867, p. 461) for that group of DESMOGNATH^E which contains the
Storks, Herons, Ibises and Spoonbills.

PELICAN (Fr. Pelican, Lat. Pelecanus or Pelicanus), a large fish-
eating water-fowl, remarkable for the enormous pouch formed by
the extensible skin between the lower jaws of its long, and ap-
parently formidable but in reality very weak, bill. The ordinary
Pelican, the Onocrotalus of the ancients, to whom it was well known,
and the Pelecanus onocrotalus of ornithologists, is a very abundant
bird in some districts of South-eastern Europe, South-western Asia,
and North-eastern Africa, occasionally straying, it is believed, into
the northern parts of Germany and France ; but the possibility of
such wanderers having escaped from confinement is always to be
regarded,1 since few zoological gardens are without examples which
are often in the finest condition. Its usual haunts are the shallow
margins of the larger lakes and rivers, where fishes are plentiful,
since it requires for its sustenance a vast supply of them, pursuing
them under water, and rising to the surface to swallow those that
it has captured in its capacious pouch. The nest is formed among
the reeds that border the waters it frequents, placed on the ground
and lined with grass. Therein two eggs, with white, chalky shells,
are commonly laid. The young during the first twelvemonth are
of a greyish-brown, but this dress is slowly superseded by the growth
of white feathers, until when mature almost the whole plumage,
except the black primaries, is white, deeply suffused by a rich blush
of rose or salmon-colour, passing into yellow on the crest and lower
part of the neck in front. A second and somewhat larger species,
P. crispus, also inhabits Europe, but in smaller numbers. This,
when adult, is readily distinguishable from the ordinary bird by the
absence of the blush from its plumage, and by the curled feathers
that project from and overhang each side of the head, which with
some differences of coloration of the bill, pouch, bare skin round the
eyes, and irides give it a wholly distinct expression.2 Two speci-
mens of the humerus of as many Pelicans have been found in the
English fens (Ibis, 1868, p. 363; Proc. Zool Soc. 1871, p. 702),

1 This caution was not neglected by the prudent, even so long ago as Sir
Thomas Browne's days ; for he, recording the occurrence of a Pelican in Norfolk,
was careful to notice that about the same time one of the Pelicans kept by the
king (Charles II.) in St. James's Park had been lost. Charleton says (OTiomast.
p. 94) they came from the Czar.

2 It is also said to have twenty-two rectrices, while the ordinary species has
only eighteen.

PELVIS— PENGUIN 703

thus proving the former existence of the bird in England at no very
distant period, and one of them being that of a young example
points to its having been bred in this country. It is possible from
their large size that they belonged to P. crispus. Ornithologists
have been much divided in opinion as to the number of living species
of the genus Pelecanus (cf. op. cit. 1868, p. 264; 1869, p. 571;
1871, p. 631) — the estimate varying from six to ten or eleven; but
the former is the number recognized by M. Dubois (Bull. Mus. Belg.
1883). North America has one, P. erythrorhynchus, very similar to
P. onocrotalus both in appearance and habits, but remarkable for a
triangular, compressed, horny excrescence which is developed on the
ridge of the male's bill in the breeding-season, and, as ascertained
by Mr. Ridgway (Ibis, 1869, p. 350), falls off without leaving trace
of its existence when that is over (cf. MOULT, page 599). Australia
has P. conspicillatus, easily distinguished by its black tail and wing-
coverts. Of more marine habit are P. philippensis and P. fuscus, the
former having a wide range in Southern Asia, and, it is said, reaching
Madagascar, and the latter being common on the coasts of the
warmer parts of both North and South America.1

PELVIS, that part of the trunk to which are attached the
hind limbs, and consisting of a number of fused vertebrae, beside
three coalescent portions on either side of the Median line — the
ILIUM, ISCHIUM and Os PUBIS (see SKELETON).

PEN, said by Yarrell to be the technical name of the hen Mute
SWAN, the cock being called COB.

PENELOPE, the generic name most inappropriately given by
Merrem to the GUANS and occasionally used as English.

PENGUIN, the name of a flightless sea-bird,2 but, so far as is

1 The genus Pelecanus as instituted by Linnaeus included the CORMORANT and
GANNET as well as the true Pelicans, and for a long while these and some other
distinct groups, as the SNAKE-BIRDS, FRIGATE-BIRDS, and TROPIC-BIRDS, which
have all the four toes of the foot connected by a web, were regarded as forming a
single Family, Pelecanidx ; but this name has now been restricted to the Pelicans
only, though all are still usually associated under the name STEGANOPODES. It
may be necessary to state that there is no foundation for the venerable legend of
the Pelican feeding her young with blood from her own breast, which has given
her an important place in ecclesiastical heraldry, except that, as Mr. Bartlett has
suggested (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1869, p. 146), the curious bloody secretion ejected
from the mouth of the FLAMINGO may have given rise to the belief, through that
bird having been mistaken for the " Pelican of the wilderness."

2 Of the three derivations assigned to this name, the first is by Drayton in
1613 (Polyolbion, Song 9), where it is said to be the Welsh pen gwyn, or "white
head " ; the second, which seems to meet with Littre's approval, deduces it from
the Latin pinguis (fat) ; the third supposes it to be a corruption of "pin- wing"
(Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, iv. p. 133), meaning a bird that has undergone the
operation of pinioning or, as in one part at least of England it is commonly called,

704 PENGUIN

known, first given, as in Here's "Voyage to Cape Breton," 1536
(Hackluyt, Researches, iii. pp. 168-170), to one inhabiting the seas
of Newfoundland, which subsequently became known as the Great
Auk or GARE-FOWL ; and, though the French equivalent Pingouin l
preserves its old application, at the present day, the word Penguin
is by English ornithologists always used in a general sense for
certain Birds inhabiting the Southern Ocean, called by the French
Manchots, the Sphenisddse of ornithologists, which in some respects
form perhaps the most singular group of the whole Class, or at least
we may say of the Carinatas. For a long while their position was
very much misunderstood, some of the best of recent or even living
systematists having placed them in close company with the Alcidx
(AUKS), to which they bear only a relationship of analogy, as indeed
had been perceived by a few ornithologists, who recognized in the
Penguins a very distinct Order, IMPENNES. The view of the latter
is hardly likely to be disputed in future, now that the anatomical
researches of MM. Paul Gervais and Alix (Jaurn. de Zool. 1877, pp.
424-470), M. Filhol (Bull Soc. Philomath, ser. 7, vi. pp. 226-248),
and above all of Prof. Watson (Zoology, Voy. Challenger, part xviii.)
have put the independent position of the Sphenisddse in the clearest
light.2 The most conspicuous outward character presented by the
Penguins is the total want of quills in their wings, which are beside

" pin- winging." In opposition to the first of these hypotheses it has been urged
(1) that there is no real evidence of any Welsh discovery of the bird, (2) that it
is very unlikely for the "Welsh, if they did discover it, to have been able to pass
on their name to English navigators, and (3) that it had not a white head, but
only a patch of white thereon. To the second hypothesis Prof. Skeat (Etymol.
Diet. p. 433) objects that it "will not account for the suffix -in, and is therefore
wrong ; besides which the ' Dutchmen ' [who were asserted to be the" authors of
the name] turn out to be Sir Francis Drake " and his men. In support of the
third hypothesis Mr. Reeks wrote (Zoologist, ser. 2, p. 1854) that the people in
Newfoundland who used to meet with this bird always pronounced its name
"Pin-wing." Prof. Skeat's enquiry (loc. cit.}, whether the name may not after
all be South-American, is to be answered in the negative, since, so far as evidence
goes, it was given to the North- American bird before the South-American was
known in Europe.

1 Gorfou has also been used by some French writers, being a corruption of
Geirfugl or Gare-fowl.

2 Though I cannot wholly agree with Prof. Watson's conclusions, his remarks
(pp. 230-232) on the " Origin of the Penguins" are worthy of all attention. He
considers that they are the surviving members of a group that branched off
early from the primitive "avian" stem, but that at the time of their separation
the stem had diverged so far from Reptiles as to possess true wings, though the
metatarsal bones had not lost their distinctness and become fused into the single
bone so characteristic of existing Bird^. The ancestral Penguin, he argues, must
have had functional wings, the muscles of which, through atrophy, have been
converted into non-contractile tendinous bands, and this view agrees practically
with that taken by Prof. Fiirbringer and Dr. Gadow.

PENGUIN 705

as incapable of flexure as the flippers of a Cetacean, though they
move freely at the shoulder- joint, and some at least of the species
occasionally make use of them for progressing on land. In the
water they are most efficient paddles, and are usually, if not always,
worked, as birds' wings commonly are (cf. FLIGHT, pp. 267-269),
with a rotatory action. The plumage which clothes the whole body,
leaving no bare spaces, generally consists of small scale-like feathers,
many of them consisting only of a simple shaft without the develop-
ment of barbs ; but several of the species have the head decorated
with long cirrhous tufts (MACCARONi), and in some the tail-quills,
which are very numerous, are also long.1 In standing these birds
preserve an upright position, generally resting on the "tarsus"2
alone, but in walking or running on land this is kept nearly vertical,
and their weight is supported by the toes as well.

The most northerly limit of the Penguins' range in the Atlantic
is Tristan da Cunha, and in the Indian Ocean Amsterdam Island,
but they also occur off the Cape of Good Hope and along the south
coast of Australia, as well as on the south and east of New Zealand,
while in the Pacific one species at least extends along the west coast
of South America and to the Galapagos ; but north of the equator
none are found. In the breeding-season they resort to the most
desolate lands in higher southern latitudes, and indeed have been
met with as far to the southward as navigators have penetrated.
Possibly the Falkland Islands may still be regarded as the locality
richest in species,3 though, whatever may have been the case once,
their abundance there as individuals does not now nearly approach
what it is in many other places, owing to the ravages of man, whose
advent is always accompanied by massacre and devastation on an
enormous scale — the habit of the helpless birds, when breeding, to
congregate by hundreds and thousands in what are called " Penguin-
rookeries " contributing to the ease with which their slaughter can

1 The pterylographical characters of the Penguins are well described by Mr.
Hyatt (Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 1871). Mr. Bartlett has observed (Proc.
Zool. Soc. 1879, pp. 6-9) that, instead of moulting in the way that birds ordinarily
do, Penguins, at least in passing from the immature to the adult dress, cast off
the short scale-like feathers from their wings in a manner that he compares to
"the shedding of the skin in a serpent."

2 The three metatarsals in the Penguins are not, as in other Birds, united for
the whole of their length, but only at the extremities, thus preserving a portion of
their originally distinct existence, a fact probably attributable to arrest of develop-
ment, since the researches of Prof. Gegenbaur shew that the embryos of all Birds,
so far as is known, possess these bones in an independent condition. More
recently Prof. Marsh has found that in the Dinosaurian genus Ceratosaurus the
metatarsals acquire a condition very similar to that which they present in the
Penguins (Am. Journ. Sc. Aug. 1884).

3 An interesting account of the Penguins of these islands is given by Capt.
Abbott (Ibis, 1860, p. 336).

45

7o6

PENGUIN

be effected. Incapable of escape by flight, they are yet able to
make enough resistance or retaliation (for they bite hard when they
get the chance) to excite the wrath of their murderers, and this only
brings upon them greater destruction, so that the interest of nearly

KING-PENGUIN. (From living example in the Zoological Gardens.)

all the numerous accounts of these " rookeries " is spoilt by the
disgusting details of the brutal havoc perpetrated upon them (cf.
JOHNNY).

The Spheniscidze have been divided into at least eight genera,
but three, or at most four, seem to be all that are needed, and three
can be well distinguished, as pointed out by Dr. Coues (Proc. Ac. N.
Sc. Philad. 1872, pp. 170-212), by anatomical as well as by external
characters. They are (1) Aptenodytes, easily recognized by its long
and thin bill, slightly decurved, from which Pygoscelis, as Prof.
Watson has shewn, is hardly distinguishable ; (2) Eudyptes, in which
the bill is much shorter and somewhat broad ; and (3) Spheniscus, in
which the shortish bill is compressed and the maxilla ends in a
conspicuous hook. Aptenodytes contains the largest species, among
them those known as the " Emperor " and " King " Penguins, A.
patagonica and A. longirostris.1 Three others belong also to this
1 Some authorities (cf. Sclater, Ibis, 1888, pp. 325-334) prefer calling these
species A. forsteri and A. pennanti. An example of the former, weighing 78
pounds, was, according to Dr. M'Cormick (Voyages of Discovery, i. p. 259),
obtained by the 'Terror ' in January 1842.

PERCHERS— PETREL 707

genus, if Pygoscelis (JOHNNY) be not recognized, but they seem no
further to require remark. Eudyptes, containing the crested
Penguins (known to sailors as Rock-hoppers or MACCARONIS), would
appear to have five species, and Spheniscus (JACKASS) four, among
which 8. demersus, the well-known " Cape Penguin," and S. mendiculus,
which occurs in the Galapagos, and therefore has the most northerly
range of the whole group, alone need notice here.1

PERCHERS, the rendering by popular writers of the word
INSESSORES, now almost wholly abandoned by systematists.

PEREGRINE (Lat. peregrinus, wandering) an adjective often
mistaken for a substantive, and used as an abbreviation of
Peregrine FALCON, an expression that originally meant one of
foreign origin, regardless of the species.

PERISTEROMORPH^E, according to Prof. Huxley's taxonomy
(Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, pp. 459, 460), the sixth group of SCHIZO-
GNATILE, consisting of the Columbx (DoVE, PIGEON), but not to be
confounded with his

PERISTEROPODES, a section of ALECTOROMORPM established
the year after (op. cit. 1868, p. 296), composed of the CURASSOWS
and MEGAPODES, being so called from the Pigeon-like structure of
their feet, in which the hallux is long and on a level with the
other toes, instead of being short and raised as in the other section,
Alectoropodes, and it was a consideration of this difference that led
to his important conclusions in regard to the GEOGRAPHICAL
DISTRIBUTION of Mammals and Birds before mentioned (page 313).

PERITONEUM, a thin layer of connective tissue lining the
whole of the body-cavity, and enveloping the viscera, as well as
attaching the intestinal folds to each other and to the vertebral
column as MESENTERY.

PETREL, the name applied in a general way to a group of
Birds (of which more than 100 species are recognized) from the
habit which some of them possess of apparently walking on the
surface of the water as the apostle St. Peter (of whose name the
word is a diminutive form) is recorded (Matt. xiv. 29) to have
done. For a long while the Petrels were ranked as a Family, under
the name of Procellariidse? and thought to be either very nearly
allied to the Laridse (GULL), or intermediate between that Family
and the STEGANOPODES ; but this opinion has gradually given way,

1 The generic and specific distribution of the Penguins is the subject of an
excellent essay by Prof. Alphonse Milne-Edwards in the Annales des Sciences
Naturelles for 1880 (vol. ix. art. 9, pp. 23-81), of which there is a German trans-
lation in the Mittheilungen of the Ornithological Union of Vienna for 1883 (pp.
179-186, 210-222, 238-241).

2 Most commonly but erroneously spelt Procellaridas.

708 PETREL

and it is now hard to resist the conclusion that they have to be
regarded as an " Order," to which the name TUBINARES has been
applied from the tubular form of their nostrils, a feature possessed
in greater or less degree by all of them, and one by which each may
at a glance be recognized. They had been variously subdivided ;
but to little purpose until the anatomy of the group was subjected
to comparative examination by Garrod and W. A. Forbes, the latter of
whom summed up the results obtained by himself and his predecessor
in an elaborate essay (forming part ix. of the Zoology of the voyage of
the ' Challenger ') which shewed determinations that differed greatly
from any that had been reached by prior systematists. According
to these investigators, the TuUnares are composed of two Families,

PETREL, Priori turtur. (After Buller.)

Procellariidse and Oceanitidte, whose distinctness had hardly before
been suspected J — the latter consisting of four genera not very much
differing in appearance from many others, while the former includes
as subfamilies Diomedeinse (ALBATROS), with three genera, Diomedea,
Thalassiarche and Phcebetria, and the true Petrels, ProceUariinte, in
which last are combined forms so different externally and in habit
as the Diving-Petrels, Pelecanoides or Halodroma, the Storm-Petrels,
Procellaria, the Flat-billed Petrels, Prion, the FULMAR, the SHEAR-
WATERS and others. Want of space forbids us here dwelling on
the characters assigned to these different groups, or the means which
have led to this classification of it, set forth at great length in the
essay cited where also will be found copious references to previous
studies of the Petrels.2

1 It is due to Prof. Coues to state that in 1864 he had declared the genus
Oceanites, of which he only knew the external characters, to be " the most
distinct and remarkable" of the ll Procellariese," though he never thought of
making it the type of a separate Family.

2 Among these may here be especially mentioned those of Quoy and Gaimard
(Ann. Sc. Nat. v. pp. 123-155, and Voy. de I'Uranieet la Physicienne, JZool.pip.
142-169) ; Jacquinot (Comptes Rendus, 1844, pp. 353-358, and Zool. Voy. au Pol
Sud, iii. pp. 128-152) ; Prof. Coues (Proc. Acad. PMlad. 1864, pp. 72-91, 116-
144, and 1866, pp. 25-33, 134-197) ; Mr. Salvin (Orn. Miscell. ii. pp. 223-238,

PETREL 709

Petrels are dispersed throughout all the seas and oceans of the
world, and some species apparently never resort to land except for
the purpose of modification, though nearly all are liable at times to
be driven ashore, and often very far inland, by gales of wind.1

CAPPED PETREL, (Estrelata lisesitata. (From The Zoologist, vol. x. p. 3693.)

Wanderers as they may be, there is reason to think that attachment
to their home is a feeling as strong with them as with other birds,
and it is only now beginning to be clear that until we know the
breeding-place or places of each species — and some seem to be
extremely restricted in this respect — we shall know very little to
the point about their geographical distribution. But this knowledge
is not easily obtained, for during the breeding-season many of these
birds are almost wholly nocturnal in their habits, passing the day
in holes of the ground, or in clefts of the rocks, in which they
generally nestle, the hen of each pair laying a single white egg,
sparsely speckled in a few species with fine reddish dots. Of those
species that frequent the North Atlantic, the common Storm-Petrel,
Procellaria pelagica, a little bird which has to the ordinary eye rather
the look of a Swift or Swallow, is the " Mother Carey's chicken " of

249-257; and Zoology, Toy. 'Challenger,' pt. viii. pp. 140-149) ; and the
distribution of the group in the Southern Ocean is treated by Prof. A. Milne-
Edwards (Ann. Sc. Nat. 1882, Zool. ser. 6, xiii. art. 4 ; Germanice, Mitth.
Ornith. Ver. in Wien, 1884).

1 Thus (Estrelata hsesitata, the Capped Petrel, a species whose proper home
seems to have been in Guadeloupe and Dominica (where it was known as the
"Diablotin "), has even occurred in the State of New York, near Boulogne, in
Norfolk and in Hungary (Ibis, 1884, p. 202) ! But there is reason to fear that
this species is nearly extinct, though an example is recorded (Auk, 1893, p. 361)
in Virginia, some 200 miles from the sea, in August 1893, two days after a great
storm, while its congener, (E. jamaicensis, runs a risk of the same fate (see EXTER-
MINATION, p. 227, note 4).

710 PETTICHAPS— PEWIT

sailors, and is widely believed to be the harbinger of bad weather ;
but seamen hardly discriminate between this and others nearly
resembling it in appearance, such as Leach's or the Fork-tailed
Petrel, Cymochorea leucorrhoa, a rather larger but less common bird,
and Wilson's Petrel, Oceanites oceanicus, the type of the Family
OceanUidx mentioned above, which is more common on the American
side. But it is in the Southern Ocean that Petrels most abound,
both as species and as individuals. The Cape-Pigeon or Pintado
Petrel, Daption capensis, is one that has long been well known, while
those who voyage to or from Australia, whatever be the route
they take, are certain to meet with many more species, some, as
Ossifraga gigantea, as large as Albatroses, and several of them
called by sailors by a variety of choice names, generally having
reference to the strong smell of musk emitted by the birds, among
which that of " Stink-pot " is not the most opprobrious. None of
the Petrels are endowed with any brilliant colouring — sooty-black,
grey of various tints (one of which approaches to and is often called
" blue "), and white being the only hues their plumage exhibits ;
but their graceful flight, and their companionship when no other
life is visible around a lonely vessel on the widest of oceans, give
them an interest to beholders, though this is too often marred by
the wanton destruction dealt out by brutal or thoughtless persons
who thus seek to break the tediousness of a long voyage.

PETTICHAPS, the name under which a bird, supposed to be
that now commonly known as the Garden- WARBLER, Sylvia salicaria
or hortensis, was sent from Yorkshire by Jessop to Willughby
(Ornithologia, p. 158), and hence more or less frequently applied to
that species; or, with the qualification of "Lesser," to the CHIFF-
CHAFF. The name was known in Lancashire a century later
(Latham, Gen. Synops. ii. p. 413), but seems never to have been in
general use in England. In 1873 the present writer obtained
evidence (Yarrell, Br. B. ed. 4, i. p. 415) that it had not become
obsolete near Sheffield where Jessop lived. It is also given as the
name of a bird by Clare the Northamptonshire poet.

PEWEE, so called from its drawling note,1 a well-known
North- American bird, Contopus wrens, one of the Tyrmnidas (TYRANT-
BIRD), extremely abundant in the eastern side of the continent, and
represented by other species in the remainder of it.

PEWIT, anciently Puet, the ordinary name of what is called in
books the Black-headed GULL, Larus ridibundus, in the inland
localities affected by it for breeding. The great Pewit-pool at Nor-
bury in Staffordshire visited by Eay and Willughby, 14th May 1662,

1 This is said to be in sharp contrast with that of its relative called in
North America the PEWIT.

PHALANGES— PHALAROPE 711

and well known from Plot's description (Hist. Staffordsh. pi. xix.
pp. 231-233) had ceased to be occupied by the end of the last
century, and most of the other stations throughout the country have
been destroyed, some through drainage, but often by carelessness and
occasionally by greediness — for the eggs are a valuable commodity,
even as the young in old days were accounted * — but there are still
two of considerable size in England, Scoulton in Norfolk, and
Twigmoor in Lincolnshire. The name Pewit, in Scotland Peaseweep,
is now more commonly applied to the LAPWING, but in each case
it was given from the bird's cry, as it is in North America to one
of the TYRANT-BIRDS, Sayornis fusca, which is a general favourite
there as a recognized harbinger of summer.2 To some ears its note
sounds like "phebe," and as the " PHCEBE-bird " 3 it was first
described by Pennant. In certain districts it bears the name of
" Bee-eater," to which it is very likely entitled, and there it is not
very popular with the owners of hives.

PHALANGES, the several bones composing the digits. In
those of the hind limb (or TOES) the original and almost universal
number is 2 for the HALLUX, and 3, 4 and 5 for the second, third
and fourth digits respectively. Exceptions are found in Cypselus
and Panyptila (SWIFT), where the second, third and fourth toes have
each 3 phalanges, in some of the Caprimulgi (NIGHTJAR), and in the
singular genus Cholornis from Western China and of doubtful
affinity, where the fourth digit is reduced to a mere stump. Of the
wing-digits the POLLEX has 2 phalanges, the index 2 or 3, and the
third 1 or 2 — the terminal phalanges being often very small or
represented by cartilage only.

PHALAKOPE, Brisson's maladroit rendering4 of the "Coot-
footed Tringa" of Edwards who, in 1741, shewed himself a better
judge of its affinities than many others both before and after him,
since for a long while some of the best authorities thought the
Phalaropes allied to the COOT, whereas they are unquestionably
Limicolte, only somewhat modified in accordance with their habit of
swimming. There are three species, each possessing a peculiarity
of structure sufficient to warrant its being regarded as generic were
the doing so convenient. The type is Phalaropus fulicarius, com-
monly known in England as the Grey Phalarope, from the prevalent
colour of its winter-plumage, which it has generally donned when

1 They were netted before they could fly, and kept in pens to be killed for
the table as wanted, selling in Ray's time for five shillings the dozen.

2 Not to be confounded with the PEWEE.

3 This name is usually so spelt, but it has nothing to do with the moon-
goddess or any one named after her.

4 His generic term should have been Phalaridopus from $aAap£s, ~l5os (cf.
Murdoch, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, iii. p. 150).

;i2 PHALAROPE

it visits this country, as it does almost every year.1 It wears
a very different aspect in summer, when the whole of the lower
parts are bright bay, while the feathers above are dark brown
broadly edged with light rusty, and hence it has in this condition
been called the Eed Phalarope. It is known to breed in Spits-
bergen, in one part at least of Iceland, in Greenland, and presum-
ably throughout Arctic America and Asia, but not on the continent
of Europe. Its wanderings in winter seem to be boundless, since
its appearance is recorded in Chili and in New Zealand. The next
species, known as the Ked-necked Phalarope, P. or Lobipes hyper-
boreus, is truly a British bird, breeding in a few spots (which are
best not named) in Scotland and its islands. Of more slender form,
its plumage is comparatively plain, but the bay patch on the side
of the neck contrasts with the white chin to give it a conspicuous
appearance. It does not range northward so far as the last, but it
is found breeding in Scandinavia, Russia, Siberia and America — from
Alaska to Labrador, as well as in Greenland, while in winter it
would seem not to stray quite so far to the south. The third
species, P. or Steganopus tricolor or wilsoni, of still more slender
form, has a very restricted breeding-range in North America, not
being recorded from the Pacific slope and being rare on the Atlantic
coast. In winter, however, it reaches Patagonia. Did space allow,
the various qualities of this beautiful group of birds would be
willingly dwelt upon here. A more entrancing sight to the ornitho-
logist can hardly be presented than by either of the two species
first named. Their graceful form, their lively coloration, and the
confidence with which both are familiarly displayed in their breed-
ing-quarters can hardly be exaggerated, and it is equally a delight-
ful sight to watch these birds gathering their food in the high-
running surf, or when that is done peacefully floating outside the
breakers. The nest, which the male — for in the Phalaropes, as in
the DOTTEREL and the GODWITS, that sex undertakes the duty of
incubation — leaves only to escape being trodden upon, is in itself
a picture that the finder will recall with rapture, while the tameness
of the birds tempts the observer to watch their ways by the hour,
be the weather never so bad 2 (see SANDPIPER).

1 In numbers it is very variable. In the autumn of 1866, more than 500
were recorded as observed and mostly shot in Britain, according to the Summary
which Mr. J. H. Gurney, junior, was at the pains to compile and publish in 1867.

2 Here may be noticed the "Barred Phalarope," described in 1785 by Latham
(Gen. Synops. iii. p. 274) from a specimen in Banks's collection obtained at
Christmas Island on Cook's Third Voyage, the Tringa cancellata of Gmelin. It
seems not to have been a Phalarope at all, and in 1859 G. R. Gray (Cat. B. Isl.
Pacif. p. 51) referred to it the T. parvirostris described and figured by Peale as
found in July 1839, by the United States' Expedition under Wilkes, abundantly
on some of the Paumotu Islands, where it was breeding and exceedingly tame.
In 1874 Prof. Coues (B. North- West, p. 506) established for it the genus <dSch-

PHEASANT 713

PHEASANT, Mid.-Eng. Fesaunt and Fesaun, Germ. Fasan and
anciently Fasant, Fr. Faisan — all from the Latin Phasianus or Phasiana
(sc. avis), the Bird brought from the banks of the river Phasis, now
the Rioni, in Colchis, where it is still abundant, and introduced by
the Argonauts, it is said in what passes for history, into Europe. As
a matter of fact nothing is known on this point ; and, judging from
the recognition of the remains of several species referred to the
genus Phasianus both in Greece and in France,1 it seems not
impossible that the ordinary Pheasant, the P. cokhicus of ornitholo-
gists, may have been indigenous to this quarter of the globe. If it
was introduced into England, it must almost certainly have been
brought hither by the Romans; for, setting aside several earlier
records of doubtful authority,2 Bishop Stubbs has shewn that by the
regulations of King Harold in 1059 " unus phasianus " is prescribed
as the alternative of two Partridges
or other birds among the "pitantia3"
(rations or commons, as we might now
say) of the canons of Waltham Abbey,
and, as Prof. Dawkins has remarked (Ibis,
1869, p. 358), neither Anglo-Saxons nor

,-. TIT v • .L j j-i. PHEASANT. (After Swainson.)

Danes were likely to have introduced it

into England. It seems to have been early under legal protection,

for, according to Dugdale, a licence was granted in the reign of

morhynchus. Mr. Seebohm (Charadriidse, p. 451, pi. xvii.) refers it to the genus
Phegornis, with which it seems to have little in common ; but makes some amends
by giving a good figure of it. The only specimens now known to exist appear to
be those at Washington, and there is good reason to fear that the species may
be extinct — the victim, most likely, of rats or other predacious animals that
have found their way to its very confined haunt — a case parallel perhaps to that
of Prosobonia leucoptera of Tahiti (see SANDPIPER).

1 These are P. archiaci from Pikermi, P. altus and P. medius from the
lacustrine beds of Sansan, and P. desnoyersi from Touraine (A. Milne-Edwards,
Ois. foss. de la France, ii. pp. 229, 239-243).

2 Among these perhaps the most worthy of attention is in Probert's translation
of The Ancient Laws of Cambria (ed. 1823, pp. 367, 368), wherein extracts are
given from Welsh triads, presumably of the age of Howel the Good, who died in
948. One of them is " There are three barking hunts : a bear, a squirrel, and a
pheasant." The explanation is " A pheasant is called a barking hunt, because
when the pointers come upon it, and chase it, it takes to a tree, where it is
hunted by baiting." I have not been able to trace the manuscript containing
these remarkable statements so as to find out what is the original word rendered
"Pheasant" by the translator; but a reference to what is probably the same
passage with the same meaning is given by Ray (Synops. Meth. Animal, pp. 213,
214) on the authority of Llwyd or Lloyd, though there is no mention of it in
Wotton and Clarke's Leges Wallicse (1730). A charter (Kemble, Cod. Diplom.
iv. p. 236), professedly of Edward the Confessor, granting the wardenship of
certain forests in Essex to Ralph Peperking, speaks of " fesant hen " and " fesant
cocke," but is now known to be spurious.

714 PHEASANT

Henry I. to the Abbot of Amesbury to kill Hares and Pheasants, and
from the price at which the latter are reckoned, in various documents
that have come down to us, we may conclude that they were not
very abundant for some centuries, and also that they were occasion-
ally artificially reared and fattened, as appears from Upton,1 who
wrote about the middle of the 15th century, while Henry VIII.
seems from his privy purse expenses to have had in his household
in 1532 a French priest as a regular "fesaunt breder," and in the
accounts of the Kytsons of Hengrave in Suffolk for 1607 mention is
made of wheat to feed Pheasants, Partridges and Quails.

Within recent years the practice of bringing up Pheasants by
hand has been extensively followed, and the numbers so reared
vastly exceed those that are bred at large. The eggs are collected
from birds that are either running wild or kept in a mew,2 and are
placed under domestic Hens; but, though these prove most
attentive foster-mothers, much additional care on the part of their
keepers is needed to ensure the arrival at maturity of the poults ; for,
being necessarily crowded in a comparatively small space, they are
subject to several diseases which often carry off a large proportion,
to say nothing of the risk they run by not being provided with
proper food, or by meeting an early death from various predatory
animals attracted by the assemblage of so many helpless victims. As
they advance in age the young Pheasants readily take to a wild
life, and indeed can only be kept from wandering in every direction
by being plentifully supplied with food, which has to be scattered
for them in the coverts in which it is desired that they should stay.
Of the proportion of Pheasants artificially bred that " come to the
gun " when the shooting-season arrives it is impossible to form any
estimate, for it would seem to vary enormously, not only irregularly
according to the weather, but regularly according to the district.
In the eastern counties of England, and some other favourable
localities, perhaps three-fourths of those that are hatched may be
satisfactorily accounted for ; but in many of the western counties,
though they are the objects of equally unremitting or even greater
care, it would seem that more than half of the number that live to
grow their feathers disappear inexplicably before the coverts are
beaten. The various effects of the modern system of Pheasant-
breeding and Pheasant-shooting need here be treated but briefly.
It is commonly condemned as giving encouragement to poaching,
and, especially under ignorant management, as substituting slaughter
for sport. Undoubtedly there is much to be said on this score ;
but in reply to the first objection it has been urged that as a rule

1 In his De studio militari (not printed till 1654) he states (p. 195) that the
Pheasant was brought from the East by "Palladius ancorista."

2 In 1883, 134,000 Pheasants' eggs were sold from one estate in Suffolk,
and 101,000 in 1893, while 9700 birds were killed upon it.

PHEASANT 715

the poacher does not like visiting coverts that he knows to be
effectively preserved, and that coverts containing a great stock of
Pheasants, whose rearing has cost a considerable sum of money, are
probably the most effectively preserved. As to the second objection,
it is to be observed that what constitutes sport is in great measure
a matter of individual taste, and that the reasonable limit of a
sportsman's "bag" is practically an unknown quantity. One man
likes shooting a Pheasant rising at his feet or sprung by his spaniels,
as it flies away from him through the trees and is still labouring to
attain its full speed ; another prefers shooting one that has mounted
to its greatest height, and, assisted perhaps by the wind, is travers-
ing the sky at a pace that almost passes calculation. If skill has to
be considered in the definition of sport, there can be no doubt as to
which of these cases most requires it. In regard to cruelty — that
is, the proportion of birds wounded to those killed — there seems to
be little difference, for the temptation to take " long shots " is about
equal in either case. The Pheasant whose wing is broken by the
charge, if at a great height, is often killed outright by the fall,
whereas, if nearer the ground, it will often make good its escape by
running, possibly to recover, or more possibly to die after lingering
in pain for a longer or shorter time. On the other hand, high-
flying Pheasants, having their vital parts more exposed, are often
hit in the body, but not hard enough to bring them down, though
the wound they have received proves mortal, and the velocity at
which they are travelling takes them beyond reach of retrieval.

Formerly Pheasants were taken in snares or nets, and by
hawking ; but the crossbow was also used, and the better to obtain
a " sitting shot," for with that weapon men had not learnt to " shoot
flying " ; dogs appear to have been employed in the way indicated
by the lines under an engraving by Hollar, who died in 1677 : —

" The Feasant Cocke the woods doth most frequent,
Where Spaniells spring and pearche him by the sent." l

The use of firearms has put an end to the older practices, and the
gun is now the only mode of taking Pheasants recognized as
legitimate.

Of the many other species or local races of Phasianus, two only
can be dwelt upon here. These are the Ring-necked Pheasant of
China, P. torquatus, easily known by the broad white collar, whence
it has its name, as well as by the pale greyish-blue of its upper
wing-coverts and the light buff of its flanks, and the P. versicolor of
Japan, often called the Green Pheasant from the beautiful tinge of

1 Quoted by the writer (Broderip ?) of the article "Spaniel" in the Penny
Cyclopaedia. The lines throw light on the asserted Welsh practice mentioned in
a former note.

7i6 PHILIP— PHOEBE

that colour that in certain lights pervades almost the whole of its
plumage, and, deepening into dark emerald, occupies all the breast
and lower surface that in the common and Chinese birds is bay
barred with glossy black scallops. Both of these species have been
to a considerable extent introduced into England, and cross freely
with P. colchicus, while the hybrids of each with the older inhabit-
ants of the woods are not only perfectly fertile inter se, but cross
as freely with the other hybrids, so that birds are frequently found
in which the blood of the three species is mingled. The hybrids of
the first cross are generally larger than either of their parents, but
the superiority of size does not seem to be maintained by their
descendants. White and pied varieties of the common Pheasant,
as of most birds, often occur, and with a little care a race or breed
of each can be perpetuated. A much rarer variety is sometimes
seen ; this is known as the Bohemian Pheasant, not that there is
the least reason to suppose it has any right to such an epithet, for
it appears, as it were, accidentally among a stock of the pure P.
cokhicus, and offers an example analogous to that of the " japanned "
PEACOCK already noticed, being, like that breed, capable of per-
petuation by selection. To a small extent two other species of
Pheasant have been introduced to the coverts of England — P.
reevesi from China, remarkable for its very long tail, white with
black bars,1 and the Copper Pheasant, P. scemmerringi, from Japan.
The well-known Gold and Silver Pheasants, Thaumalea picta and
Euplocamus nycthemerus, are both from China and have long been
introduced into Europe, but are only fitted for the aviary. To the
former is allied the still more beautiful T. amlierstise and to the
latter about a dozen more species, most of them known to Indian
sportsmen by the general name of KALLEGE. These with the
comparatively plain PUKRAS, Pucrasia, the magnificent MONALS,
Lophophorus, are elsewhere treated, but the fine Snow -Pheasants,
Crossoptilum, of which there are several species, must, for want of
space, be only mentioned here. All the species known at the time
were beautifully figured from drawings by Mr. Wolf in Mr. Elliot's
grand Monograph of the Phasianidse (2 vols. fol. 1870-72) — the last
term being used in a somewhat general sense. With a more precise
scope Mr. Tegetmeier's Pheasants : their Natural History and Practical
Management (4to, ed. 2, 1881) is to be commended as a very useful
work.

PHILIP and PHILP, old nicknames for the SPARROW (see
page 132, note 1).

PHOEBE, in parts of North America a name for what is there
called also the PEWIT, Sayornis fusca, one of the TYRANT-BIRDS.

1 The introduction of this species by the first Lord Tweedmouth near
Guisachan in Inverness-shire is said to have been remarkably successful.

PHOENIX— PIC^E 717

PHCENIX, said by Hesiod (apud Plin. H. N. vii. 49) to be a
bird that lived nine times as long as a Crow ; and, in a passage too
often quoted to need repetition, described by Herodotus (Euterpe,
73) from a picture which he saw in Egypt. To doubt the existence
of this bird was for ages evidence of depravity, for it had been so
entwined by Classical, Rabbinical, Christian and Mahomedan legend,
and so used to illustrate the sublimest doctrine, that we may almost
wonder at belief in it not being enjoined by some confession of
faith or imported into some religious formulary. Moreover though
no Greek, Latin or Arabic author 1 could vouch for having himself
seen a specimen, and its last appearance on* earth was said to be in
the consulship of Paulus Fabius and Lucius Vitellius (i.e. A.D. 34),
as stated by Tacitus (Ann. vi. 28), yet according to Camden
(Britannia, p. 783, ed. 1607) one of its feathers was sent in 1599
by Pope Clement VIII. to the celebrated Hugh O'Neal, Earl of
Tyrone, then leader of the Irish opposition ; and the writer of the
article " Phoenix" in the Penny Cyclopaedia (xviii. pp. 101-103)
declared that even in June 1840, a very learned scholar at Oxford,
subsequently stated (Notes and Queries, ser. 7, vi. pp. 481, 482) to
have been Mr. J. B. Morris of Exeter College, still seriously
believed in the existence of the bird. It was long ago suggested
by Sir Thomas Browne (Vulgar Errors, book III. chap, xii.) that the
Phcenix-story had its origin in a BiRD-OF-PARADiSE (p. 38, note
3), and unless the whole was a lie from the beginning this still
seems possible ; but the late Mr. Gurney used to consider that a
" Bateleur " Eagle (Helotarsus ecaudatus) was the cause of it.2

PIC^E, the second Order of Birds in the Linna3an system,
composed of the genera Psittacus (PARROT), Eamphastos (ToucAN),
Buceros (HORNBILL), Buphaga (OXPECKER), Crotophaga (ANi), Corvus
(CROW), Coracias (ROLLER), Oriolus (ORIOLE), Gracula (GRACKLE),
Paradisea (BIRD-OF-PARADISE), Trogon (TROGON), Bucco (BARBET),
Cuculus (CUCKOW), Yunx3 (WRYNECK), Picus (WOODPECKER),

1 It was defined by Arabic writers to be a creature "whose name was known,
its body unknown."

2 The literature of the subject is not without interest and very large, though
(possibly through the lack of specimens) it has fallen off of late years. Among
separate works the following may be named : — Dauderstadius, Disput. de Phcenice
(Lipsise : 1665) ; Kirschmaier and Oheimb, De Phosnice (Wittembergse : 1660) ;
Kirschmaier, Disputt. zooll. de Basilisco, Unicornu, Phcenice &c. (Wittemb.
1661 ; Jenae : 1760) ; Lagerloff, Phcenicis (Jt.v0o\oyla (Upsalise : 1689) ; Mennander,
Dissert, de Phcenice Ave (Aboae : 1748) ; Pfeiffer, Dissert, de Phcenice Ave (Regio-
monti : 1673) ; Seuberlich, De Phcenice (Regiom. 1696) ; Wendler, Dissert, de
Phcenice (Gerse : 1687) ; but the above-named article in the Penny Cyclopaedia,
by the late Dr. Greenhill, is especially good.

3 In the preceding edition of the Systcma Naturae more correctly spelt Jynst,
which is the continental way of printing our lynx.

;i8 PICARI&—PICUCULE

Sitta (NUTHATCH), Todus (TODY), Alcedo (KINGFISHER), Merops
(BEE-EATER), Upupa (HOOPOE), Certhia (TREE-CREEPER), Trochilus
(HUMMING-BIRD). Of this multifarious assembly the 4th, 6th,
8th, 9th, 10th, 16th and 21st are now almost unanimously referred
to the Order PASSERES, while the disposition of the rest cannot be
accounted fixed, though, except the 1st, they are referred in this
book to

PICARLE, a group of Birds, so named by Nitzsch in 1820
(Deutsches Arch, fur Physiol. vi. p. 255) to include the genera
Coracias, Upupa, Alcedo, Cuculus, Psittacus, Picus, Yunx, Caprimulgus
and Cypselus : opposed to his PASSERINE, but not to be confounded
with

PICAEII, Johannes Miiller's name (Alhandl. Akad. Berlin,
1845, p. 383) for what he separated as the third Tribe of his great
Order INSESSORES or PASSERINI (the other two being OSCINES and
TRACHEOPHONES) comprehending the Ampelidse l and Tyrannidx in
addition to those included, actually or consequentially, in Nitzsch's
PICARI.E.

PICI, the name of an Order of Birds proposed in 1810 by
Meyer and Wolf (Tascherib. deutsch. Fogelkunde, i. p. 115) to include
the genera Picus, Yunx, Sitta, Certhia, Merops and Alcedo, the 3rd
and 4th of which are truly Passerine. Such modern systematists
as retain the term limit it to the WOODPECKERS and WRYNECKS.

PICKCHEESE, a common local name of the Blue TITMOUSE.
PICKET and PICKTAEN, local names for the Common TERN.

PICKMIKE, a local name for the PEWIT or Black-headed
GULL.

PICUCULE,2 a name given, without reason says Buffon (H. N.
Ois. vii. p. 82, note), to a bird figured by D'Aubenton (PL enl.
621) — the Dendrocolaptes certhia or cayennensis of later writers —
continued by Vieillot in 1816 (Analyse, p. 45), and retained in
1820 by Temminck (Man. d'Orn. ed. 2, i. p. Ixxxi.) in a generic
sense, while it was used as English in Griffith's translation of
Cuvier's Animal Kingdom in 1829 (ii. p. 350), and is here adopted
for want of a better,3 as that of the large Family of TRACHEOPHON.E,

1 Meaning what are more correctly called Cotingidee (CHATTERER).

2 Accidentally misspelt (Encyclop. Brit. ed. 9, iii. p. 743 and perhaps else-
where) "Piculule." It would seem that the inventor coined the word as a
combination of Picus and Cuculus. Buffon used " Pic-grimpereau," which is just
as misleading.

3 Mr. Hudson, who (Argent. Orn. i. pp. 165-202) tells more of the habits of
the birds of this Family than perhaps any other writer, uses for them collectively
the name " "Woodhewer, " which seems unhappily applied, as no species appears
able to hew wood, and the word is hardly an accurate rendering of Dendrocolaptes.

PICUCULE

719

Dendrocolaptidae, which is so highly characteristic of the Neotropical
Kegion. Not one of them was known to Linnaeus, and for many
years very erroneous notions were entertained as to their systematic
position. They are mostly small birds of dull appearance, brown
being their prevalent hue, with stiff and often sharply-pointed
rectrices — a character which led the earlier writers to associate
them with the Pici or the Certhiidse (TREE-CREEPER), and their
entire difference from both those groups was not admitted until
shewn by Johannes Miiller.
Mr. Sclater (Cat. B. Br. Mus.
xv. pp. 2-175) groups them
in 5 subfamilies, the first of
which, Furnariinse, has been
already mentioned in these
pages (OVEN-BIRD), while the
next three, Synallaxinss (with 8 genera, including Synallaxis and
the curious form Oxyurus), Philydorinx (with 17 genera, including

Anabatoides and
Philydor) and Scle-
rurinse call for no
particular remark
here. The last
and most typical

SYNALLAXIS. OXYTJRUS.

(After Swainson.)

ANABATOIDES. PHILYDOR.

(After Swainson.)

colaptinx has, according to the authority just named, 15 genera
(among which are Dendrocolaptes proper and its section Dendrocops,

subfamily Dendro-

a, DENDROCOLAPTES ; 5, XIPHORHYNCHTJS ; c, DENDROCOPS ; ct, SITTASOMUS ; e, DENDROPLEX.

(After Swainson.)

XipTiorliynchus, Sittasomus and Dendroplex) and some 80 species.
Indeed there is no need here to dwell upon them more than
to point out their importance in the Fauna of Southern tropical
America. Though now ranging all over the Neotropical Region,

720 PICULET—PIE

the Antillean Subregion excepted, and even extending into Mexico,
which according to most zoo-geographers is " Nearctic," — while the
number of forms inhabiting the tropical portion is vastly greater
than that of those now existing within " Patagonian " limits, however
liberally the last may be regarded, — this Family will very likely
prove eventually to belong to the more ancient population of the
continent. These forms are essentially of identical nature, but
exhibit many and some extreme modifications of structure, a fact
which furnishes a strong argument in favour of the antiquity of the
original stock. As might be expected, their differences correspond
with much diversity of habit, some of the forms living on the most
sterile uplands, others in the thickest forests, others in reed-beds
and others again on the sea-shore.

PICULET, the name apparently first assigned in 1845 by G.
R. Gray1 (Gen. B. ii. p. 432) to birds of the subfamily Picumnin£ey
composed according to Mr. Hargitt (Cat. B. Br. Mus. xviii.
pp. 8, 521-559) of 4 genera — Picumnus with 33 species, of
which 31 are Neotropical and 2 Indian; Nesoctites with a
single species peculiar to Hispaniola; Ferreauxia, also with one
species, confined to the Gaboon country ; and Sasia, with 3 species,
ranging from Nepal through the Malay peninsula to Borneo.
They are all of small size and thorough WOODPECKERS in habit and
appearance, but having the tail short, soft and rounded. The
geographical distribution of the whole subfamily, and especially of
Picumnus proper, as above stated, points to its antiquity, and
interest in the group is enhanced by the fact that Sasia has got rid
of its hallux, thus affording a case parallel to that of Picoides among
the Pidnse or true Woodpeckers.

PIE (French, Pie,2 in Scotland Piet) or more commonly Magpie,
the prefix being the abbreviated form of a human name (Margaret 3)
applied as in so many other instances to familiar animals, as this
bird once was throughout Great Britain, though of late years almost
extirpated in many parts, and now nearly everywhere scarce. Its
pilfering habits have led to this result, yet the injuries it causes
are unquestionably exaggerated by common report ; and in many
countries of Europe it is still the tolerated or even the cherished

1 Possibly adapted from the " Picule" of Isid. Geoffroy-St. Hilaire (N. Am.
Mus. 1832, p. 396). Before him Temminck had used the word " Picumne."

2 The "French Pie" of many parts of England is the Great-Spotted or Pied
WOODPECKER of authors. When the Linnsean system came to be known in this
country the word "Pie " was often used in a general sense as a rendering of PiC2E,
the name of one of his Orders of Birds.

3 "Magot" and "Madge," with the same origin, are names frequently
given in England to the Pie ; while in France it is commonly known as Margot,
if not termed, as it is in some districts, Jaquette.

PIE 721

neighbour of every farmer, as it formerly was in England if not in
Scotland also. Though now common enough in Ireland, there
is ample evidence 1 to prove that it did not exist in that country in
1617, when Fynes Morison 2 wrote his Itinerary, and that adduced
by Mr. Barrett-Hamilton (Zool. 1891, pp. 247-249) shews that
it first appeared about 1676, when "a parcel," supposed to have
been driven from Wales by stormy weather, landed in Wexford.
It is a species that when not molested is extending its range,
as Wolley ascertained in Lapland, where within the last century it
has been gradually pushing its way along the coast and into the
interior from one fishing-station or settler's house to the next, as
the country has been peopled.

Since the persecution to which the Pie has been subjected in
Great Britain, its habits have undoubtedly altered greatly in
character. It is no longer the merry, saucy hanger-on of the home-
stead, as it was to writers of former days, who were constantly
alluding to its disposition, but is become the suspicious thief,
shunning the gaze of man, and knowing that danger may lurk in
every bush. Hence opportunities of observing it fall to the lot of
few, and most persons know it only as a curtailed captive in a
wicker cage, where its vivacity and natural beauty are lessened or
wholly lost. At large few European birds possess greater beauty,
the pure white of its scapulars and inner web of the flight-feathers
contrasting vividly with the deep glossy black of the rest of its
body and wings, while its long tail is lustrous with green, bronze
and purple reflexions. The Pie's nest is a wonderfully ingenious
structure, whether placed in high trees or low bushes, and is so
massively built that it will stand for years. Its foundation consists
of stout sticks, turf and clay, wrought into a deep, hollow cup,
plastered with earth, and lined with fibres ; but around this is
erected a firmly-interwoven, basket-like outwork of thorny twigs,
forming a dome over the nest, and leaving but a single hole in the
side for entrance and exit, so that the whole structure is rendered
almost impregnable. Herein are laid from six to nine eggs, of a
pale bluish-green freckled with brown and blotched with ash-colour.
Superstition as to the appearance of the Pie still survives even
among many educated persons, and there are several versions of a
riming adage as to the various turns of luck which its presenting
itself, either alone or in company with others, is supposed to

1 A compendious summary of this will be found in Yarrell's British Birds,
ed. 4, ii. pp. 318-320.

2 His predecessor Derricke, in 1578, said : —

" No Pies to plucke the Thatch from house,

are breed in Irishe grounde :
But worse then Pies, the same to burne,
a thousande maie be founde."— The Image of Irelande, London : 1581.

46

722 PIE

betoken, for some of these versions contradict one another in details,
though all agree in this that the sight of a single Pie unquestionably
forebodes sorrow.

The Pie belongs to the Corvidte (CROW), and is the Corvus pica
of Linnaeus, the Pica caudata, P. melanoleuca or P. rustica of modern
ornithologists, who have recognized it as forming a distinct genus,
but the number of species thereto belonging has been a fruitful
source of discussion. Examples from the south of Spain differ
slightly from those inhabiting the rest of Europe, and in some points
more resemble the P. mauritanica of north-western Africa ; but that
species has a patch of bare skin of a fine blue colour behind the
'eye, and much shorter wings. No fewer than five species have
been discriminated from various parts of Asia, extending to Japan ;
but only one of them, the P. leucoptera of Turkestan and Tibet, has
of late been admitted as valid. In the west of North America, from
Alaska to New Mexico, as well as in some of its islands, a Pie is
found which extends to the upper valleys of the Missouri and the
Yellowstone, even appearing so far to the eastward as Cumberland
House, in the Province of Winnipeg, and in the State of Michigan,
and was long thought entitled to specific distinction as P. hudsonia ;
but its claim thereto is now disallowed by most American orni-
thologists, and it can hardly be deemed even a geographical variety
of the Old- World form. In California, however, there is a perma-
nent race if not a good species, P. nuttalli, easily distinguishable
by its yellow bill and the bare yellow skin round its eyes ; and
it is a curious fact that on two occasions in the year 1867 a bird
apparently similar was observed in Great Britain (Zoologist, ser.
2, pp. 706, 1016).1

More or less allied to the genus Pica are some forms that can

hardly be separated from
JAYS, as for instance the
species of Cissa, before men-
tioned (page 470), concerning
the affinity of which opinions
have differed much, but Mr.
'~ . . Gates (Fauna Br. Ind. Birds,

CISSA. (After Swainson.) A% , , . .

i. p. 28), declares in favour

of its Pie-like position. On the other hand Dendrocitta with several
kindred genera, all belonging to the Indian Region, are with less
doubt referred to the neighbourhood of Pica, as also is Cyanopica?

1 Dr. Diederich (Ornis, 1889, pp. 280-332, tab. iv.) has treated at length and
illustrated by a map the geographical distribution of the genus Pica.

2 Dr. Sharpe (Cat. B. Br. Mus. iii. p. 67), calls this genus Cyanopolius, citing
as his authority a passage wherein that name does not occur. Bonaparte seems
to have used it only in manuscript (see his Consp. Av. i. p. 282 ; and Waterhouse,
Index Generum Avium, p. 59, note).

PIGEON

723

so remarkable for its discontinuous distribution, already noticed
(p. 342) — one of its two species, C. cooki, being the Blue Pie of the
Iberian Peninsula, and the other, C. cyana, that of Eastern Asia
with Japan.

PIGEON, French Pigeon, Italian Piccime and Pipione, Latin
Pipio, literally a nestling-bird that pipes or cries out, a " Piper " —
the very name now in use among Pigeon-fanciers. The word
Pigeon, doubtless of Norman introduction as a polite term, seems
to bear much the same relation to DOVE, the word of Anglo-Saxon
origin, that mutton has to sheep, beef to ox, veal to calf, and pork
to bacon ; but, as before stated (p. 162), no sharp distinction can
be drawn between the two, and the collective members of the group
Columbse are by ornithologists ordinarily called
Pigeons. Perhaps the best known species to x^^ss^^i^S
which the latter name is exclusively given in
common speech * is the Wild or PASSENGER-
PIGEON of North America, Ectopistes, already ^

' n . T ECTOPISTES. (After Swamson.)

mentioned; but among the multitudinous

forms very few can here be noticed. A species which seems worthy
of attention as being one that might possibly repay the trouble of
domestication, if any enterprising person would give it the chance,
is the Wonga-wonga or White-fleshed Pigeon of Australia, Leu-
cosarcia picata, a bird larger than the Ring-Dove, of a slaty-blue
colour above and white beneath, streaked on the flanks with black.
It is known to breed, though not very freely, in captivity, and is
said to be excellent for the table. As regards flavour, however,
those who have been so fortunate as to eat them declare that the
green Fruit-Pigeons of the genera Treron and Vinago and their allies
surpass all birds. These inhabit tropical Africa, India, and especi-
ally the Malay Archipelago ; but the probability of domesticating
any of them is very remote. Hardly less esteemed are the Pigeons

VINAGO.

PTILOPUS.
(After Swainsou.)

PHAPS.

of the feather-legged genus Ptilopus and its kindred forms, which
have their headquarters in the Pacific Islands, though some occur
far to the westward, and also in Australia. Among them are
found the most exquisitely-coloured of the whole Family, and the
Fijian Chryswnas victor with its glorious orange plumage especially

1 It may be observed that the "Rock -Pigeons" of Anglo-Indians are SAND-
GROUSE, and the " Cape Pigeon " of sailors is a PETREL.

724

PIGEON

deserves attention, but the beautiful " Bronze- wings " of Australia,
belonging to the genus Phaps, and some others are in their way
hardly inferior. Then may be mentioned the strange Nicobar
Pigeon, Caloenas, an inhabitant of the Indian archipelago, not less
remarkable for the long lustrous hackles that clothe its neck than
for the structure of its gizzard, which has been described by Sir
W. Flower (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1860, p. 330), though this peculiarity
is matched or even surpassed by that of the same organ in the
Phsenorrhina, goliath of New Caledonia (Rev. Zool. 1862, p. 138) and
in the CarpopJmga latrans of Fiji, wherein the surface of the epithelial
lining is beset by horny conical processes, adapted, it is believed,
for crushing the very hard fruits of Onocarpus mtiensis on which the
bird feeds (Proc. Zool Soc. 1878, p. 102), The modern giants of

FOOT OF OJ!NA.

PIGEONS'

shewing amount of feathering of th<
(After Swainson.)

'tarsus.'

HALLUX OF

ENGYPTILA AND PTILOPUS.
(After Swainsou.)

the group, consisting of about half a dozen species of the genus
GOURA and known as Crowned Pigeons have been already noticed,
and all that need be added here is to mention the reticulated
instead of scutellated covering of their " tarsi." In contrast to
them may be mentioned the African (Ena capensis, the " Namaqua
Duif " of the Dutch colonists, which if not the smallest is one of the
most graceful in form of all the Columbx.

A very distinct type of Pigeon is that represented by Didunculus
strigirostris, the " Manu-mea " of Samoa, absurdly called the DODLET,
and still believed by some to be the next of kin to the DODO, though
really presenting only a superficial resemblance in the shape of its
bill to that effete form, from which it differs osteologically quite as
much as do other Pigeons (Phil Trans. 1869, p. 349). It remains
to be seen whether the Papuan genus Otidiphaps, of which several
species are now known, may not belong rather to the Didunculiddz
than to the true Columbidaz.

PILWILLET— PINTADO 725

At least 500 species of Pigeons have been described, and many
methods of arranging them suggested. The most recent is that by
Count T. Salvadori (Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxi. London: 1893), but
though elaborated with the usual skill of that careful worker, it
cannot be deemed satisfactory since it is based only on some
external characters, and of these the amount of feathering of the
" tarsus," which is relied upon by a good many authors, receives
but little notice. Perhaps, however, no other method is at present
possible, for certainly the partial attempt of Garrod (Proc. Zool.
Soc. 1874, pp. 249-259) was not very successful. The Count,
rightly premising that " the Pigeons constitute a very homogeneous
Order," divides it into two Suborders, Columbte and Didi, asserting
that the former of them " does not admit of division into easily
definable or sharply defined groups" (but to this statement Didunculus
proves a striking exception), recognizing it as composed of 5
Families, Treronidse and ColumUdx with 3 subfamilies each ; Peris-
teridx with 7, and Gouridte and Didunculidx, each consisting of a
single genus, and the last of a single species. Of genera he admits
on the whole upwards of 60, to say nothing of subgenera, and it
would be useless here to give even their names, since want of space
forbids anything useful being said of them. The older works on
the group, such as Temminck's folio (Paris : 1808-11), with its con-
tinuation (in 1838-43) by Florent Pr6vost, and Selby's more modest
Natural History of the Columbidse (1835) are of course out of date,
and a new monograph of the Pigeons, containing all the recent dis-
coveries, would be a desirable acquisition.

PILWILLET, one of the many names of the WILLET, Symphemia
semipalmata, but also applied, according to Mr. Dresser (Ibis, 1886,
p. 34), in Galveston Bay to the North- American OYSTER-CATCHER,

Hsematopus palliatus.

PIMLICO, one of the names given to the Australian FRIAR-
BIRD.

PINC-PINC (or rather " Tine-tine "), the name which a South-
African bird, Drymceca or Cisticola textrix, has given itself from its
ringing metallic cry, often uttered as it hovers in the air (Layard,
B. S. Afr. p. 85), and a species chiefly known to English readers
from the often-repeated copy of Le Vaillant's figure (Ois. d'Afr.
pi. 131) of a beautiful nest, which he wrongly assigned to it as its
fabricator, the real builder of the wonderful structure being
(Layard, op. cit. pp. 86, 114) the Kapok wgel (Cotton-bird), ^gi-
thalus capensis, a near ally of d2. pendulinus, the so-called Penduline
TITMOUSE of Europe.

PINK, otherwise Spink, a well-known name of the CHAFFINCH.
PINTADO, a Portuguese word, meaning painted or mottled,

726 PINTAIL— PIPIT

commonly applied in some parts of England, and especially by
some English writers, to the GuiNEA-FOWL, but also by sailors to
the so-called Cape-Pigeon, Daption capensis (PETREL).

PINTAIL, properly the well-known DUCK, the male of which
has the two middle tail-coverts very much elongated and pointed,
the Anas acuta of Linnaeus and Dctfila acuta of modern writers, one

of the most graceful and beautiful of
the Anatinds or so-called " fresh- water "
Ducks, though not distinguished by the
brilliance of its plumage. The drake

BILL OF PINTAIL. (After Swainson.) hag a brown head} whence a dark gtripe

runs down the nape, contrasting with the pure white of the throat
and breast, which is continued upward along the side of the neck
almost to the base of the skull. The upper parts generally are
clothed with feathers marked with fine undulating bars of black and
very light grey, so as to look as of a lavender-colour at a distance,
against which the long and pointed scapulars, of a deep black with
a broad edging of greyish-white, shew conspicuously : the blue-
green speculum of the wing is bordered above by a rust-coloured
and below by a white bar. The female is still more modestly clad,
but the characteristic speculum and a somewhat elongated tail easily
serve to her recognition. The Pintail is common to both areas of
the Holarctic Region, and though not reaching its extreme circum-
polar lands, breeds over most of the northern parts of both New
and Old Worlds ; but few unquestionable instances of its doing so in
the British Islands, except as a captive, are known. Three other
species of the genus Dafila exist, and they resemble D. acuta in the
slenderness of their form, which extends even to the bill, and their
pointed tail. Two belong to South America (Proc. ZooL Soc. 1876,
pp. 392, 393), and the third is the "Ked-billed Teal" of South Africa.
The name Pintail is applied in the colonies and elsewhere by
English-speaking sportsmen to several other birds, as to one of the
GROUSE of North America, Pediocsetes, and to one of the SAND-
GROUSE, Pterodes setarius.

PIPING CROW, see GYMNORHINA.

PIPIRI, one of several local names of Tyrannus griseus or domini-
censis, a TYRANT that is widely spread throughout most parts of the
West Indies.

PIPIT, French Pipit, cognate with the Latin Pipio (see PIGEON,
p. 723), the name applied by ornithologists to a group of birds
having a great resemblance both in habits and appearance to the
LARKS, with which they were formerly confounded by systematists
as they are at the present day in popular speech, but differing from
them in several important characters ; and, having been first separ-

PIRAMIDIG— PITTA 727

ated to form the genus Anthus, which has since been much broken
up, are now generally associated with the WAGTAILS in the Family
Motacillidaz.1 Pipits, of which over 30 species have been described
(cf. Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. x. pp. 534-623), occur in almost all parts
of the world, even New Zealand having its peculiar species, but in
North America are represented by only two forms — Neocorys
spraguii, the Prairie-Lark of the north-western plains, and Anthus
ludovicianus, the American Titlark, which last is very nearly allied to
the so-called Water-Pipit of Europe, A. spipoletta. To most English
readers the best-known species of Pipit is the TITLARK or Meadow-
Pipit, A. pratensis, a bird too common to need description, and
abundant on pastures, moors and uncultivated districts generally ;
but in some localities the Tree-Pipit (to which the name Pipit seems
properly to belong), the A. trivialis, or A. arboreus of some authors,
takes its place, and where it does so it generally attracts attention
by its loud song, which is not unlike that of a Canary-bird, but
usually delivered (as is the habit of most or all the Pipits) on the
wing and during a short circuitous flight. Another species, the
Rock-Lark, A. 'obscurus, scarcely ever leaves the sea-coast and is
found almost all round the British Islands. The South African
genus Macronyx (KALKOENTJE), remarkable for the extreme length
of its hind claw, is generally placed among the Pipits, but differs
from all the rest in its brighter coloration, which has a curious
resemblance to the American genus Sturnella (ICTERUS), though the
bird is certainly not allied thereto.

PIRAMIDIG, a Creole name, according to Gosse (B. Jamaica,
p. 33), of ChordHes virginianus, or more properly C. minor
(NIGHTJAR), being an imitation of its cry uttered during its re-
markable flight, which was minutely described by Osburn (Zool.
1860, pp. 6837-6841).

PIKENET, said to be a local name of the SHELD-DRAKE.
PIRREE, a name often given, from its cry, to a TERN.

PITTA, from the Telugu Pitta, meaning a small Bird, latinized
by Vieillot in 1816 (Analyse, p. 42) as the name of a genus, and
since adopted by English ornithologists as the general name for a
group of Birds, called by the French Brdves, and remarkable for their
great beauty.2 For a long while the Pittas were commonly sup-

1 Pipits can be distinguished from Larks by having the hind part of the
" tarsus " undivided, while the Larks have it scutellated.

2 In Ornithology the word is first found as part of the native name, " Pon-
nunky pitta " of a Bird, given in 1713 by Petiver, on the authority of Buckley,
in the " Mantissa" to Ray's Synopsis (p. 195). This bird is the Pitta bengalensis
of modern ornithologists, and is said by Jerdon (B. Ind. i. p. 503) now to
bear the Telugu name of Pona-inki.

728 PITTA

posed to be allied to the Turdidse, and some English writers applied
to them the names of "GROUND-THRUSHES " (page 388), "Water-
Thrushes " and " ANT-THRUSHES " (page 20), to the first of which
the group has some prescriptive right ; but the second and third
are misapplied since there is no evidence of their having aquatic
habits, or of their preying especially upon ants. The fact that they
had nothing to do with THRUSHES, but formed a separate Family,
was gradually admitted. In 1847 Prof. Cabanis (Arch. f. Naturg.
xiii. 2, i. p. 216) placed them under the CLAMATORES, and their
position was at last determined by Garrod, who, having obtained
examples for dissection, proved (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, pp. 512, 513)
that the Pittidze belonged to that section of Passerine Birds which
he named MESOMYODI. This in itself was an unexpected de-
termination, for all the other birds of the group, as then known,
inhabit the New World, where no Pittas occur. But it is borne
out by, and may even serve to explain, the sporadic distribution of
the latter, which seems to indicate them to be survivors of a some-
what ancient and lower type of Passeres. Indeed except on some
theory of this kind the distribution of the Pittas is almost inex-
plicable. They form a very homogeneous Family, most of its
members bearing an unmistakable resemblance to each other —
though the species inhabit countries so far apart as Angola and
China, India and Australia ; and, to judge from the little that has
been recorded, they are all of terrestrial habit, while their power of
flight, owing to their short wings, is feeble. In 1888 Mr. Sclater
(Cat. B. Br. Mus. xiv. pp. 411-449) recognized 4 genera. They are
Anthodncla with a single species from Tenasserim, remarkable for
the tuft of elongated feathers on each side of its nape ; Pitta with 43
species (to which by now more than one has to be added) of wide
distribution; Eucichla with 5 species, all from the Indo-Malay
countries ; and " Melampitta " (Schlegel),1 with a single species from
New Guinea, which after all may not belong to the Family. Most
of the true Pittas are from the Malay archipelago, between the
eastern and western divisions of which they are pretty equally
divided ; and, in Mr. Wallace's opinion, they attain their maximum
of beauty and variety in Borneo and Sumatra, from the latter of
which islands comes the species, Pitta elegans, here represented.
Few Birds can vie with the Pittas in brightly-contrasted coloration.
Deep velvety black, pure white, and intensely vivid scarlet, tur-
quoise-blue and beryl-green — mostly occupying a considerable
extent of surface — are found in a great many of the species, — to
say nothing of other composite or intermediate hues ; and, though

1 Objection has been taken to this name, which is quite correct in form
(witness Melampus), and Mellopitta (Stejneger, Stand. Nat. Hist. iv. p. 466), Coraco-
pitta (Sclater, ut supr. p. 449) and Coracocichla (Sharpe, op. cit. xvii. p. 7) have
been proposed in its stead.

PITTA 729

in some a modification of these tints is observable, there is scarcely
a trace of any blending of shade, each patch of colour standing out
distinctly. This is perhaps the more remarkable as the feathers

PITTA ELEQANS, male and female. (After Schlegel.)

have hardly any lustre to heighten the effect produced, and in
some species the brightest colours are exhibited by the plumage of
the lower parts of the body. Pittas vary in size from that of a Jay
to that of a Lark, and generally have a strong bill, a thickset form,
which is mounted on rather high legs with scutellated " tarsi," and
a very short tail. In many of the forms there is little or no ex-
ternal difference between the sexes.1

Placed by some authorities among the Pittidx is the genus Phile-
pitta, consisting of two species peculiar to Madagascar, while other
systematists would consider it to form a distinct Family. This last
was the conclusion, the propriety of which can hardly be questioned,
arrived at by W. A. Forbes (Proc. Zool Soc. 1880, pp. 387-391),
from its syringeal characters, which, though shewing it to be allied
to the Pittas, are yet sufficiently different to justify its separation
as the type of a Family Pliilepittidse. The two species which com-
pose it have little outward resemblance to the Pittas, not having

1 All the species then known were figured in Mr. Elliot's Moiwgrapli of the
Pittidse, completed in 1863 ; but so many have since been described, that
he is now bringing out a revised and enlarged edition of this work, as several of
those lately discovered are figured only in Gould's Birds of Asia and Birds of New
Guinea. Mr. Sclater's Catalogue above quoted will be found very useful.

730 PLANTAIN-EA TER—PL O VER

the same style of coloration and being apparently of more arboreal
habits. The sexes differ greatly in plumage, and the males have
the skin round the eyes bare of feathers and carunculated.1

PLANTAIN -EATER, Latham's translation (Suppl ii. Gen.
Synops. p. 104) in 1802 of Isert's generic name Musophaga (Musa
being the botanical name of the genus which contains the Plantains
and Bananas) in 1788 (Beobacht. Gesdlsch. naturf. Freunde, iii. pp.
16-20, pi. 1), see TouRACO.

PLANT-CUTTER, Latham's rendering in 1802 (Suppl. ii. Gen.
Synops. p. 212) of Pkytotoma, the generic name given by Molina in
1782 (Sagg. Star. Nat. Chili, p. 254; Eng. transl. 1809, i. p. 210)
to a bird called, from its harsh and broken cry, " Rara " by the
people of Chili, who bear it no goodwill from its habit of cutting
off growing plants close to the ground with its strongly-serrated bill,
often, says the latter, from sheer wantonness, without eating a
single leaf, and it is said to be also very destructive to the buds of
trees. For a long while classed among the Fringillidse, Musophagidse
or Tanagridx, its complete difference from any one of these Families
became at last evident, and, chiefly from the position of the song-
muscles,2 it is now regarded as forming a Family of its own,
Phytotomid%, one of the undeveloped or lower forms of PASSERES so
abundant in and so characteristic of South America — not to say
Patagonia. Mr. Sclater (Cat. B. Br. Mus. xiv. pp. 406-408) recog-
nizes 3 more species — P. angustirostris from Bolivia, P. raimondii
from the west coast of northern Peru, and P. rutila of the Argen-
tine territory and Patagonia, where it is common, according to
Mr. Hudson, who gives (Argent. Orn. p. 164, pi. viii.) a brief but
lively account of its habits, and pretty figures of both sexes.

PLATYSTERNJS, Nitzsch's name, first published in 1840
(Pterylographia, p. 170), for what Merrem had already termed
EATIT^E.

PLOVEK, French Pluvier, Old French Plovier, which doubtless
has its origin in the Latin pluvia, rain (as witness the German
equivalent JRegenpfeifer, Rain-fifer) ; but the connexion of ideas
between the words therein involved, so that the former should
have become a bird's name, is doubtful. Belon (1555) says that
the name Pluvier is bestowed "pour ce qu'on le prend mieux en
temps pluvieux qu'en nulle autre saison," which is not in accord-

1 It may be remarked that nomenclatural purists, objecting to the names
Pitta and Philepitta as "barbarous," call the former Cololuris and the latter
Paictes. Brachyurus also has frequently been used for Pitta ; but is inadmis-
sible, having been previously applied in another sense.

2 This fact was ascertained and published by Eyton (Zool. Voy. Beagle, Birds
p. 153), from a specimen brought home by Mr. Darwin.

PLOVER 731

ance with modern observation, for in rainy weather Plovers are
wilder and harder to approach than in fine. Others have thought
it is from the spotted (as though with rain-drops) upper plumage of
two of the commonest species of Plovers, to which the name espe-
cially belongs — the Charadrius pluvialis of Linnaeus, or Golden

CHARADRIUS (head and foot). SQUATAROLA (bill and hind toe).

(After Swainson.)

Plover, and the Sguatarola helvetica of recent ornithologists, or Grey
Plover. Both these birds are very similar in general appearance,
but the latter is the larger and has an aborted hind-toe on each
foot,1 while its axillary feathers, which in the Golden Plover are
pure white, are black, and this difference often affords a ready
means of distinguishing the two species when on the wing, even at
a considerable distance. The Grey Plover is a bird of almost
circumpolar range, breeding in the far north of America, Asia and
eastern Europe,2 frequenting in spring and autumn the coasts of the
more temperate parts of each continent, and generally retiring
further southward in winter — examples not unfrequently reaching
the Cape Colony, Ceylon, Australia and even Tasmania. CJiaradrius
pluvialis has a much narrower distribution, though where it occurs
it is much more numerous as a species. Its breeding-quarters do
not extend further than from Iceland to western Siberia, but include
the more elevated tracts in the British Islands, whence in autumn
it spreads itself, often in immense flocks, over the cultivated districts
if the fields be sufficiently open. Here some will remain so long as
the absence of frost or snow permits, but the majority make for the
Mediterranean basin, or the countries beyond, in which to winter ;
and, as with the Grey Plover, stragglers find their way to the

1 But for this really unimportant distinction both would doubtless have been
kept in the same genus, for they agree in most other structural characters. As
it is they have long been sundered.

2 The earliest account of its breeding in America was no doubt mistaken, but
it was found there by Mr. MacFarlane in 1864. The first discovery of its eggs
was by Von Middendorff in 1843, who described them (Sib. Reise, ii. p. 209,
pi. xix. fig. 1), while another obtained by him has since been figured (Proc. ZooL
Soc. 1861, p. 398, pi. xxxix. fig. 2). Subsequently it was found breeding in
Europe by Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Seebohm (Ibis, 1876, pp. 222-230, pi. v.).

732 PLOVER

southern extremity of Africa. The same may be said, mutatis
mutandis , of two other cognate forms, C. virginicus and C. fulvus, which
respectively represent C. pluvialis in America and Eastern Asia, where
they also are known by the same English name. The discrimination
of these two birds from one another requires a very acute eye, and
room is here wanting in which to specify the minute points in
which they differ ; l but both are easily distinguished from their
European ally by their smaller size, their greyish-brown axillary
feathers, and their proportionally longer and more slender legs.
All, however, — and it is the same with the Grey Plover, — undergo
precisely the same seasonal change of colour, greatly altering their
appearance and equally affecting both sexes. In the course of
spring or early summer nearly the whole of the lower plumage
from the chin to the vent, the greater part of which during winter
has been white, becomes deep black. This is partly due to the
growth of new feathers, but partly to some of the old feathers
actually changing their colour, though the way in which the
alteration is brought about is still uncertain.2 A corresponding
alteration is at the same season observable in the upper plumage ;
but this seems chiefly due (as in many other birds) to the shedding
of the lighter-coloured margins of the feathers, and does not produce
so complete a transformation of appearance, though the beauty of
the wearer is thereby greatly increased.

The birds just spoken of are those most emphatically entitled
to be called Plovers; but the DOTTEREL, the group of Ringed
Plovers before mentioned (KILLDEER) and the LAPWING, with
their allies, have, according to usage, hardly
less claim to the name, which is also ex-
tended to some other more distant forms
that can here have only the briefest notice.
Among them one of the most remarkable

PLUVIANUS. (After Swainson.) , °~7 TT .. -

is the Pluvianus or Hyas zegyptius ot orni-
thologists, celebrated for the services it is said to render to the
crocodile — a small bird whose plumage of delicate lavender and cream-

1 Schlegel (Mus. Pays-Bas, Cursores, p. 53) states that in some examples it
seems impossible to determine the form to which they belong ; but ordinarily
American specimens are rather larger and stouter, and have shorter toes than
those from Asia.

2 It is much to be regretted that ornithologists favourably situated in regard
to zoological gardens have not used more extensively opportunities which might
there be enjoyed of conducting useful observations on this subject and others of
the kind. Elsewhere it would be hardly possible to carry on such an investiga-
tion, and even in the best circumstances it would not be easy and would require
unremitting attention. The results of some partial observations superintended
by Yarrell in the gardens of the Zoological Society of London are given in its
Transactions (i. pp. 13-19). Little of this nature has been done there since.

PLOVER 733

colour is relieved by markings of black and white.1 This probably
belongs to the small section generally known as COURSERS, Cursorius,
allied to which are the curious PRATINCOLES, also peculiar to the
Old World, while the genera Thinocorys and Attagis form an outlying
group peculiar to South America, that is by some systematists
regarded as a separate Family " Thinocoridx" near which are often
placed the singular SHEATHBILLS. By most authorities the Stone-
CURLEWS, the OYSTER-CATCHERS and TURNSTONES are also re-
garded as belonging to the Family Charadriidte, and some would
add the AVOSETS and STILTS, among which the CRAB-PLOVER or
" Cavalier," Drmnas ardeola — a form that has been bandied about
from one Family and even Order to another — should possibly find
its place.

Though the various forms here spoken of as Plovers are closely
allied, they must be regarded as constituting a somewhat indefinite
group, for no very strong line of demarcation can be drawn be-
tween them and the SANDPIPERS and SNIPES. United, however,
with both of the latter, under the name of LIMICOL^E, after the
method approved by recent systematists, the whole form an
assemblage the compactness of which no observant ornithologist
can hesitate to admit, even if he be not inclined to treat as its
nearest relations the BUSTARDS on the one hand and the " GAVLE "
on the other.2

1 The elder Geoffroy-St. Hilaire (M6m. du Mus. xv. pp. 466, 467) in 1827
was apparently the first to identify this bird with the rpox^Xos of Herodotus (cf.
HUMMING-EXPO), p. 442, note 2), and did so from having actually seen it enter
the Crocodile's mouth, while his testimony is confirmed by the experience of
Dr. A. E. Brehin, who says (Thierleben, Vogel, ed. 2, iii. p. 216) that he had
repeatedly seen it thus act. In the face of the positive assurance of two such com-
petent witnesses it would be rash to conclude that another observer, who seems
to be no ornithologist, is right in attributing (Ibis, 1893, p. 277) the part of the
"Crocodile-bird" to Hoplopterus spinosus (LAPWING), though Dr. A. L. Adams
(Ibis, 1864, p. 29) and Mr. A. C. Smith (Attractions of the Nile, ii. pp. 255,
256) — neither of whom had witnessed the feat — had already made the same
suggestion. However, other ornithological observers of equal, if not greater
repute, such as Mr. E. C. Taylor (Ibis, 1859, p. 52 ; 1867, p. 68), Von Henglin
(Orn. Nord-ost Africa's, pp. 978, 979), and M. d'Aubusson (Echassiers d'Egypte,
pp. 16-18), without professing personal experience, hold to Pluvianus rather
than Hoplopterus being the reptile's benefactor, and so the matter must be left,
though the balance of scientific opinion is sufficiently declared.

2 In this connexion it is necessary to mention Mr. Seebohm's lavishly illus-
trated Geographical Distribution of the Family Charadriidas (4 to, London : without
date, but published in 1887), under which term he comprises all the ordinary
Plovers, Sandpipers and Snipes, but excludes Attagis, Chionis, Dromas and
Thinocorys. It would be out of place here to dwell upon his speculations, and
it is enough to state his arrangement of the forms he includes. Professing to
despise "structural characters," upon them he yet chiefly grounds nearly all
his groups, but chooses characters which most taxonomers regard as of minor

734 PLOVERS PAGE-POCHARD

PLOVEK'S PAGE, a local name for the DUNLIN from its
curious habit of flying in company with a Golden PLOVER, as
though waiting upon it, when both species are breeding on the
same part of a moor. The common Icelandic name L6ubrsell
(anciently L6ar\>r8ell) has a like origin, L6a being a Plover and
}>r£ell (Anglice thrall) a servant.

POCHAED, POCKAED or POKEE,1 names properly belonging
to the male of a species of Duck (the female of which is known as
the Dunbird), the Anas ferina of Linnaeus, and Nyroca, dEthyia, or
Fuligula ferina of later ornithologists — but names very often applied

by writers in a general way to most of
the subfamily " Fuligulmse" commonly
called Diving or Sea-DucKS, the mem-
bers of which can be readily distin-
guished by the greater development of

SEA- " • the lobe Qf the hallux from thoge of

&, OF "FRESHWATER '-DUCK. A -n T T^ i

(After Swainson.) tne -^na^n^ or Freshwater - Ducks.

The Pochard in full plumage is a very

handsome bird, with a coppery-red head, on the sides of which

importance, while those which seem far more significant are entirely neglected,
so that his remark that his subdivisions are "very probably artificial" will not
provoke dissent. In diagnosing his three subfamilies (p. 66), his " Scolopacinee "
are distinguished by having the "toes all cleft to the base" — his other two,
" Totaninse" and " Charadriinse," by having the "middle and outer toes con-
nected by a web at the base." Yet having assigned so much value to the pre-
sence or absence of the interdigital web, which seldom exists but in a rudimentary
state, when it becomes most developed he proceeds to disregard it wholly by
uniting in one genus the AVOSETS and the STILTS, and no reason is given for
this inconsistency. What to most ornithologists seems a character of some
significance, as directly affecting the bird's economy, is by him wholly disregarded.
This is the structure of the bill— whether it be a hard and horny chisel as in an
OYSTER-CATCHER or a TURNSTONE, or a sensitive organ of perception as in a
SNIPE or a GODWIT. Thus we find H&matopus grouped with Limosa, and Strep-
silos with Scolopax, while Tringa and Ereunetes are severed. It would not be
so very great an exaggeration of Mr. Seebohm's practice to say that when two
species have very different bills it is expedient to put them in the same subfamily,
if not (as in the cases of Anarhynchus and ^Egialitis, and of Eurinorhynchus
and Tringa) in the same genus. If results like these legitimately follow— though
this I take leave to doubt — from the teaching of ' ' the new school of modern
ornithologists" (p. iv.), a man who has any regard for common sense, not to say
for science, may congratulate himself on not being imputed a member of it. Yet
the many beautiful figures given by Mr. Seebohm will always make his work
acceptable to ornithologists of all schools, despite his numerous vagaries.

1 The derivation of these words, in the first of which the ch is pronounced
hard, and the o in all of them generally long, is very uncertain. Cotgrave has
Pocheculier, which he renders " Shoueler," nowadays the name of a kind of
Duck, but in his time meaning the bird we commonly call SPOONBILL. Littre
gives Pochard as a popular French word signifying drunkard. That this word

POCHARD 735

sparkle the ruby irides of his eyes, relieved by the greyish-blue
of the basal half of his broad bill, and the deep black of his
gorget, while his back and flanks appear of a light grey, being
really of a dull white closely barred by fine undulating black
lines. The tail-coverts both above and below are black, the quill
feathers brownish-black, and the lower surface of a dull white. The
Dunbird has the head and neck reddish-brown, with ill-defined whitish
patches on the cheeks and chin, brown irides, the back and upper tail-
coverts dull brown, and the rest of the plumage, except the lower
tail-coverts, which are brownish -grey, much as in the Pochard.
This species is very abundant in many parts of Europe, northern
Asia, and North America, generally frequenting in winter the larger
open waters, and extending its migrations to Barbary and Egypt,
but in summer retiring northward and inland to breed, and is
one that has certainly profited by the legislative protection lately
afforded to it in Britain, for, whereas during many years it had
but a single habitual breeding -place left in England, it is now
known to have several, to some of which it resorts in no incon-
siderable numbers. American examples seem to be slightly larger
and somewhat darker in colour, and hence by some writers have
been regarded as specifically distinct under the name of N. or F.
ainericana ; but America has a perfectly distinct though allied species
in the celebrated Canvas-back Duck, N. vallisneriana, a much larger
bird, with a longer, higher and narrower bill, which has no blue at
the base, and, though the plumage of both, especially in the females,
is very similar, the male Canvas-back has a darker head, and the
black lines on the back and flanks are much broken up and further
asunder, so that the effect is to give these parts a much lighter
colour, and from this has arisen the bird's common though fanciful
name. Its scientific epithet is derived from the freshwater plant,
a species of Fallisneria, usually known as " wild celery," from feed-
ing on which its flesh is believed to acquire the delicate flavour that
is held in so great a repute. The Pochard and Dunbird, however,
in Europe are in much request for the table (as the German name
of the species, Tafelente, testifies), though their quality in this
respect depends almost wholly on the food they have been eating,
for birds killed on the sea-coast are so rank as to be almost worth-
less, while those that have been frequenting fresh water are generally
well- tasted.1

would in the ordinary way become the English Pochard or Poker may be regarded
as certain ; but then it is not known to be used in French as a bird's name.

1 The plant known in some parts of England as "willow- weed "—not to be
confounded, as is done by some writers, with the willow-wort (Epilobium) — one
of the many species of Potygonum, is especially a favourite food with most kinds
of Ducks, and to its effects is attributed much of the fine flavour which distinguishes
the birds that have had access to it.

736 POCHARD

Among other species nearly allied to the Pochard that frequent
the northern hemisphere may be mentioned the ScAUP-Duck, N.
marila, with its American representative N. affinis, in both of which
the male has the head black, glossed with blue or green ; but these
are nearly always uneatable from the nature of their food, which is
mostly gathered at low tide on the "scaups" or "scalps"1 — as
the banks on which mussels and other marine mollusks grow are in
many places termed. Then there are the Tufted Duck, N. cristata
— black with a crest and white flanks — and its American equivalent
N. collaris, and the White-eyed or Castaneous Duck, N. castanea or
F. nyroca, and the Red-crested Duck, N. rufina — both peculiar to the
Old World, and the last, conspicuous for its red bill and legs, well
known in India. In the southern hemisphere the genus is repre-
sented by three species, N. capensis, N. australis and N. novx-zealandiae,
whose respective names indicate the country each inhabits, and in
South America exists a somewhat divergent form which has been
placed in a distinct genus as Metopiana peposaca.

Leaving the SCOTERS for further consideration, a few words
may be here added to what has been already said of the small
group known as the EIDERS, which, though generally classed with
the " Fuligulinse," differ from them in several respects: the bulb at
the base of the trachea in the male, so largely developed in the
members of the genus Nyroca, and of conformation so similar in
all of them, is here much smaller and wholly of bone ; the males
take a much longer time, two or even three years, to attain their
full plumage, and some of the feathers on the head, when that
plumage is completed, are always stiff, glistening and of a peculiar
pale -green colour. This little group of hardly more than half a
dozen species may be fairly considered to form a separate genus
under the name of Somateria. Many authors indeed have — un-
justifiably, as it seems to the present writer — broken it up into
three or four genera. The well-known Eider, S. mollissima, is the
largest of this group, and, beautiful as it is, is excelled in beauty
by the King-Duck, S. spectabilis, and the little S. stelleri. Space
fails here to treat of the rest, but the sad fate which has overtaken
one of them, S. labradoria, has been before mentioned (EXTERMINA-
TION, pp. 22 1-223) ;2 and only the briefest notice can be taken of

1 Cognate with scallop, and the Dutch schelp, a shell.

2 The statements made at this reference have been criticized by Mr. Butcher
(Auk, 1894, pp. 4-12). In the main they are confirmed by what he says,
though he adduces evidence, which it is not for me to dispute, as to examples
of the species, subsequently adding (torn. tit. p. 176) one more, having been
obtained since 1852, the latest year that had been known to me as a certainty
for its existence. "Whether it survived (as is now, to use the American idiom,
"claimed") until 1875 signifies little. That it is extinct I think no one will
justifiably deny, though no one would be better pleased than myself to learn that

PODARG US—POPELER 737

that most interesting form generally, but obviously in error, placed
among them, the LOGGER-HEAD (p. 518), Racehorse or Steamer-
Duck, Tachyeres or Micropterus cinereus of the Falkland Islands and
Straits of Magellan — nearly as large as a tame Goose, and subject,
as is asserted, to the, so far as known, unique peculiarity of losing
its power of flight after reaching maturity.

PODARGUS, a genus of birds so named by Vieillot in 1819,
being based on the Podarge of Cuvier, and used by Gould and
other writers as an English word (see MOREPORK, p. 592, and
NIGHTJAR, p. 638).

POE-BIRD, another name for the PARSON-BIRD.

POLLEX, the thumb or first digit of the wing, never consisting
of more than two phalanges, of which the terminal one is often
aborted or absent; but, when fully developed, it often bears a
horny CLAW. From the basal phalanx grows the so-called " bastard
wing."

POLYMYODI (or POLYMYOD^E if a feminine termination
be needed), Johannes Miiller's name (Abhandl. k Akad. Berlin, Phys.
Kl. 1847, p. 366) for the first of his three groups of PASSERINI,
from the many song-muscles they possess, equivalent to the OSCINES
of Keyserling and Blasius.

POMPADOUR,1 the name given by Edwards in 1759
(Gleanings, ii. p. 275, pi. 341) to one of the most beautiful of
the Cotingidds (CHATTERER), and since generally adopted, though
prior to his publication of the species it had been already described
and figured by Brisson (Ornithol. ii. p. 347, pi. xxxv. fig. 1). It
is the Ampelis pompadora of Linnaeus, referred now to the genus
Xipholena, a native of Guiana, Surinam and Cayenne, and easily
recognized by the shining crimson-purple of its plumage, set off
by its white wings. Two other allied species, X. atripurpurea and
X. lamellipennis, inhabit Brazil (cf. Sclater, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xiv.
pp. 387-389).

POOL-SNIPE, said to be a local name of the REDSHANK.
POOR SOLDIER, a name for the Australian FRIAR-BIRD.

POPE, one of the many local names of the PUFFIN, Fratercula
arctica, as well as of the BULLFINCH.

POPELER, an old name for the SPOONBILL, Platalea leucorodia,

it is not so ; but anybody who has taken the trouble to investigate the history
of an exterminated species will find that to determine the time when it ceased
from appearing is no easy thing.

1 As a bird's name in French, Pompadour signifies a breed of domestic poultry,
apparently that which we call the Polish.

47

POPINJA Y—PO WDER-DO WNS

possibly a mispronunciation of the Dutch Lepelaar, which means
the same bird.

POPINJAY, a word of respectable antiquity since it is used
in some manuscript copies of Chaucer (Canterb. Tales, 13,299),
while the French Papegai, written "Papejay," is used in others.
Prof. Skeat, whose remarks (Etymol. Did. p. 456) deserve all
attention, concludes " that F. papegai, a talking jay, was modified
from the older 0. F. papegau, a talking cock," akin to the Italian
Papagallo — the first half of all these words being cognate with
" babble." Originally the name signified PARROT, but since most
of the best-known Parrots are green, it has in this country been
transferred to the Green WOODPECKER. It was also the wooden
figure of a bird set up as a mark to be shot at. The Arabic
babaghd (a Parrot), from which some derive Papagau and other
forms, seems itself to be a corruption of the Spanish Papagayo.

PORT-EGMONT HEN, the Southern Great SKUA, so called
by seamen in the last century from its familiarity about the place
of that name in the Falkland Islands (cf. Latham, Gen. Synops.
iii. p. 386).

POST -BIRD, a local name of the Spotted FLYCATCHER,
Muscicapa grisola, from its habit of sitting on posts when looking
out for prey (see p. 274).

POTOO, the Creole name for one of the NIGHTJARS, NyctiUus
jamaicensis (Gosse, B. Jamaica, p. 41).

POWDER-DOWNS are so called from the powder produced
by the continuous disintegration of the numerous brush-like barbs
and barbules, into which the barrel is constantly splitting as it
grows without forming a principal shaft. In size, form and
situation they vary much. In the Psittaci they are very short
tufts, the barrel hardly projecting from the skin, while in Botaurus
the barrel is nearly half an inch long, and bears a short tuft of
very fine filaments. In Podargus they attain their extreme size
and complexity, being about two inches long. In some cases
Powder-downs occur over the greater part of the body, among the
contour-feathers as well as on the featherless spaces, in others they
grow in more or less distinct tracts or in compact patches. The
appearance of these peculiar organs, scattered as it were through-
out various groups — Tinamous, Herons, Diurnal Birds-of-Prey,
Parrots and in a few members of other groups — seems to be
rather an illustration of isomorphism than an indication of affinity.
Hitherto they have been found to exist as follows : —

Crypturi — interspersed among the contour-feathers of the large
dorsal tract.

PO WEE— PRAIRIE-CHICKEN 739

Ardeidx — all the Herons and Bitterns possess them in pairs,
forming large thick patches on the breast, the lower back and
frequently on the abdomen. These patches are greasy and yellow
at the base, but the tufts are very fine, grey or blackish, and
produce a bluish powder.

Balxniceps — a pair of large patches on the middle of the lower
back.

Ehinochetus and Eurypyga — numerous, forming tracts as well as
detached spots.

Mesites — five pairs of patches, the arrangement of which some-
what resembles the distribution of the powder-downs in the two
genera last named.

Accipitres — at present only found in Elanus, Cymindis and
Circus, as a large united patch on the lower back or as a pair on
the same part. Nitzsch states that Gypaetus has scattered powder-
downs during its immaturity, and probably many other Accipitres,
especially of the Vulturidse, will on further examination have to be
included.

Psittaci — numerous scattered tracts and separate tufts on the
neck, shoulders and sides of the trunk, in the Cacatuinse, in Chry-
sotis and in Psittacus.

Podargus — a pair of extremely developed patches on the lower
back.

Leptosoma — resembles the last in the distribution of the patches,
but Coracias has only scattered powder-downs.

Passeres — in this enormous group Artamus is the only genus
known to possess them. They occur in all the species, in patches
on the sides of the breast, the thighs and lower back, and have a
strong barrel, one-third of an inch long.

(See FEATHERS, PTERYLOSIS.)

POWEE, commonly applied in the West Indies to Crax alector,
if not to the CURASSOWS generally, and said in 1769, by Bancroft,
who spells the word "Powese" (Nat. Hist. Guyana, pp. 193-195),
to be so called " by the natives from their cry, which is similar to
that name." Frisch in 1763 (Vorstell. Vog. Deutschl. u. s.w. Haupt-
Art. ix. Abth. 2, No. iv.) has the word Poes, which Buffon (Hist.
Nat. Ois. ii. p. 374) misprinted Pocs, while P. L. S. Miiller
(Natursyst. ii. p. 465) spells it Pauwis. It seems possible that the
Dutch Paauw (Peacock) may be the origin of the word.

PR^ECOCES, the name given by Sundevall (K. Fet.-Acad.
Handl. 1836, p. 70), to his second section of the Class Aves,
in contradistinction to ALTRICES, but subsequently abandoned by
him.

PRAIRIE-CHICKEN, PRAIRIE-HEN, names given by the

740 PRATINCOLE

English in North America to what is known in books as the
Pinnated GROUSE, the Tympanuchus americanus of recent authors;
or, where that does not occur, to forms of the allied genus Pediocsetes
— the Sharp-tailed GROUSE ; but, according to Mr. Trumbull (Names
and Portr. of Birds, Index, p. 218), the term "Prairie" is prefixed
by American sportsmen to many more kinds of birds than there is
need here to specify.

PKATINCOLE, a word invented in 1773 by Pennant (Gen. B.
p. 48), being an English adaptation of Pratincola, applied in 1756 by
Kramer (Elenclms, p. 381) to a bird which had hitherto received no
definite name, though it had long before been described and even
recognizably figured by Aldrovandus (Ornithologia, xvii. 9) under the
vague designation of " hirundo marina." It is the Glareola pratincola of
modern ornithologists, forming the type of a genus Glareola, founded
by Brisson in 1760, and unquestionably belonging (as is now
generally admitted) to the group LIMICOL^E, being either placed
among the Charadriidas (PLOVER,) or regarded as constituting a separate
Family Glareolidse. The Pratincoles, of which Mr. Seebohm (Chara-
driidze, pp. 252-269) recognizes ten species — the last resting on a
single specimen procured by the late Emin Pasha and described by
Captain Shelley (Proc. Zool Soc. 1888, p. 49) — are all small birds,
slenderly built and mostly delicately coloured, with a short stout
bill, a wide gape, long pointed wings and a tail more or less forked.
In some of their habits they are thoroughly Plover-like, running
very swiftly and breeding on the ground, but on the wing they
have much the appearance of Swallows, and like them feed, at least
partly, while flying.1 The ordinary Pratincole of Europe, G.
pratincola, breeds abundantly in many parts of Spain, Barbary and
Sicily, along the valley of the Danube, and in Southern Russia, while

1 This combination of characters for many years led systematists astray,
though some of them were from the first correct in their notions as to the
Pratincole's position. Linnseus, even in his latest publication, placed it in the
genus Hirundo ; but the interleaved and annotated copies of his Systema Nature
in the Linnean Society's library shew the species marked for separation and
insertion in the Order Grallse — Pratincola trachelia being the name by which he
had meant to designate it in any future edition. He seems to have been induced
to this change of view mainly through a specimen of the bird sent to him by
John the brother of Gilbert White ; but the opinion published in 1769 by Scopoli
(Ann. I. hist, naturalis, p. 110) had doubtless contributed thereto, though the
earlier judgment to the same effect of Brisson, as mentioned above, had been dis-
regarded. Want of space here forbids a notice of the different erroneous assign-
ments of the form, some of them made even by recent authors, who neglected the
clear evidence afforded by the internal structure of the Pratincole. It must
suffice to state that Sundevall in 1873 (Tentamen, p. 86) placed Glareola among
the Caprimulgidse, a position which its osteology shews cannot be maintained
for a moment.

PRIMARIES , 741

owing to its great powers of flight it frequently wanders far from
its home, and more than a score of examples have been recorded
as occurring in the British Islands. In the south-east of Europe a
second and closely-allied species, G. nordmanni or G. melanoptera,
which has black instead of chestnut inner wing-coverts, accompanies
or, further to the eastward, replaces it ; and in its turn it is replaced
in India, China and Australia by G. arientalis. Australia also
possesses another species, G. grallaria, remarkable for the great
length of its wings and much longer legs, while its tail is scarcely
forked — peculiarities that have led to its being considered the type
of a distinct genus or subgenus Stiltia. Two species, G. lactea and
G. cinerea, from India and Africa respectively, seem by their pale
coloration to be desert-forms, and they are the smallest of this
curious little group. The species whose mode of nidification is
known lay either two or three eggs, stone-coloured, blotched, spotted
and streaked with black or brownish-grey. The young when
hatched are clothed in down and are able to run at once — just as
are young Plovers.

PRIMARIES, the larger quill-feathers of the wing growing
from the manus, the rational mode of counting which is to begin, as
with the CUBITALS, at the wrist, but to proceed outwards, so that the
distal quill is the last, and not the first as in the popular way of
enumeration.1 The number of Primaries varies little. Most Birds
possess 10 or 11 ; but 12 are found in Podicipes, Phwnicopterus and
some of the Ciconiidte, as Anastomus, Leptoptilus, Mycteria and Tantalus.
As a rule the first 6 quills rest upon the united metacarpal bones
ii. and iii., and when there are 1 2 Primaries 7 of them so originate,
but the following Primary is always borne by the first phalanx of digit
iii., while the next two quills are attached in all Carinatse to the first
phalanx of digit ii., its second phalanx carrying the rest — 3 in
Struthio, 2 in birds with 11, and only 1 in those with 10 Primaries ;
but here are to be mentioned certain special conditions. Struthio
has as many as 1 6 Primaries, 8 of which belong to the metacarpals,
while Rhea has the normal 12, and in Casuarius only 2 or 3 are
attached to the manus, the rest of its barbless quills being really
Cubitals. Archseopteryx apparently had only 6 or 7 Primaries, but
it is doubtful whether they proceeded from the index and its
metacarpal alone, or chiefly from the third digit and its metacarpal.2
Peculiar conditions, hitherto unexplained, prevail also in the Sphenisci,

1 In a wider sense the stiff feathers, from 2 to 4 in number, which grow from
the POLLEX, and form the alula or "bastard wing," may also be accounted
Primaries.

2 As before stated (p. 279) the manus of Arch&opteryx had 3 free digits ; but
I conceive the figure from Vogt (p. 280) to be fanciful and erroneous. The main
point is the regularly-increasing number of the phalanges — the pollex having 2,
the index 3 and the third digit 4.

742

PRION

which seem to have no true remiges, the posterior edge of their
flipper-like wings being formed of a greatly increased number of
little stiff feathers.

The number of Primaries indicates a gradual reduction beginning
at the distal end. Omitting the few birds with 7 metacarpal quills,
we find that the llth or terminal quill is never fully developed and
often scarcely functional. It is always much shortened and con-
cealed between its upper and lower covert, being not unfrequently
shorter and weaker than its covert, which in that case is sometimes
stiff. In some Eails and in many Passeres the llth quill is
very small indeed, or may be wholly absent. In this case, how-
ever, the upper covert is present as an apparently supernumerary
feather, provided that the 10th quill is not much reduced. This
last shews every intermediate stage between the largest develop-
ment possible as in Larus and Cypselus, and a degenerate condition
as in many of the so-called " Oscines novempennatze," 1 where the 10th
primary is supposed to be absent or at least extremely small and
concealed. In reality it is always present, even in the Dicseidaz,
while in some Hirundinidse it is more than half an inch, and in
Ictendas may be more than an inch long. In fact there are few
birds in which this " absent " quill does not measure the third of
an inch in length (see REMIGES).

PRION, a genus of PETRELS established by Lacepede (M4m..de
I'lnst. iii. p. 514), on account of the denticulated or serrated edges

PRION VITTATUS. (After Buller.)

of their mandibles, and used as an English word by many writers.
To it are referred the Procellaria mttata of Gmelin and several other

1 Equivalent to the "Tanagroid Passeres" of Mr. Wallace (Ibis, 1874, p.
410), or the "Passeres Fringilliformes " of the Catalogue of the Birds in the
British Museum, vols. x.-xii.

PROMEROPS—PSITTA COMORPH& 743

species, all — with perhaps one exception, the P. brevirostris of Gould
(Proc. Zool. Soc. 1855, p. 88, pi. xciii.), if indeed that be distinct,
as seems very doubtful, from his P. ariel — belonging to the southern
hemisphere. They are remarkable also for the breadth of their
bill at the base.

PROMEKOPS, a name, long since Anglicized, invented by
Reaumur, says Brisson (Ornithol. ii. p. 460, pi. xliii. fig. 2), who used
it in a generic sense for a small South - African bird with plain
plumage and a remarkably long tail. Without having seen a
specimen Linnaeus referred it to the genus Upupa (HOOPOE), but
also described the same species, from a drawing sent to him by
Burmann, as a Merops (BEE-EATER). Promerops, however, has
nothing to do with either, though perhaps its true affinity is not
yet correctly determined. Most modern systematists think it allied
to the SUN-BIRDS 1 (cf. Layard, B. S. Afr. pp. 74, 75, and Shelley,
Monogr. Nectariniidds, p. 377, pi. 121), though it has none of the
brilliant hues that distinguish most of that group, its yellow vent
being all that enlivens the soberly-mottled white of its lower parts,
while above it is of a uniform greyish-brown. A considerable
number of birds, having apparently no affinity at all to it, have
been referred to the genus Promerops, which probably should be
regarded as the type of a Family. Natal furnishes a second species,
P. gurneyi, described and figured by Verreaux (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871,
p. 135, pi. viii.)

PROUD TAILOR, a local name for the GOLDFINCH.

PSEUDOSCINES, Mr. Sclater's name (Ibis, 1880, p. 345) for
the abnormal AcROMYODi of Garrod ; but, being of hybrid derivation,
Dr. Gadow (Thier-reich, Fogel, System. Th. pp. 173, 177) substituted
SUBOSCINES in its stead, correlative with his SUBCLAMATORES.

PSILOP^EDES, a name proposed in 1872 by Sundevall
(Tentamen, p. 1) for his first division (agmen) of the Class Aves, being
the Birds whose young are naked before their feathers grow : in
1873 changed (torn. cit. p. 158) to Gymnopxdes, to prevent confusion
with PTILOP^EDES.

PSITTACI, given in 1826-8 as the name of a Family or group
consisting of the PARROTS, by Ritgen (N. Act. Acad. L.-C. Nat. Cur.
xiv. part i. pp. 231, 243), and afterwards adopted as that of an
Order by Bonaparte and other authors, equivalent therefore to the

PSITTACOMORPH^E of Prof. Huxley (Proc. Zool Soc. 1867,
pp. 465, 466), by whom it was regarded as the sixth group of his
DESMOGNATH^E.

1 In the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum (vol. ix. ) Promerops is
placed among the Meliphaginse ; but apparently not with the approval of the
author (torn. cit. p. 209).

744

PTARMIGAN— PTER YLOSIS

PTARMIGAN, Gael. Tarmachan, see GROUSE (p. 392, note).

PTEROCLETES,1 Mr. Sclater's name (Ibis, 1880, p. 407) for
the Order composed of the SAND-GROUSE, equivalent to the

PTEROCLOMORPILE of Prof. Huxley (Proc. Zool Soc. 1868,
p. 303), which itself was anticipated as a group by Bonaparte's
Pediophili in 1831 (Saggio &c. p. 54).

PTERYGOIDS, a pair of bones in the roof of the mouth of every
bird, articulating with the QUADRATES and the anterior end of the
PALATALS, as well as, directly or indirectly, with the Basi-sphenoid
and other parts of the SKULL.

PTERYLOSIS signifies plumage considered in regard to the

distribution of its
growth. In only a
few Birds do the
FEATHERS grow over
the whole body, but
they are generally
restricted to well-
defined patches or
tracts, which in 1833
received from Nitzsch
(Pterylographise A mum
pars prior , p. 11) the
name oipteryla (n-rcpov,
pluma ; v\rj, sylva) or
" feather-forests," in
opposition to the ap-
teria, or featherless
spaces, which inter-
vene. Presumably
the first bird-like crea-
tures had their skin
uniformly clothed ;
but the Ratitse, Sphen-
isci and Palamedea are
almost the only exist-
ing forms having the
" Contour - feathers "
(p. 241) evenly dis-
posed over the body.
It would be, however,
1 It is no more easy to find a plural for the word Pterodes than for Patrocles,
Themistocles or many others, but we may be quite sure that it would not take
this form. Sundevall many years ago (K. Vet.- Ac. Handl. 1836, p. 119) had
Pteroctides, which is perhaps possible.

BOTATTRUS STELLARIS. Ventral and dorsal aspect.

The dark patches shew the "Powder-downs."

(After Nitzsch.)

PTERYLOSIS

745

a fallacy to look on this feature as proof of an archaic condition
in them, since fully-developed embryos of both Struthio and Apteryx,
have well-defined pterylse. If treated skilfully, Pterylosis is of prime
taxonomic importance in Ornithology, though more in the investi-
gation of small than of large groups. Unfortunately it can seldom
be described in a few words, and hence it is chiefly or only those
among its characters which can be expressed in terse and trim
formulae that appeal most
to the mechanical con-
structor of classifications.1

The principal pterylaz
or feathered tracts are as
follows : —

(1) Spinal tract (pt.
spinalis\ extending along
the vertebral column from
neck to tail, bordered by
the lateral, cervical and
trunk apteria or f eatherless
spaces. This tract is one
of the most variable, its
modifications, of which
Nitzsch enumerated 1 7,
being practically count-
less. It is rarely of the
same width throughout,
and is most frequently
dilated on the back or
between the shoulders,
with or without a featherless space in the midst, the position and
size of which varies much. In Pelecanus, Fregata, Phaethon and Ardea
the space is narrow, and extends from the neck to the tail, in others
as Podicipes, Ciwuli, Cypselus, Coracias and Opisthocomus it is re-
stricted to the back, in Sula to the interscapular region, in Colymbus
to the neck. In some birds this apterium, whether interscapular,
dorsal or lumbar, is rhomboidal, and it may become so large as to
interrupt the spinal pteryla, which may end in an interscapular fork
and begin again with a sacral bifurcation, or as a single streak ; but
there is no apterium in the spinal pteryla of the following : — Batitse,
Sphenisci, Phalacrocorax, Plotus, Palamedea, Tinami, Gallinse (pt.),

1 Even this has taken place within comparatively few years, for Nitzsch's
great work on the subject Ptcrylographie (Halle : 1840, 4to), which after his death
was edited by Burraeister, excited but little and mostly unfavourable notice for
nearly a quarter of a century after its publication. An English translation by
the late Mr. Dallas was brought out in folio by Mr. Sclater for the Ray Society
in 1867.

CHARADEIUS PLUVIALIS. Ventral and dorsal aspect.
(After Nitzsch.)

746

PTERYLOSIS

Grues (pt.), Pterocles, Alcedinidw, Momotidse, Todidse, Colii, Trogones,
Menura, Atrichia and most Oscines.

(2) Ventral tract (pt. ventralis). This is nearly as diverse as
the foregoing, and is next to it in taxonomic value. It always has
a longitudinal median apterium of variable extent, but in Stegano-
podes this is only a narrow space extending from the furcula to the
vent, while in Ardea each half of the pteryla is but a narrow band.
The presence and shape of a lateral pectoral branch is also an
important feature.

(3) Neck-tract (pt. colli). This is unbroken in fiatitte, Sphenisci,
Colymbus, Podicipes, Steganopodes, Ciconiidx, Plataleidte, Phcenicopterus,

COLTJAIBA LIVIA. Ventral and dorsal aspect.
(After Nitzsch.)

Anseres, Palamedea, DicJwlophus, Otis tarda (not 0. tetrax), Eupodotis,
Eurypyga, Podica, Eliynchsea, Opisthocomus and Buceros. All other
birds have lateral cervical apteria of variable length, sometimes in
addition to the median cervical apteria which, whether dorsal or
ventral, are often long. What Nitzsch called pterylse colli laterales,
divided by a very broad dorsal and a ventral cervical apterium, occur
only in the Herons and in Otis tetrax.

4. Wing-tract (pt. alaris), composed of the REMIGES with their
coverts, and hence of great importance.

5. Tail-tract (pt. caudalis), composed chiefly of the RECTRICES
with their upper and lower coverts.

6. Shoulder-tract (pt. humeralis), always well marked, consist-
ing of the feathers, often called tertials, which grow from the

PTERYLOSIS

747

humerus, and with the SCAPULARS forming a narrow band across
the upper arm parallel to the shoulder-blade.

7. Femoral or Lumbar tract (pt. femoralis s. lumbalis), forming
an oblique band on the outer side of the thigh.

8. Crural tract (pt. cruralis), clothing the legs so far as they
are feathered.

9. Head -tract (pt. capitis), that which covers the head.
Remarkable and of rare occurrence is a well-defined occipital
apterium as is seen in Colius and Trochilidss.

10. Tract of the OlL-GLAND (pt. uropygii).

The description of the Pterylosis of any bird is not exhausted
by an enumeration of the
pterylx and apteria, but should
also include the disposition of
Downs, other than POWDER-
DOWNS, both in the young
and the old. The distribution
of Downs on the featherless
spaces as well as among the
contour-feathers is a primary
feature, and is characteristic
of the following — Accipitres,
Alddse, Anseres, Cathartidse,
Ciconiidas, ColymUdde, Dicho-
lophus, Eurypyga, Gruidaz,
Laridse, Opisthocomus, Pala-
medea, Phwnicopterus, Plata-
leidse, Podica, Podicipedidaz,
Psittaci, Rallidae, Rliinochetus,
Sphenisci, Steganopodes, Tubin-
ares — curiously also in Cinclus
and in the aquatic members
of the Alcedinidse. Restric-
tion of Downs to the apteria
is found in the adults of
Ardeidte, Caprimulgidte, Cypselidx, Cuculidse, Gallinx, Otididte, Passeres
(except Cinclus), Pterodidae, Scopus, Striges and Turnicidse. In
the Tinami only are Downs confined to the pterylse ; but in them
they are sparsely and frequently thinly developed, as is also the
case with the Cuculidse, Dicholophus, Gallinse, Limicolw, Opisthocomus,
Pterodidx, Turnicidse and some Passeres, while they are wholly
absent in Atrichia, Bucerotidse, Capitonidse, Coliidse, Columbidse,
Coraciidx, Eurylsemidse, Galbulidse, Menura, Meropididse, Momotidse,
Picidse, Ratitse, Bhamphastidw, Todidse, Trochilidse, Trogonidse, Upupidse
and in most Passeres.

GECINCJS VIRIDIS. Dorsal aspect.

748

PTILOP^DES—PUCKERIGE

The figures here inserted serve to shew some of the differences
of Pterylosis presented by various birds; but it will be obvious

CINNYRIS CHLOROPYGIA. Ventral and dorsal aspect.

ARACHNECHTHRA
and CINNYRIS
OBSCURA. Dor-
sal tract.

that a very long series would be required to exhibit even the
principal types observable in the whole Class.1

PTILOP^EDES, a name proposed in 1872 by Sundevall
(Tentamen, p. 102) for his second division (agmen) of the Class Aves,
being the Birds whose young are thickly covered with down before
their feathers grow: in 1873 changed (torn. cit. p. 158) to
Dasyp&det, to prevent confusion with PSILOP^EDES.

PTILOSIS, the learned word for Plumage.

PUS IS (properly Os pulis) or PUBIC Bones, the anterior,
most ventral and slenderest of the three component parts of the
PELVIS.

PUCKEKIGE (possibly connected with the A.S. puca, a goblin

1 Since the time of Nitzsch additional descriptions of the Pterylosis of certain
birds have appeared, but no special work on the subject, though it has by no
means been exhausted, and such a work would be of considerable taxonomic
utility if it were amply illustrated (little text being needed) and special attention
paid to the numerous transitional forms that connect the chief types. A great
and revised mass of information is to be found, however, in Prof. Fiirbringer's
Untersuchungen der Morphologic und Systematik der Vogcl,

P UDDING-POKE—P UFF-BIRD 749

or demon), a name of the NIGHTJAR, and also of the disorder in
the udders of cattle that it has been said to cause.

PUDDING-POKE, i.e. Pudding-bag, properly the nest of the
Long-tailed TITMOUSE ; but in common use transferred to the bird
itself.

PUFF-BIRD, the name first given, according to Swainson (Zool.
Illustr. ser. 1, ii. text to pi. 99), by English residents in Brazil
to a group known to ornithologists as forming the restricted Family
Bucconidx, but for a long time confounded, under the general name
of BARBETS, with the Capitonidx of modern systematists, who regard
the two Families as differing very considerably from one another.
Some authors have used the generic name Capita in a sense pre-
cisely opposite to that which is now commonly accorded to it, and the
natural result has been to produce one of the most complex of the
many nomenclatural puzzles that beset Ornithology. Fortunately
there is no need here to enter upon this matter, for each group
has formed the subject of an elaborate work — the Capitonidte being
treated as before stated (p. 27) by the Messrs. Marshall, and the
Bucconidx by Mr. Sclater1 — in each of which volumes the origin
of the confusion has been explained, and to either of them the
more curious reader may be confidently referred. The Bucconidx
are zygodactylous Birds belonging to the large heterogeneous
assemblage in the present work called PICARI^E, and are commonly
considered nowadays to be most nearly allied to the Galbulidse
(JACAMAR). Like them they are confined to the Neotropical
Region, in the middle parts of which, and especially in its
Sub -Andean Subregion, the Puff -birds are, as regards species,
abundant ; while only two seem to reach Guatemala and but one
Paraguay. As with most South-American Birds, the habits and
natural history of the Bucconidse have been but little studied, and
of only one species, which happens to belong to a rather abnormal
genus, has the nidification been described. This is the Chelidoptera
tenebrosa, which is said to breed in holes in banks, and to lay white
eggs much like those of the Kingfisher and consequently those
of the Jacamars. From his own observation Swainson writes
(loc. cit.) that Puff-birds are very grotesque in appearance. They
will sit nearly motionless for hours on the dead bough of a
tree, and while so sitting "the disproportionate size of the
head is rendered more conspicuous by the bird raising its feathers
so as to appear not unlike a puff ball. . . . When frightened their
form is suddenly changed by the feathers lying quite flat." They
are very confiding birds and will often station themselves a few
yards only from a window. The Bucconidse almost without ex-

1 A Monograph of the Jacamars arid Puff-birds, or Families Galbulidae and
Bucconidae. London : 1879-82, 4to.

750

PUFFIN

ception are very plainly coloured, and the majority have a spotted
or mottled plumage suggestive of immaturity. The first Puff-bird
known to Europeans seems to have been that described by Marc-
grave under the name of " Tamatia" by which it is said to
have been called in Brazil, and there is good reason to think that
his description and figure — the last, comic as it is in outline and
expression, having been copied by Willughby and many of the
older authors — apply to the Bucco inaculatus of modern Ornithology
— a bird placed by Brisson (Ornithologie, iv. p. 524) among the
Kingfishers. But if so, Marcgrave described and figured the same

a, MALACOPTILA ; b, MONACHA ; c, CHELIDOPTERA ; d, Bucco MACULATA ; e, B. TAMATIA.
(After Swainson.)

species twice, since his " Matuitui" is also Brisson's "Martin
pescheur tacliete~ du Bresil"

Mr. Sclater in his Monograph divided the Family into 7 genera,
of which Bucco is the largest and contains 20 species. The others
are Malacoptila and Monacha each with 7, Nonnula with 5, CheMo-
ptera with 2, and Micromonacha and Hapaloptila with 1 species each,
treating them precisely in the same way in 1891 (Cat. B. Br. Mus,
xix. pp. 178-208). The most showy Puff-birds are those of the
genus Monacha with an inky-black plumage, usually diversified by
white about the head, and a red or yellow bill. The rest call for
no particular remark.

PUFFIN, the common English name of a sea-bird, the Frater-
cula arctica of most ornithologists, known, however, on various parts
of the British coasts as the Bottlenose, Coulterneb, Pope, Sea-Parrot,
and Tammy-Norie, to say nothing of other still more local desig-
nations, some (as Marrott and Willock) shared also with allied
species of Alcidse, to which Family it has, until very lately, been
invariably deemed to belong. Of old time Puffins were a valuable
commodity to the owners of their breeding-places, for the young

PUFFIN 75 *

were taken from the holes in which they were hatched, and
"being exceeding fat," as Carew wrote in 1602 (Survey of Cormvall,
fol. 35), were "kept salted, and reputed for fish as coming neerest
thereto in their taste." In 1345, according to a document from
which an extract is given in Heath's Islands of Scilly (p. 190) those
islands were held of the crown at a yearly rent of 300 Puffins l or
6s. 8d., being one-sixth of their estimated annual value. Some
years later (1484), either through the birds having grown scarcer
or money cheaper, only 50 Puffins are said (op. cit. p. 196) to have
been demanded. It is stated by both Gesner and Caius that they
were allowed to be eaten in Lent. Ligon, who in 1673 speaks
(Hist, Barbadoes, p. 37) of the ill taste of Puffins "which we have
from the isles of Scilly," and adds, " this kind of food is only for
servants." Puffins used to resort in vast numbers to certain stations
on the coast, and are still plentiful on some,2 reaching them in spring
with remarkable punctuality on a certain day, which naturally varies
with the locality, and after passing the summer there, leaving their
homes with similar precision. They differ from most other Alcidze
in laying their single egg (which is white, with a few grey markings,
when first produced but speedily begrimed by the soil) in a shallow
burrow, which they either dig for themselves or appropriate from
a rabbit, for on many of their haunts rabbits have been introduced.
Their plumage is of a glossy black above — the cheeks grey, en-
circled by a black band — and pure white beneath ; their feet are of
a bright reddish-orange, but the most remarkable feature of these
birds, and one that gives them a very comical expression, is their
huge bill. This is very deep and laterally flattened, so as, indeed,
to resemble a coulter, as one of the bird's common names expresses ;
but moreover it is parti-coloured — blue, yellow and red — curiously
grooved and still more curiously embossed in places, that is to say,
during the breeding-season, when the birds are most frequently

1 There can not be much doubt that the name Puffin given to these young
birds, salted and dried, was applied on account of their downy clothing, /for an
English informant of Gesner's described one to him (Hist. Avium, p. 110) as
wanting true feathers, and being covered only with a sort of woolly black
plumage. It is right, however, to state that Caius expressly declares (Rarior.
animal, libellus, fol. 21) that the name is derived "a natural! voce pupin."
Prof. Skeat states that the word is a diminutive, which favours the view that it
was originally used for these young birds. The parents were probably known by
one or other of their many local names.

2 In 1893 I took some trouble to make an estimate, though from the nature
of the case a very rough one, of the number of Puffins which had their home in
one locality among the Hebrides. The calculation worked out to be three millions,
and my friend Mr. Henry Evans, to whose kindness I was indebted for the
opportunity of visiting the place, considered that number not to be excessive.
In 1894 I was again at the same spot and was inclined to think that I had
before underrated the number.

752 PUKRAS

seen. But it had long been known to some observers that such
Puffins as occasionally occur in winter (most often dead and washed
up on the shore) presented a beak very different in shape and
size, and to account for the difference was a standing puzzle.
Many years ago Bingley (North Wales, i. p. 354) stated that Puffins
"are said to change their bills annually." The remark seems to
have been generally overlooked ; but it has proved to be very near
the truth, for after investigations carefully pursued during some
years by Dr. Bureau of Nantes he was in 1877 enabled to shew
(Bull. Soc. Zool. France, ii. pp. 3 7 7-3 9 9) ] that the Puffin's bill
undergoes an annual MOULT, some of its most remarkable appen-
dages, as well as certain horny outgrowths above and beneath the
eyes, dropping off at the end of the breeding-season, and being
reproduced the following year. Not long after the same naturalist
announced (op. cit. iv. pp. 1-68) that he had followed the similar
changes which he found to take place, not only in other species of
Puffins, as the Fratercula corniculata and F. cirrhata of the Northern
Pacific, but in several birds of the kindred genera Cerorhyncha, the
Horn-billed AUK, and Simorhynchus inhabiting the same waters, and
consequently proposed to regard all of them as forming a Family
distinct from the Alcidse — a view which has since found favour
with Dr. Dybowski (op. cit. vii. pp. 270-300 and viii. pp. 348-350),
though there is apparently insufficient reason for accepting it.

The name Puffin has also been given in books to one of the
SHEARWATERS, and its Latinized form Puffinus is still used in that
sense in scientific nomenclature. This fact seems to have arisen
from a mistake of Ray's, who, seeing in Tradescant's Museum and
that of the Royal Society some young Shearwaters from the Isle of
Man, prepared in like manner to young Puffins, thought they were
the birds mentioned by Gesner (loc. cit.), as the remarks inserted in
Willughby's Ornithologia (p. 251) prove ; for the specimens described
by Ray were as clearly Shearwaters as Gesner's were Puffins.

PUKRAS, from its name in one of the dialects in the North-
western Himalaya, a species of PHEASANT (well-known to Anglo-
Indian sportsmen, by whom it is also called the " Koklas "), the
Pucrasia macrolopha of most ornithologists. The cock is remarkable
for his very long ear-tufts of glossy black, which contrast with the
large spot of pure white on each side of the neck ; but the rest of
his plumage is comparatively unobtrusive, while the hen, as usual
among the Pheasants, is very plainly coloured. Beside a local
form which seems to be peculiar to Cashmere and Gilgit, Mr.

1 A translated abstract of this paper — containing an account of what is per-
haps the most interesting discovery of the kind made in Ornithology for many
years— is given in the Zoologist for 1878 (pp. 233-240) and another in the Bulletin
of the Nuttall Ornithological Club for the same year (iii. pp. 87-91).

PULLASTRJZ— PYGOSTYLE 753

Ogilvie Grant (Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxii. pp. 310-316) recognizes 5
other species, one inhabiting Affghanistan, a second Nepal and the
rest Tibet or China.

PULLASTR^E, an Order proposed by Sundevall (K. Vet.-Acad.
Handl. 1836, pp. 69, 116) to contain the CuRASSOWS, LYRE-BIRD,
PLANTAIN-EATERS and PIGEONS ; subsequently abandoned by him ;
but in the meanwhile brought forward by Prof. Lilljeborg (Proc.
Zool. Soc. 1866, pp. 11, 15), with the addition of the MEGAPODES
and omission of Menura and Musophagidx.

PURRE (A.S. Pur, Wright's Vocabularies, i. p. 21), a common
name for the DUNLIN in its winter-dress, especially among pro-
fessional gunners, who are apt to believe, as did ornithologists for a
long while, that the Purre and the Dunlin are distinct species.

PUTTOCK, an old name for the KITE and BUZZARD, suggested
by Prof. Skeat (Etymol. Did. p. 480) to signify Foot- or Poult-Hawk,
that is to say the Hawk that especially preys on the young of
Gallinaceous birds.

PYGOPODES, Illiger's name in 1811 for a group consisting of
the genera Colymbus ( = Podicipes, GREBE), Eudytes ( = Colymbus,
DIVER), Uria (GUILLEMOT), Mormon (PUFFIN), and Alca (AUK), and
by many writers regarded as a reasonably natural group or Order.

PYGOSTYLE is the terminal bony expansion of the last 6 or
7 caudal vertebrae which in almost all Carinatse coalesce into a
subtriangular upright plate or blade carrying the RECTRICES.
Archazopteryx (pp. 278-279) shews the most primitive condition
by possessing about 21 free post- sacral vertebras, of which
each, from the 9th to the 20th, supports a pair of well-
developed rectrices. In all other Birds, as yet known, the number
of post-sacral vertebras is considerably diminished, partly by the
fusion of about 6 of them with the PELVIS, and partly by reduc-
tion at the distal end, so that not more than some 13 caudal
vertebras are left, of which about one-half are free while the rest
form the Pygostyle — a result possibly due to the greater use and
development of the rectrices. However, Hesperornis (pp. 649-650),
the Ratitaz and Tinamidse retain, even when adult, 13 free
vertebras, which diminish in size towards the tip of the tail, and
thus these birds present in that respect an embryonic condition,
though it is more probable that in them the absence of a Pygostyle
has been brought about in a secondary way by the gradual loss or
reduction of once strongly-developed rectrices, than that it should
be the retention of a primitive feature. A Pygostyle has been
occasionally observed in Apteryx, and the specimen of an old Ostrich
in the Cambridge Museum has one, some 2 inches high and
nearly an inch and a half long. In Ichthyornis (p. 651) it is very

48

754 PYLSTA ART— QUAIL

small. All this tends to shew that the distinction expressed by the
term SAURUR.E, in opposition to " Ornithurte" is based on an
erroneous supposition.

PYLSTAART, from the Dutch, signifying a tail like the shaft
of an arrow, and apparently applied originally to the long-tailed
SKUAS, but now more frequently to the TROPIC-BIRDS.

; | Q ;-| I -..-? ':

QUA-BIRD, so-called from its cry, one of the names given to
the North- American Night-HERON, Nydicorax nsevius (page 420).

QUADRATE BONES form in Birds, as in Reptiles, Amphi-
bians and Fishes, the suspensorial apparatus of the mandibles, while
in Mammals they are transformed into the tympanic ring and lose
their jaw-bearing function. The dorsal or proximal end of the
Quadrate invariably articulates with the squamosal, and often with
the lateral occipital bone also. In Hesperornis, IcUhyornis, Ratitse
and Tinamidx the articulation is formed by a single convexity,
while in all other birds it consists of an outer and an inner knob,
though the existence of an inner knob, small and sometimes
indistinct, is indicated in Hesperornis, Rhea and the Peristero-
podes. The ventral or distal end of the Quadrate has two
oblong knobs for articulation with the mandible, as well as two
small facets, one on the lateral side for the jugal bone, and the
other, which is prominent, on the median side for articulation with
the posterior end of the PTERYGOID. From the anterior surface of
the shaft of the Quadrate projects the orbital process serving for
the attachment of one of the masseter muscles. This process
differs greatly in various birds, being large and strong in most
aquatic forms, pointed in the Birds-of-Prey and scarcely developed
in the Nightjars. Since, as in Lizards and Snakes, the whole
Quadrate is movable, protrusion of its distal end helps, by means
of the jugal bone, to raise the upper jaw (cf. SKULL). That
the general shape of the Quadrate can be advantageously used for
taxonomic purposes has been shewn by the excellent figures of Miss
M. Walker (Stud. Mus. Dundee, 1888).

QUAIL (Old Scottish Quailzie, Old French Quaille, Mod. French
Caille, Italian Quaglia, Low Latin Quaquila, Dutch Kwakkel and
Kwartel, German Wachtel, Danish Fagtel), a very well-known bird
throughout almost all countries of Europe, Asia and Africa, — in
modern ornithology the Coturnix communis or C. dactylisonans.

QUAIL 755

This last epithet was given from the peculiar three-syllabled call-
note of the cock, which has been grotesquely rendered in several
European languages, and in some parts of Great Britain the species
is popularly known by the nickname of " Wet-my-lips " or " AVet-
my-feet." The Quail varies somewhat in colour, and the variation
is rather individual than attributable to local causes ; but gener-
ally the plumage may be described as reddish-brown above, almost
each feather being transversely patched with dark brown inter-
rupted by a longitudinal stripe of light buff; the head is dark
brown above, with three longitudinal streaks of ochreous-white ;
the sides of the breast and flanks are reddish-brown, distinctly
striped with ochreous-white ; the rest of the lower parts are pale
buff, clouded with a darker shade, and passing into white on the
belly. The cock, besides being generally brighter in tint, not un-
frequently has the chin and a double throat-band of reddish or
blackish-brown, which marks are wanting in the hen, whose breast
is usually spotted. Quails breed on the ground, without making
much of a nest, and lay from nine to fifteen eggs of a yellowish-
white, blotched and spotted with dark brown. Essentially migra-
tory by nature,1 in March and April they cross the Mediterranean
from the south on the way to their breeding-homes in large bands,
but these are said to be as nothing compared with the enormous
flights that emigrate from Europe towards the end of September.
During both migrations immense numbers are netted for the
market, since they are almost universally esteemed as delicate
meat. On capture they are placed in long, narrow and low cages,
darkened to prevent the prisoners from fighting, and, though they
are often so much crowded as to be hardly able to stir, the loss by
death that ensues is but trifling. Food, usually millet or hemp-
seed, and water are supplied in troughs hung in front, and thus
these little birds are transported by tens of thousands from the
shores of the Mediterranean for consumption in the most opulent
and populous cities of Europe. The flesh of Quails caught in
spring commonly proves dry and indifferent, but that of those
taken in autumn, especially when they have been kept long enough
to grow fat, as they quickly do, is excellent. In no part of the
British Islands at present do Quails exist in sufficient numbers to
be the especial object of sport, though there are many places in
which a few, and in some seasons more than a few, yearly fall to
the gun. When made to take wing, which is not always easily
done, they rise with great speed, but on such occasions they seldom
fly far, and no one seeing them only thus would be inclined to
credit them with the power of extensive migration that they
possess, though this is often overtaxed, and the birds in their

1 Yet not a few Quails pass the winter in the northern hemisphere and even
in Britain, and many more in southern Europe.

756 QUAIL

transmarine voyages frequently drop exhausted into the sea or on
any vessel that may be in their way. In old days they were taken
in England in a net, attracted thereto by means of a Quail-call, — a
simple instrument,1 the use of which is now wholly neglected, — on
which their notes are easily imitated.

Five or six other species of the restricted genus Coturnix are
now recognized; but the subject of the preceding remarks is
generally admitted to be that intended by the author of the book
of Exodus (xvi. 13) as having supplied food to the Israelites in
the wilderness, though a few writers have thought that bird to
have been a SAND-GROUSE. In South Africa and India allied
species, C. dekgorguii and C. coromandelica, the latter known as
the Eain-Quail, respectively occur, as well as the commoner one,
which in Australia and Tasmania is wholly replaced by C. pedoralis,
the Stubble-Quail of the colonists. In New Zealand another
species, C. novEe-zealandise, was formerly very abundant in some
districts, but is considered to have been nearly if not quite
extirpated within the last thirty years by bush-fires. Some fifteen
or perhaps more species of Quails, inhabiting the Indian and
Australian Regions, have been separated, perhaps unnecessarily,
to form the genera Syncecus, Perdicula, Excalphatoria and so forth ;
but they call for no particular remark.

America has some forty species of birds which are commonly
deemed Quails, though by some authors placed in a distinct Family
or subfamily Odontophorinaz.2 The best known is the Virginian
Quail, or COLIN, as it is frequently called — that being, according
to Hernandez, its old Mexican name. It is the Ortyx virginianus
of modern ornithology, and has a wide distribution in North
America, in some parts of which it is known as the " Partridge," as
well as by the nickname of " Bob- White," 3 aptly bestowed upon
it from the call-note of the cock. Many attempts have been made
to introduce this bird to England (as indeed similar trials have
been made in the United States with Quails from Europe) ; but,
though it has been turned out by hundreds, and has been frequently
known to breed after liberation, its numbers rapidly diminish
until it wholly disappears. The beautiful tufted Quail of Cali-
fornia, Lophortyx californicus, has also been tried in Europe without
success ; but is well established in New Zealand and the Sandwich
Islands. All these American Quails or Colins seem to have the habit
of perching on trees, which none of the Old- World forms possess.

Interesting from many points of view as is the group of Birds

1 One is figured in Rowley's Ornithological Miscellany (ii. p. 363).

2 They form the subject of a monograph in folio by Gould, published
between 1844 and 1850.

3 I learn from a kindly critic (Auk, 1893, p. 358) that this name has
lately been adopted as generic.

QUAIL-DOVE— QUAIL-HA WK 757

last mentioned, there is another which, containing a score of species
(or perhaps more) often termed Quails, is of still greater im-
portance in the eyes of the systematist. This is that comprehended
by the genus Turnix (HEMIPODE). It is characteristic of this
genus to want the hind toe; but the African Ortyxelus and
the Australian Pedionomus which have been referred to its neigh-
bourhood have four toes on each foot, and, though nothing is
known of the anatomy or habits of the first, the second, after
much discussion, has been decisively shewn by Dr. Gadow (Eec.
Austral. Mus. 1891, pp. 205-211) to be closely allied to Turnix.

QUAIL-DOVE and QUAIL-SNIPE, both book-names— the
former for Starnosnas cyanocephala a Cuban species which occasionally
strays to the Florida Cays, and the latter for species of the
Neotropical genus Thinocorys, one of the LIMICOL^E, by some writers
referred to the Charadriidse (PLOVER, p. 733), and by others regarded
as forming with Attagis a self-standing Family.

QUAIL-HAWK, the name given by colonists to the Falco
novse-zealandise of Gmelin, by later writers referred to the genus
Hieracidea or even placed apart as Harpe,1 a fine Falconine bird,

QUAIL-HAWK. (From Buller.)

the precise affinities of which it would be very interesting to know,
and one must hope that they may be determined before the
extirpation of the form, since there seems to be a chance of its
proving to be a less modified descendant of an ancient stock whence
the true genus Falco and others have sprung, while on the other
hand it may turn out to be only an early settler from Australia or
elsewhere. Several authorities, and among them Sir Walter Buller,
recognize a second species, the Falco ferox of Peale or brunneus of
Gould, which seems scarcely to differ from the first but in its
smaller size, its habit of frequenting the bush rather than the open,
and its comparative abundance in the North Island, where the

1 This name has long been preoccupied by conchologists, and that in the
very form, Harpa, to which Dr. Sharpe (Cat. B. Br. Mus. i. p. 372) changed it.

758 QUAKER— QUEZAL

larger one is seldom if ever seen. Both appear to be equally
courageous, and their thoroughly Falconine aspect is shewn by the
annexed figure.

QUAKER, a sailors' name for the Dusky Albatros, Phcebetria
fuliginosa.

QUAKETAIL, a book-name invented for the Yellow WAGTAIL
and its allies, after they had been generically separated from
Motacilla as Budytes.

QUAM or QUAN, old ways of spelling what is now written
GUAN.

QUA-QUA, the Creole name in Tobago, for a species of
Thamnophilus (ANT-THRUSH, p. 21) there found.

QUEEST or QUIST, an abbreviated corruption of CUSHAT.

QUESAL or QUEZAL the Spanish- American name for one of
the most beautiful of birds, abbreviated from the Aztec or Maya
Quetzal-tototl, the last part of the compound word meaning fowl, and
the first, also written Cuetzal, the long feathers of rich green with
which it is adorned.1 The Quezal is one of the TROGONS, and was
originally described by Hernandez (Historia, p. 13), whose account
was faithfully copied by Willughby. Yet the bird remained
practically unknown to ornithologists until figured in 1825, from a
specimen belonging to Leadbeater,2 by Temminck (PI. col. 372)
who, however, mistakenly thought it was the same as the Trogon
pawninus, a congeneric but quite distinct species from Brazil, that
had just been described by Spix (Av. Bras. i. p. 47, pi. xxxv.) In
1832 the Registro Trimestre, a literary and scientific journal printed
at Mexico, of which few copies can exist in Europe, contained a com-
munication (pp. 43-49) by Dr. Pablo de la Llave, describing this

1 Dr. Tylor informs me that the Mexican deity Quetzal-coatl had his name,
generally translated "Feathered Snake," from the quetzal, feather or bird, and
coatl, snake, as also certain kings or chiefs, and many places, e.g. Quetzalapan,
Quetzaltepec, and Quezaltenango, though perhaps some of the last were named
directly from the personages (cf. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States,
vol. v. Index). Quetzal-itzli is said to be the emerald.

2 This specimen had been given to Mr. Canning (a tribute, perhaps, to the
statesman who afterwards boasted that he had "called a New World into
existence to redress the balance of the Old ") by Mr. Schenley, a diplomatist,
and was then thought to be unique in Europe ; but, apart from those which
had reached Spain, where they lay neglected and undescribed, James "Wilson
says (Illustr. Zool. pi. vi. text) that others were brought with it, and that one
of them was given to the Edinburgh Museum. On the 21st day of the sale of
Bullock's Museum in 1819, Lot 38 is entered in the Catalogue as "The Tail
Feather of a magnificent undescribed Trogon," and very likely belonged to this
species. It was bought for nineteen shillings by Warwick, a well-known
London dealer.

QUEZAL

759

QUEZAL, male and female.

;6o QUEZAL

species (with which he first became acquainted prior to 1810, from
examining more than a dozen specimens obtained by the natural-
history expedition to New Spain and kept in the palace of the
Retire near Madrid) under the name by which it is now commonly
known, Pharomacrus mocinno,1 in memory of a Mexican naturalist,
Dr. Mocifio. This fact, however, being almost unknown to the
rest of the world, Gould, while pointing out Temminck's error (Proc.
Zool. Soc. 1835, p. 29), gave the species the name of Trogon
resplendens, which it bore for some time. Yet little or nothing
was generally known about the bird until Delattre sent an account
of his meeting with it to the Echo du Monde Savant for 1843
(reprinted Rev. Zool. for that year, pp. 163-165). In 1860 the
nidification of the species, about which strange stories had been
told to the naturalist last named, was determined, and its eggs, of
a pale bluish-green, were procured by Mr. Robert Owen (Proc. Zool.
Soc. 1860, p. 374; Ibis, 1861, p. 66, pi. ii. fig. 1); while further
and fuller details of its habits (of which want of space forbids even
an abstract here) were made known by Mr. Salvin (Ibis, 1861, pp.
138-149) from his own observation of this very local and remark-
able species. Its chief home is in the mountains near Coban in
Vera Paz, but it also inhabits forests in other parts of Guatemala
at an elevation of from 6000 to 9000 feet.

The Quezal is hardly so big as a Turtle-Dove. The cock has a
fine yjellow bill and a head bearing a rounded crest of filamentous
feathers ; lanceolate scapulars overhang the wings, and from the
rump spring the long flowing plumes which are so characteristic of

1 M. Salle translated De la Llave's very rare and interesting memoir (Rev. et
Mag. de Zool. 1861, 'pp. 23-33). Bonaparte stated (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1837, p.
101) that in 1826 he had proposed the name paradiseus for this species, and
had communicated a notice of it to an American journal. There seems no
reason to doubt his statement, and the journal was most likely the Contribu-
tions of the Maclurian Lyceum, published at Philadelphia (1827-29), to which,
as he says in his Sulla seconda edizione del Regno Animate del Barone Cuvier
Osservazioni (Bologna : 1830, p. 80), he sent some remarks on Swainson's
Synopsis of the Birds of Mexico, and believed they had been printed there. But
these Contributions unfortunately came to an end with the third number, and
the only article by Bonaparte they contain is a Catalogue of the Birds of the
United States (pp. 8-34), so that his criticism of Swainson's paper (which had
appeared in the Philosophical Magazine for 1827), though doubtless accepted for
publication, has never seen the light. Dr. Hartlaub has printed (Naumannia,
1852, Hft. 2, p. 51) part of a letter from Duke Paul of Wiirtemberg, in which
the writer says that in 1831 he communicated a description of P. mocinno to
Cuvier, who thought that its long train-feathers had been put together arti-
ficially. He possibly had in mind the celebrated feather treasured in the
Escurial as having come from the wing of the Archangel Gabriel. This might
be thought to have been a Quezal's, but the author of Vathek who saw it in
1787, says (Italy with Sketches of Spain, ii. p. 325) it was rose-coloured.

QUILL— QUIT 761

the species, and were so highly prized by the natives prior to the
Spanish conquest that no one was allowed to kill the bird when
taken, but only to divest it of its feathers, which were to be worn
by the chiefs alone. These plumes, the middle and longest of
which may measure from three feet to three feet and a half, are with
the upper surface, the throat and chest, of a resplendent golden-
green,1 while the lower parts are of a vivid scarlet. The middle
feathers of the tail, ordinarily concealed, as are those of the Pea-
cock, by the uropygials, are black, and the outer white with a black
base. In the hen the bill is black, the crest more round and not
filamentous, the uropygials scarcely elongated and the vent only
scarlet. The eyes are of a yellowish-brown. Southern examples
from Costa Rica and Veragua have the tail-coverts much narrower,
and have been needlessly considered to form a distinct species
under the name of P. costaricensis. There are, however, three good
congeneric species, P. antisianus, P. auriceps and P. pavoninus, from
various parts of South America, and, though all are beautiful birds,
none possesses the wonderful singularity of the Quezal.

QUILL, properly that part of FEATHER which is often called
the " barrel " ; but in common use applied to any feather that has
a barrel of considerable size, and especially to the large feathers of
the tail and wing (see EECTRICES, REMIGES).

QUILL-TAIL COOT, a local name in North America for Erisr
matura rubida, one of the Spiny-tailed DUCKS (p. 168).

QUINCK-GOOSE, a fowlers' name of the BRANT-GOOSE (pp.
57, 375).

QUISCALUS, said to be from the Low Latin Quiscula or
Quisquilla, which like Quaquila are supposed to be renderings of
Quagila or some such word, and to mean QUAIL, but the first is used
as the scientific name of the genus to which belong the BOAT-TAIL
GRACKLES, and also occasionally as an English word.

QUIT, a name applied in Jamaica, and perhaps some others of
the British Antilles, to several very different kinds of birds,
probably from the note they utter (cf. GUIT-GUIT). Thus the
Banana Quit is the SUGAR-BIRD, the Blue Quit is Euplionia Jamaica,
one of the TANAGERS, the Grass-Quits are species of Phonipara
allied if not belonging to the Emberizidte (BUNTING), and the
Orange-Quit is Glossoptila ruficollis, one of the C&rebidx.

1 Preserved specimens, if exposed to the light, lose much of their beauty in
a few years, the original glorious colour becoming a dingy greenish-blue.

762 RACE-HORSE—RAIL

E

KACE-HOKSE, a name applied by seamen to the LOGGER-
HEAD Duck (p. 518) for more than a century, but of late years
superseded by that of Steamer-Duck.

KACQUET-TAIL, a name given to several of the MOTMOTS,
and by Gould to HuMMiNG-BiRDS of the genus Spathura.

RADIUS, the straighter and more slender of the two bones of
the forearm (the other being the ULNA). Its proximal end forms a
shallow cup for articulation with the outer condyle of the HUMERUS,
while the distal end bears a knob which fits into the radial bone
of the CARPUS.

KAFTEK-BIKD, a local name of the Spotted FLYCATCHER.

EAIL (German Ralle, French Rale, Low Latin Rattus), origin-
ally the English name of two birds, distinguished from one another
by a prefix as Land-Kail and Water-Kail, but latterly applied in a
much wider sense to all the species which are included in the
Family Rallidse.

The LAND-KAIL, also very commonly known as the Corn-Crake,
and sometimes as the Daker-Hen, is the Rattus crex of Linnaeus
and Crex pratensis of later authors. Its monotonous grating cry,
which has given it its common name in several languages, is a
familiar sound throughout the summer -nights in many parts of
the British Islands ; but the bird at that season very seldom shews
itself, except when the mower lays bare its nest, the owner of
which, if it escape beheading by the scythe, may be seen for an
instant before it disappears into the friendly covert of the still-
standing grass. In early autumn the partridge-shooter not un-
frequently flushes it from a clover-field or tangled hedgerow ; and,
as it rises with apparent labour and slowly flies away to drop into
the next place of concealment, if it fall not to his gun, he wonders
how so weak -winged a creature can ever make its way to the
shores if not to the interior of Africa, whither it is almost certainly
bound ; for, with comparatively few individual exceptions, the
Land-Kail is essentially migratory — nay more than that, it is the
Ortygometm of classical authors — supposed by them to lead the
QUAIL on its voyages — and in the course of its wanderings has now
been known to reach the coast of Greenland, and several times that
of North America, to say nothing of Bermuda, in every instance we
may believe as a straggler from Europe or Barbary. An example has
even been recorded from New South Wales (Bee. Austral. Mus. ii.

RAIL 763

p. 82). The Land-Rail needs but a brief description. It looks about
as big as a Partridge, but on examination its appearance is found to
be very deceptive, and it will hardly ever weigh more than half as
much. The plumage above is of a tawny brown, the feathers
being longitudinally streaked with blackish-brown ; beneath it is
of a yellowish-white ; but the flanks are of a light chestnut. The
species is very locally distributed, and in a way for which there is
at present no accounting. In some dry upland and corn-growing
districts it is plentiful ; in others, of apparently the same character,
it but rarely occurs ; and the same may be said in regard to low-
lying marshy meadows, in most of which it is in season always to
be heard, while in others having a close resemblance to them it is
never met with. The nest is on the ground, generally in long
grass, and therein from nine to eleven eggs are commonly laid.
These are of a cream-colour, spotted and blotched with light red
and grey. The young when hatched are thickly clothed with
black down, as is the case in nearly all species of the Family.

The WATER-RAIL, locally known by several names as Bilcock
or Skiddy, is the Eallus aquaticus of Ornithology, and seems to be
less abundant than the
preceding, though that is
in some measure due to
its frequenting places into
which from their swampy
nature men do not often
intrude. Having a general

resemblance to the Land-Rail,1 it can be in a moment distinguished
by its partly red and much longer bill, and the darker coloration of
its plumage — the upper parts being of an olive-brown with black
streaks, the breast and belly of a sooty-grey, and the flanks dull
black barred with white. Its geographical distribution is very wide,
extending from Iceland (where it is said to preserve its existence
during winter by resorting to the hot springs) to China ; and though
it inhabits Northern India, Lower Egypt and Barbary, it seems not
to pass beyond the tropical line. It never affects upland districts
as does the Land-Rail, but always haunts wet marshes or the close
vicinity of water. Its love-note is a loud and harsh cry, not con-
tinually repeated as is that of the Land -Rail, but uttered at
considerable intervals and so suddenly as to have been termed
" explosive." Besides this, which is peculiar to the cock-bird, it
has a croaking call that is frog-like. The eggs resemble those -of
the preceding, but are more brightly and delicately tinted.

1 Formerly it seems to have been a popular belief in England that the
Land- Rail in autumn transformed itself into a Water-Rail, resuming its own
character in spring. I have met with several persons of general intelligence
who had serious doubts on the subject.

764 RAIL

The various species of Rails, whether allied to the former or
latter of those just mentioned, are far too numerous to be here
noticed. Hardly any part of the world is without a representative
of the genera Crex or Hallus, and every considerable country has
one or perhaps more of each — though it has been the habit of
systematists to refer them to many other genera, the characters of
which are with difficulty found. Thus in Europe alone three
other species allied to Crex pratensis occur more or less abundantly ;
but one of them, the Spotted Rail or Crake, has been made the

type of a so-called genus Por-
zana, and the other two, little
birds not much bigger than
Larks, are considered to form
a genus Zapornia. The first
of these, which used not to
be uncommon in the eastern
part of England, has a very near representative in the Carolina
Rail or Sora, Crex Carolina, of North America, often there miscalled
the Ortolan, just as its
European analogue, C.
porzana, is in England
often termed the Dot-
terel. Then there is the
widely -ranging Hypotds-
nidia, having a repre-
sentative almost every-
where from India to
China, and far away

' , . , , ,J HYPOT^NIDIA. (From Buller.)

among the islands to the

south-east, even to New Zealand, while at least one example has
been known to reach Mauritius. But, passing over these as well as
some belonging to genera that can be much better defined, as the
COOT and MOOR-HEN, to say nothing of other still more interesting
forms of the Family, as the already extinct Aphanapteryx and
Erythromachus1 (EXTERMINATION, pp. 217, 218), Ocydromus
(WEKA) and certain other members of the Family which there
is reason to think are doomed to extirpation, brief notice must
be taken of the curious genus Mesites of Madagascar, which has
been referred by Prof. Alphonse Milne-Edwards (Ann. Sc. Nat.
ser. 6, vii. art. 2) to the neighbourhood of the Rails, though
offering some points of resemblance to the Herons.2 On the

1 By an oversight this genus was called Miserythrus in the passage quoted.
(For it see Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, p. 41.)

2 The FINFOOTS and JACANAS, by some systematists formerly placed with
the Rallidse, to which the former certainly have some affinity, should be
regarded as forming distinct Families, HeliornitMdas and Parridse, The

RAIN-BIRD— RASORES 765

whole the Rallidse constitute a group of birds which, particu-
larly as regards their relations to some other remarkable forms,
of which the SUN- BITTERN, Eurypyga, and KAGU, fihinochetus,
may especially be named, well deserve greater attention from the
systematist, and any ornithologist in want of a subject could
hardly find one more likely to reward his labours if he were only
to carry them out in a judicious way. Based on the safe ground
of anatomy, but due regard being also had to the external
characters, habits and other peculiarities of this multifarious
group, a monograph might be produced of surpassing interest, and
one that in its bearings on the doctrine of evolution would be
likely to prove a telling record.1

EAIN-BIRD, EAIN-GOOSE and RAIN-QUAIL, the first
applied in England locally to the Green WOODPECKER, but in
Jamaica to CuCKOWS of the genera Piaya and Saurothera -, the
second in Orkney to the DIVERS, and preferably to Colymbus septen-
trionalis ; the third in India to Coturnix coromandelica, because of its
abundance in some parts of the country during the rainy season ;
but the others seem to be used because the birds in question are
supposed to predict rain by their frequent cries.

RAPACES, RAPTATORES, RAPTORES, names proposed
for the Order containing the Birds -of -Prey (both diurnal and
nocturnal), and therefore nearly equivalent to the ACCIPITRES of
Linnaeus. The first was conferred in 1777 by Scopoli (Introd.
Hist. Nat. p. 478), and included the genera Strix, Falco, F'ultur,
Buceros and Ehamphastos. Temminck adopted it, properly exclud-
ing the last two, and gave it currency. The second name was
invented in 1811 by Illiger (Prodr. System, p. 194), who so termed
his Third Order, consisting of the genera Strix, Falco, Gypogeranus,
Gypaetus, Vultur and Cathartes ; and the third, being only a gram-
matical alteration of the second, by Vigors in 1823 (Trans. Linn.
Soc. xiv. p. 405, note). No one of the three is used by the latest
taxonomers of repute.

RASORES, Illiger's name in 1811 (Prodr. System, p. 195) for
his Fourth Order, made to contain 5 Families : — (1) Gallinacei, with
the genera Numida, Meleagris, Penelope, Crax, Opisthocomus, Pavo,
Phasianus, Gallus, Menura, Tetrao and Perdix-, (2) Epollicati, com-
posed of Ortygis ( = Turnix) and Syrrhaptes ; (3) Columbini, consisting

LIMPKIN, Aramus, also, though its position is not so decided can hardly be
kept among the Rails. Mr. W. H. Hudson's notes on the habits of these
birds, which he (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, pp. 102-109) considers to be Rails, as
well as others that undoubtedly are so, deserve the best attention.

1 The most recent revision of the Rallidss is that by Dr. Sharpe (Cat. B.
Br. Mus. xxiii. pp. 1-228), who has found it necessary to recognize 61 genera.

766 RA TIT^E—RA VEN

of Columba-, (4) Crypturi of Crypturus ( = Tinamus); and (5) Inepti
of Didus.

EATIT^E, that division of the Class AVES whose sternum
developing no " keel " resembles a raft or flat-bottomed boat (ratis),
and accordingly so named by Merrem (Abhandl. Akad. Wissensch.
Berlin, 1812-13, PTiysik. Kl. p. 259) in contradistinction to his
CARINAT^E (p. 76), though to it he admitted only the single
genus Struthio. The extraordinary neglect of this important dis-
tinction is elsewhere dwelt upon (INTRODUCTION), and to Prof.
Huxley (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 418) is due the full recognition
of Merrem's merits. According to the views l adopted in this
volume the Subclass Ratitae comprehends of existing forms the
Orders Apteryges (Kiwi), Megistanes (CASSOWARY, EMEU), Rheaz
(RHEA) and Struthiones (OSTRICH), together with the extinct
JEpyornithes (Roc) and Immanes (MoA). As regards the relation of
other older forms to the Ratitse it seems best at present to use
reserve (see FOSSIL BIRDS, ODONTORNITHES and STEREORNITHES).

RATTLE- WINGS, a fowlers' name for the GOLDEN-EYE (p.
369).

RAVEN (Anglo-Saxon Hrgefn, Icelandic Hrafn, Danish Bavnt
Dutch Raaf, German Rabe), the largest of the Birds of the Order
Passeres, and probably the most highly developed of all Birds.

Quick -sighted, sagacious and bold, it
must have followed the prehistoric
fisher and hunter, and generally with-
out molestation from them, to prey on
the refuse of their spoils, just as it
now waits, with the same intent, on

RAVEN. (After Swainson.) the movements of their _ successors;
while it must nave likewise attended

the earliest herdsmen, who could not have regarded it with equal
indifference, since its now notorious character for attacking and
putting to death a weakly animal was doubtless in those days
manifested. Yet the Raven is no mere dependent upon man,
being always able to get a living for itself; and moreover a.
sentiment of veneration or superstition has from very remote
ages and among many races of men attached to it — a sentiment
so strong as often to overcome the feeling of distrust not
to say of hatred which its deeds inspired, and, though rapidly
decreasing, even to survive in some places until the present time.2

1 See Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, xx. pp. 499, 500.

2 There is no need to dwell on the association of this bird with well-known
characters of history sacred or profane — Noah or Elijah, Odin or Flokki, the
last of whom by its means discovered Iceland. The Raven is even said to have

RA VEN 767

Notwithstanding all this, however, the Eaven has now fallen upon
evil days. The reverence with which it was once regarded has all
but vanished, and has been very generally succeeded by persecu-
tion, which in many districts has produced actual extirpation, so
that it is threatened with extinction, save in the wildest and most
unpeopled districts.1

The Raven breeds very early in the year, in England resorting
to its nest, which is usually an ancient if not an ancestral structure,
about the middle or towards the end of January. Therein are
laid from five to seven eggs of the common Corvine coloration,
and the young are hatched before the end of February. In more
northern countries the breeding-season is naturally delayed, but
everywhere this species is almost if not quite the earliest of birds
to enter upon the business of perpetuating its kind. The Raven
measures about 26 inches in length, and has an expanse of wing
considerably exceeding a yard. Its bill and feet are black, and
the same may be said of its whole plumage, but the feathers of the
upper parts as well as of the breast are very glossy, reflecting a
bright purple or steel-blue.2 The species inhabits the whole of
Europe, and the northern if not the central parts of Asia ; but in
the latter continent its southern range is not well determined. In
America 3 it is, or used to be, found from the shores of the Polar

played its part in the mythology of the Red Indian ; and none can wonder that
all this should be so, since, wherever it occurs and more especially wherever it
is numerous, as in ancient times and in thinly-peopled countries it must have
been, its size, appearance and fearless habits would be sure to attract especial
attention. Nor has this attention wholly ceased with the advance of en-
lightenment, for both in prose and verse, from the time of Shakespear to that
of Poe and Dickens, the Raven has often figured, and generally without the
amount of misrepresentation which is the fate of most animals which celebrated
writers condescend to notice.

1 That all lovers of nature should take what steps they can to arrest this
sad fate is a belief which I strongly hold. Without attempting to deny the
loss which in some cases is inflicted upon the rearers of cattle by Ravens, it is
an enormous mistake to suppose that the neighbourhood of a pair of these
birds is invariably detrimental. On this point I can speak from experience.
For many years I had an intimate knowledge of a pair occupying an inland
locality surrounded by valuable flocks of sheep, and abounding in rabbits and
game, and had ample opportunities, which I never neglected, of repeatedly
examining the pellets of bones and exuviae, that these, like all other carnivorous
birds, cast up. I thus found that this pair of Ravens fed almost exclusively
on Moles. Soon after I moved from the neighbourhood in which they lived
the unreasoning zeal of a gamekeeper (against, it is believed, the orders of his
master) put an end to this interesting couple — the last of their species which
inhabited the county.

2 Pied examples are not at all uncommon in some localities and wholly
white varieties are said to have been seen.

3 American birds have been described as forming a distinct species under

768 RAZORBILL

Sea to Guatemala if not to Honduras, but is said hardly to be
found of late years in the eastern part of the United States. In
Africa its place is taken by three allied but well-differentiated
species, two of which (Corvus umbrinus, readily distinguished by its
brown neck, and G. affinis,1 having its superior nasal bristles up-
turned vertically) also occur in South-Western Asia, while the
third (C. leptonyx or C. tingitanus, a smaller species characterized by
several slight differences) inhabits Barbary and the Atlantic
Islands. Further to the southward in the Ethiopian Region three
more species appear, whose plumage is varied with white — C.
scapulatus, G. albicollis and C. crassirostris — the first two of small
size, but the last rivalling the real Raven in that respect.

RAZORBILL or RAZOR-BILLED AUK, known also on many
parts of the British coasts as the Marrot, Murre, Scout, Tinker, or
Willock — names which it, however, shares with the GUILLEMOT,
and to some extent with the PUFFIN — a common sea-bird of the
Northern Atlantic,2 but not having a very high northern range,
resorting in vast numbers to certain stations on rocky cliffs for the
purpose of breeding, and, its object being accomplished, returning
to deeper waters for the rest of the year. It is the Alca torda of
Linnaeus3 and most modern authors, congeneric with the GARE-
FOWL, if not the true Guillemots, between which two forms it is
intermediate — differing from the former in its small size and in
retaining the power of flight, which that had lost, and from the
latter in its peculiarly-shaped bill, which is vertically enlarged,
compressed and deeply furrowed, as well as in its elongated,
wedge-shaped tail. A fine white line, running on each side from
the base of the culmen to the eye, is in the adult bird in breeding-
tile name of Corvus carnivorus, C. cacolotl or G. principalis, of which there are
several forms, and the myology of one, the Mexican G. sinuatus, is the subject
of a volume by Dr. Shufeldt published in New York and London in 1890.'

1 Dr. Sharpe (Gat. B. Brit. Mus. iii. p. 45) separates G. affinis as form-
ing a distinct genus RMnocorax ; but it is a hard task on any reasonable
ground to break up the genus Corvus as long accepted by systematists.

2 Schlegel (Mus. des Pays-Bas, Urinatores, p. 14) records an example from
Japan ; but this must be an error.

3 The word Alca is simply the Latinized form of this bird's common Teutonic
name, Alice, with which Auk is the English cognate term. It must therefore
be held to be the type of the Linnsean genus Alca, though some systematists
on indefensible grounds have removed it thence, making it the sole member of
a genus named by Leach, after Aldrovandus (Ornithologia, bk. xix. chap, xlix.),
Utamania—a,n extraordinary word, that seems to have originated in some
mistake from the equally mistaken Vuttamaria, given by Belon (Observations,
livr. i. ch. xi. (as the Cretan name of some diving bird (which certainly could
not have been the present species) and, as Mr. H. F. Tozer has kindly informed
me, it should have been written Vutanaria, that being the proper transliteration
of the Modern Greek ftovravapla, a diver — from /Sofr^w, mergo.

RECOLLET—RECTRICES 769

apparel (with a few very rare exceptions) a further obvious
characteristic. Otherwise the appearance of all these birds may
be briefly described in the same words — head, breast and upper
parts generally of a deep glossy black, and the lower parts and tip
of the secondaries of a pure white, while the various changes of
plumage dependent on age or season are alike in all. In habits
the Razorbill closely agrees with the true Guillemots, laying its
single egg (which is not, however, subject to the same amazing
variety of coloration that is pre-eminently the Guillemot's own) on
the ledges of the cliffs to which it repairs in the breeding-season,
but it is said, as a rule, when not breeding, to keep further out to
sea. On the east side of the Atlantic the Razorbill has its stations
on convenient parts of the coast from the North Cape to Britanny,
besides several in the Baltic, while in winter it passes much further
to the southward, and is sometimes numerous in the Bay of
Gibraltar, occasionally entering the Mediterranean but apparently
never extending to the eastward of Sicily or Malta. On the west
side of the Atlantic it breeds from 70° N. lat. on the eastern
shore of Baffin's Bay to Cape Farewell, and again on the coast of
America from Labrador and Newfoundland to the Bay of Fundy,
while in winter it reaches Long Island.

RECOLLET, the name given by the French-speaking popula-
tion of Canada to Ampelis cedrorum (CEDAR-BIRD), from the
resemblance of its occipital tuft to the hood worn by members of
the Franciscan order of friars.

RECTRICES, the quill-FEATHERS of the tail in Birds, so called
from their action in directing FLIGHT. They grow in pairs ; 1 and
what seems to have been their original arrangement is shewn by
Ardueopteryx (FossiL BIRDS, pp. 278, 279).2 Crowding upon a
shorter basis seems to have produced the fan -shaped tail and
PYGOSTYLE of most recent birds. Absence of this last implies an
irregular arrangement of the tail-feathers, which in such cases, as
among the RATIT^E and TINAMOUS, can scarcely be called Rectrices ;
but the reverse does not always occur, as witness those of the
GREBES and PENGUINS. The normal number of Rectrices is 6
pairs, but a few birds possess 10 or 11 ; several 9, 8 or 7 ; many
only 5, and Crotophaga (ANi) only 4 — the diminution being brought
about by the suppression of the outer pair or pairs, as is indicated
by their often dwindling dimensions, as may be seen in the
WOODPECKERS and WRYNECKS when compared with the BARBETS

1 Where an odd number is found, as not rarely happens in SWANS and some
other birds, it seems not unreasonable to suppose that through an injury the
germ of one of them has perished.

2 It was there incorrectly stated that each of the 20 vertebrae bore a pair of
rectrices, whereas only 12 of them are so furnished.

49

770 RECTUM— REDBACK

(Capita) on the one hand and the PUFF-BIRDS (Monacha) on the
other. Though the smaller number may be a later and higher
stage of the tail's development, it certainly does not confer a higher
morphological rank on the forms that bear it, as is shewn by the
fact that the majority of PICARI^E have but 5 pairs, and also some of
the lower PASSERES as Acantliidositta and Xenicus, while it is certain
that the possession of more than 6 pairs is not an ancestral feature,
the increase being a comparatively recent acquisition. Indeed the
number of Eectrices seems to have but little signification, very
nearly -allied species differing in this respect. Thus of Oreocinda
(THRUSH) two species have 7 pairs, and all the rest 6. Among the
CORMORANTS the common Phalacrocorax carlo has 7 pairs and the
smaller P. graculus (SHAG) 6 pairs. Still greater diversity obtains
among the SNIPES, the ordinary species of the Old World, Gallinago
cselestis, has 7, that of North America, G. wilsoni (otherwise not
readily distinguished from the former) has 8, as also has G. major,
while G. gallinula, the Jack Snipe, but 6, though in the last two
cases accompanied by osteological differences, and the Pin-tailed
Snipe of Asia, G. stenura, sometimes exhibits 14 pairs. Several
other similar cases are on record and many must exist that have
not been detected. A difference too may depend upon sex, as
with the PEACOCK, which has 10 pairs, being one more than the
Peahen.

Of the varied forms and functions of the Rectrices there is little
need to speak. The differences displayed by the first are obvious
to all who have the least acquaintance with Birds. The forked tail
of a SWALLOW is proverbial, and the pointed tail of a PARAKEET
hardly less familiar, while the erect tail of the Cock with its gallant
streamers affords a striking contrast to the flattened tail of the
Goose that feeds beside him in the poultry-yard. Similarly as to
function : in the Peacock, QUEZAL and some other birds the
rectrices serve but as a support to the showy train that covers and
hides them : in the WOODPECKERS, TREE-CREEPERS, and many
forms not allied to either, they are of the greatest importance in
the bird's economy, as without their support it would be unable to
obtain a living ; but many are the cases in which ingenuity is at a
loss to assign the reason for some remarkable peculiarity offered by
the Rectrices.

BECTUM, the portion of the intestine (DIGESTIVE SYSTEM,
p. 138) between the insertion of the CJECA and the CLOACA. Birds,
the Eatitas and Pdlamedea excepted, have no colon, and the Rectum
descending along the right KIDNEY is generally shorter than the
distance from the upper end of the kidneys to the cloaca. In the
Ostrich, however, it is of enormous length (p. 140) and width.

REDBACK, a name applied in North America to the DUNLIN

REDBIRD— REDBREAST 771

of that country, Tringa americana (p. 172) ; but at best only applic-
able to it in summer-plumage.

KEDBIRD, a name of Cardinalis virginianus (CARDINAL), and
with the prefix " Summer " of a species of TANAGER, Pyranga azstiva,
since it occurs at that season only within the United States of
America.

REDBREAST, the name of a bird which from its manners, no
less familiar than engaging, has for a long while been so great a
favourite among all classes in Great Britain as to have gained an
almost sacred character. The pleasing colour of its plumage — one
striking feature of which is expressed by its ancient name — its
sprightly air, full dark eye, enquiring and sagacious demeanour,
added to the trust in man it often exhibits, but, above all, the
cheerful sweetness of its song, even " when winter chills the day "
and scarce another bird is heard — combine to produce the effects
just mentioned, so that among many European nations it has
earned some endearing name, though there is no country in which
" Robin Redbreast " is held so highly in regard as England.1 Well
known as is its appearance and voice throughout the whole year in
the British Islands, there are not many birds which to the
attentive observer betray more unmistakably the influence of the
migratory impulse; but somewhat close scrutiny is needed to
reveal this fact. In the months of July and August the hedgerows
of the southern counties of England may be seen to be beset with
Redbreasts, not in flocks as is the case with so many other species,
but each individual keeping its own distance from the next 2 — all,
however, pressing forward on their way to cross the Channel. On
the European continent the migration is still more marked, and the
Redbreast on its autumnal and vernal passages is the object of
hosts of bird-catchers, since its value as a delicacy for the table has
long been recognized.3 But even those Redbreasts which stay in
Britain during the winter are subject to a migratory movement
easily perceived by any one that will look out for it. Occupying
during autumn their usual haunts in outlying woods or hedges, the

1 English colonists in distant lands have gladly applied the common nick-
name of the Redbreast to other birds that are not immediately allied to it.
The ordinary " ROBIN" of North America is a Thrush, Turdus migratorius
(FIELDFARE, p. 250), and the BLUEBIRDS of the same continent belonging to
the genus Sialia in ordinary speech are Blue "Robins"; while the same
familiar name is given in the various communities of Australasia to several
species of Pctrceca and its allies, though some have no red breast.

2 It is a very old saying that Unum arbustum non alit duos Erithacos — one
bush does not harbour two Redbreasts.

3 Of late years an additional impulse has been given to the capture of this
species by the absurd fashion of using its skin for the trimming of ladies'
dresses and "Christmas cards."

772 REDBREAST

first sharp frost at once makes them change their habitation, and a
heavy fall of snow drives them towards the homesteads for such
food as they may find there, while, should severe weather continue
long and sustenance become more scarce, even these stranger birds
disappear — most of them possibly to perish — leaving only the few
that have already become almost domiciled among men. On the
approach of spring the accustomed spots are revisited, but among
the innumerable returning denizens Redbreasts are apt to be
neglected, for their song not being powerful is drowned or lost, as
Gilbert White well remarked, in the general chorus.

From its abundance, or from innumerable figures, the Redbreast
is too well known to need description, yet there are very few
representations of it which give a notion of its characteristic
appearance or gestures — all so suggestive of intelligence. Its
olive-brown back and reddish-orange breast, or their equivalents
in black and white, may be easily imitated by the draughtsman ;
but the faculty of tracing a truthful outline or fixing the peculiar
expression of this favourite bird has proved to be beyond the skill
of almost every artist who has attempted its portraiture. The
Redbreast exhibits a curious uncertainty of temperament in regard
to its nesting habits. At times it will place the utmost confidence
in man, and again at times shew the greatest jealousy. The nest,
though generally pretty, can seldom be called a work of art, and is
usually built of moss and dead leaves, with a moderate lining of
hair. In this are laid from five to seven white eggs, sprinkled or
blotched with light red.

Besides the British Islands, the Redbreast (which is the Mota-
cilla rubecula of Linnaeus and the Erithacus rubecula of modern
authors) is generally dispersed over the continent of Europe, and
is in winter found in the oases of the Sahara. Its eastern limits
are not well determined. In Northern Persia it is replaced by a
very nearly allied form, Erithacus hyrcanus, distinguishable by its
more ruddy hues,1 while in Northern China and Japan another
species, E. akahige, is found of which the sexes differ somewhat in
plumage — the cock having a blackish band below his red breast,
and greyish-black flanks, while the hen closely resembles the
familiar British species — but both cock and hen have the tail of
chestnut-red.2

1 A similar intense coloration distinguishes some of the resident Redbreasts
of the Canary Islands (Tristram, Ibis, 1890, p. 72), and one of them from
Tenerife has been described as distinct under the name T. supcrbus (Kb'nig,
Journ. f. Orn. 1889, p. 183, 1890, pi. iii. figs. 1, 2).

2 A beautiful bird now known to inhabit the Loochoo Islands, the Sylvia
komadori of Temminck, of which specimens are very scarce in collections, is
placed by some writers in the genus Erithacus, but whether it has any affinity
to the Redbreasts remains to be proved. It is of a bright orange-red above, and

REDCAP— REDPOLL 773

EEDCAP, a local name of the GOLDFINCH.

KEDHEAD, a name often given by gunners to the male of the
POCHARD and of the WIGEON, as well as in North America to a
WOODPECKER, Melanerpes erythrocephalus.

REDLEG, in England a common name for the French or Red-
legged PARTRIDGE (p. 695), Caccabis rufa, and occasionally of the
REDSHANK (when it is generally used in plural form) ; but in North
America said to be applied to the TURNSTONE.

REDPOLL, a very well-known native of Britain, the Linota
rufescens of recent authors, for a long while confounded with the
Fringilla linaria of Linnaeus, the Mealy or Stone-Redpoll of English
bird-catchers, which last is hardly more than an irregular winter-
visitant to this country, while the former, often called by way of
distinction the Lesser Redpoll, is resident in Scotland and a great
part of England, changing its haunts, however, according to the time
of year, and being moreover subject to much variability in the
places it affects, without our being able to account for the fact
otherwise than on the general supposition that the choice is
influenced by the supply of food, just as with the CROSSBILLS, to
which in several respects the Redpolls have no small affinity.
Thus this pleasing little bird may be found nesting abundantly, for
it is of a social disposition, in a locality for perhaps two or three
seasons in succession, and then may be altogether wanting for
several years, though this is especially observable of it in the more
southerly parts of its breeding-range, for in the more northerly it
exhibits a greater constancy. The Lesser Redpoll is too well
known to need description here, for even those who have not had
the happiness of studying its habits afield, especially in the breeding-
season (and there are few small birds in this country that afford the
observer more enjoyment), must have seen it caged scores of times ;
but the lively colours which glow upon the cock-bird at liberty are
in confinement lost at the first moult and never resumed, so that
the very name Redpoll becomes a misnomer — the top of the head
changing to dark orange, hardly visible in some lights. The
geographical range of the Lesser Redpoll is apparently limited to
Western Europe, and it cannot be confidently said to breed except
in the British Islands. On the other hand, the Mealy Redpoll,
which yearly visits us, though in variable numbers, and seems to be
always distinguishable by its call-note as well as by the " mealy "
appearance of its back, is much more widely distributed, breeding
abundantly throughout northern Scandinavia, though, further to

white beneath, the male, however, having the throat and breast black. Dr.
Stejneger (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1886, p. 615) considers it, with another
equally scarce species from Japan, to form a separate genus Icoturus.

774 REDSHANK

the eastward, what seems to be a recognizably distinct form, L.
exilipes becomes more frequent if not wholly replacing it. Yet both
these forms occur in North America, as well as another, the largest
of all, L. hornemanni, which has two or three times visited England.1
A remarkable peculiarity in the Eedpolls is the fact ascertained by
Wolley in Lapland that the size and especially the length of the
bill varies according to the food of the birds, that organ growing
inordinately in summer when they are almost wholly insectivorous,
and being ground short in winter by the hard seeds that then form
their only fare. (See also LINNET.)

REDSHANK, the usual name of a bird — the Scolopax calidris of
Linnaeus and Totanus calidris of modern authors — so called in
English from the colour of the bare part of its legs, which, being
also long, are conspicuous as its flies over its marshy haunts or runs
nimbly beside the waters it affects. In suitable localities it is
abundant throughout the greater part of Europe and Asia, from
Iceland to China, mostly retiring to the southward for the winter,
though a considerable number remain during that season along the
coasts and estuaries of some of the more northern countries.
Before the great changes effected by drainage in England it was a
common species in many districts, but at the present day there are
very few to which it can resort for the purpose of reproduction.
In such of them as remain, its lively actions, both on the ground
and in the air, as well as its loud notes, render the Redshank, during
the breeding-season, one of the most observable inhabitants of what
without its presence would often be a desolate spot, and invest it
with a charm for the lover of wild nature. At other times the
cries of this bird may be thought too shrill, but in spring the love-
notes of the male form what may fairly be called a song, the
constantly repeated refrain of which — leero, leero, leero (for so it may
be syllabled) — rings musically around, as with many gesticulations
he hovers in attendance on the flight of his mate ; or, with a slight
change to a different key, engages with a rival; or again, half
angrily and half piteously complains of a human intruder on his
chosen ground. The body of the Redshank is almost as big as a
Snipe's, but its longer neck, wings and legs make it appear a much

1 Full details of the Redpolls most likely to be met with by European
naturalists will be found in Dresser's Birds of Europe (iv. pp. 37-57) and
Yarrell's British Birds (ed. 4, ii. pp. 133-152) ; and, resting upon considerable
experience, may be recommended as trustworthy. Dr. Sharpe (Cat. B. Br. Mus.
xii. pp. 245-247) recognizes two "species" of Redpoll — Acanthis linaria, with
3 " subspecies " holbcelli, rostrata and rufesccns, and A. exilipes with a "sub-
species " hornemanni ; but the reasons for taking this view of a confessedly very
difficult subject are not clearly stated, and it would seem as if the specimens
enumerated by him were chiefly sorted according to the length of their wing,
which he is careful to give.

REDSTART 775

larger bird. Above, the general colour is greyish -drab, freckled
with black, except the lower part of the back and a conspicuous
band on each wing, which are white, while the flight -quills are
black, thus producing a very harmonious effect. In the breeding-
season the back and breast are mottled with dark brown, but in
winter the latter is white. The nest is generally concealed in a
tuft of rushes or grass, a little removed from the wettest parts of
the swamp whence the bird gets its sustenance, and contains four
eggs, usually of a rather warmly-tinted brown with blackish spots
or blotches ; but no brief description can be given that would point
out their differences from the eggs of other birds, more or less akin,
among which, those of the LAPWING especially, they are taken and
find a ready sale.

The name Eedshank, prefixed by some epithet as Black, Dusky,
or Spotted, has also been applied to a larger but allied species — the
T.fuscus of ornithologists. This is a much less common bird, and in
Great Britain as well as the greater part of Europe it only occurs
on its passage to or from its breeding-grounds, which are usually
found north of the Arctic Circle, and differ much from those of its
congeners — the spot chosen for the nest being nearly always in the
midst of forests and, though not in the thickest part of them, often
with trees on all sides, generally where a fire has cleared the under-
growth, and mostly at some distance from water. This peculiar
habit was first ascertained by Wolley in Lapland in 1853 and the
following year. The breeding-dress this bird assumes is also very
remarkable, and seems (as is suggested) to have some correlation
with the burnt and blackened surface interspersed with white
stones or tufts of lichen on which its nest is made — for the head,
neck, shoulders and lower parts are of a deep black, contrasting
vividly with the pure white of the back and rump, while the legs
become of an intense crimson. At other times of the year the
plumage is very similar to that of the common Redshank, and the
legs are of the same light orange-red.

REDSTART, a bird well known in Great Britain, in many
parts of which it is called Firetail — a name of almost the same
meaning, since "start" is from the Anglo-Saxon steort, a tail.1
This beautiful bird, the Euticitta phcenicurus of most ornithologists,
returns to England about the middle or towards the end of April,
and at once takes up its abode in gardens, orchards and about old
buildings, when its curious habit of flirting at nearly every change
of position its brightly-coloured tail, together with the pure white

1 On this point the articles "Stark-naked" and "Start" in Prof. Skeat's
Etymological Dictionary may be usefully consulted ; but the connexion between
these words would be still more evident had this bird's habit of quickly moving
its tail been known to the learned author.

776 REDSTART

forehead, the black throat and bright bay breast of the cock,
renders him conspicuous, even if attention be not drawn by his
lively and pleasing though short and intermittent song. The hen
is much more plainly attired ; but the characteristic colouring and
action of the tail pertain to her equally as to her mate. The nest
is almost always placed in a hole, whether of a tree or of a more or
less ruined building, and contains from five to seven eggs of a
delicate greenish-blue, occasionally sprinkled with faint red spots.
The young on assuming their feathers present a great resemblance
to those of the REDBREAST at the same age ; but the red tail,
though of duller hue than in the adult, forms even at this early
age an easy means of distinguishing them. The Redstart breeds
regularly in all the counties of England and Wales ; but, except in
such localities as have been already named, it is seldom plentiful.
It also reaches the extreme north of Scotland ; but in Ireland it is
of very rare occurrence. It appears throughout the whole of
Europe in summer, and is known to winter in the interior of
Africa. To the eastward its limits cannot yet be exactly defined,
as several very nearly allied forms occur in Asia; and one, R.
aurorea, represents it in Japan.

A congeneric species which has received the name of Black
Redstart,1 R. titys? is very common throughout the greater part of
the European continent, where, from its partiality for gardens in
towns and villages, it is often better known than the preceding
species. It yearly occurs in certain parts of England, chiefly along
or near the south coast, and curiously enough during the autumn
and winter, since it is in central Europe only a summer visitor, and
it has by no means the high northern range of R. phwnicurus. The
males of the Black Redstart seem to be more than one year in
acquiring their full plumage (a rare thing in Passerine birds), and
since they have been known to breed in the intermediate stage, this
fact has led to such birds being accounted a distinct species under
the name of R. cairii, thereby perplexing ornithologists for a long
while, though now almost all authorities agree that these birds are,
in one sense, immature.

More than a dozen species of the genus Ruticilla have been
described, and the greater number of them seem to belong to the
Himalayan Subregion or its confines. One very pretty and
interesting form is the R. moussieri of Barbary, which no doubt

1 The author of a popular work on British birds has suggested for this
species the name of " Blackstart," thereby recording his ignorance of the
meaning of the second syllable of the compound name as already explained, for
the Black Redstart has a tail as red as that of the commoner English bird.

2 The orthography of the specific term would seem to be titis, a word
possibly cognate with the first syllable of TITLARK and TITMOUSE (Ann. Nat.
Hist. ser. 4, x. p. 227).

REDTAIL— REDWING 777

allies the Redstart to the STONE -CHATS, Praticola, and of late
some authors have included it in that genus. In an opposite
direction the BLUETHROATS, Cyanecula, are apparently nearer to the
Redstarts than to any other type. By the ornithologist of toler-
ably wide views the Redstarts and Bluethroats will be regarded
as forming with the NIGHTINGALE, Redbreast, Hedge-Sparrow,
Wheatear and Chats a single group of the " Family " Sylviidte,
which has been usually called Saxicolinse, and is that which is most
nearly allied to the THRUSHES.

In America the name Redstart has been not unfittingly
bestowed upon a bird which has some curious outward resem-
blance, both in looks and manners, to that of the Old Country,
though the two are in the opinion of some systematists nearly as
widely separated from each other as truly Passerine birds well can
be. The American Redstart is the Setophaga ruticilla of authors,
belonging to the purely New- World Family Mniotiltidse, and to a
genus which contains about a dozen species, ranging from Canada
(in summer) to Bolivia. The wonderful likeness, coupled of course
with many sharp distinctions, upon which it would be here impos-
sible to dwell, between the birds of these two genera of perfectly
distinct origin, is a matter that must compel every evolutionist to
admit that we are as yet very far from penetrating the action of
Creative Power, and that especially we are wholly ignorant of the
causes which in some instances produce analogy.

REDTAIL, in North America the Buteo lorealis (BUZZARD).

REDTHROAT, the name in Australia for the Pyrrhol&mus
brunneus of Gould (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1840, p. 173; B. Austral, iii.
pi. 68), a little bird, akin to Acanthiza, whose habits are well
described by Mr. North (Nests and Eggs of B. Austral, pp. 145,
146).

REDWING, Swedish Rodvinge, Danish Roddrossel, German Roth-
drossel, Dutch Koperwiek, a species of THRUSH, the Turdus iliacus of
authors, which is an abundant winter visitor to the British Islands,
arriving in autumn generally about the same time as the FIELDFARE
does. The bird has its common English name,1 from the sides of

1 Many old writers assert that this bird used to be known in England as the
"Swinepipe",; but except in books, this name does not seem to survive to the
present day. There is no reason, however, to doubt that it was once in vogue,
and the only question is how it may have arisen. If it has not been corrupted
from the German Weindrossel or some other similar name, it may refer to the
soft inward whistle which the bird often utters, resembling the sound of the
pipe used by the swineherds of old when collecting the animals under their
charge, whether in the wide stubbles or the thick beech-woods ; but another
form of the word (which may, however, be erroneous) is "Windpipe," and this
might lead to a conclusion very different, if indeed to any conclusion at all.

7?3 REED-BIRD—REED- THR USH

its body, its inner wing-coverts and axillaries being of a bright
reddish-orange, of which colour, however, there is no appearance on
the wing itself while the bird is at rest, and not much is ordinarily
seen while it is in flight. In other respects it is very like a Song-
Thrush, and indeed in France and some other countries it bears the
name Mauvis or Mavis, often given to that species in some parts of
Britain ; but its coloration is much more vividly contrasted, and a
conspicuous white, instead of a light brown, streak over the eye at
once affords a ready diagnosis. The Kedwing breeds in Iceland, in
the subalpine and arctic districts of Norway, Sweden and Finland,
and thence across Northern Russia and Siberia, becoming scarce to
the eastward of the Jenisei, and not extending beyond Lake
Baikal. In winter it visits the whole of Europe and North Africa,
occasionally reaching Madeira, while to the eastward it is found at
that season in the north-western Himalayas and Kohat. Many
writers have praised the song of this bird, comparing it with that of
the NIGHTINGALE ; but herein they seem to have been as much
mistaken as in older times was Linnaeus, who, according to Nilsson
(Orn. Svecica, i. p. 177, note), failed to distinguish in life this species
from its commoner congener T. musicus. The notes of the Redwing
are indeed pleasing in places where no better songster exists ; but
the present writer, who has many times heard them under very
favourable circumstances, cannot but suppose that those who have
called the Redwing the " Nightingale " of Norway or of Sweden
have attributed to it the credit that properly belongs to the Song-
Thrush • for to him it seems that the vocal utterances of the Red-
wing do not place it even in the second rank of feathered musicians.
Its nest and eggs a good deal resemble those of the Blackbird, and
have none of the especial characters which distinguish those of the
Song-Thrush.

In South Africa the name Redwing is applied to a very different
kind of bird, one of the FRANCOLINS, Francolinus levaillanti, a
valuable game-bird, not only for the sport it affords, but for the
excellence of its flesh.

REED-BIRD, a name variously bestowed in different countries
on almost any species of small bird affecting reeds. In England it
is generally the Reed- WARBLER or Reed- Wren, Acrocephalus streperus;
in North America the BOBOLINK, while the English in South Africa,
in India and Australia seem to use it without much specialization.
REED-BUNTING and . REED-SPARROW are in England names
of Emberiza, schcenidus often called the Black -headed BUNTING;
REED-THRUSH is the book- name of A. arundinaceus (otherwise

"Whindle" and " Wheenerd" have also been given as two other old English
names of this bird (Hurl, Miscellany, ed. 1, ii. p. 558), and these may be re-
ferred to the local German Weindrustle and Winsel.

REED-PHEASANT—REGENT-BIRD 779

turdoides), while REED - PHEASANT is the local name in East
Anglia for the unhappily-called Bearded TITMOUSE.

KEEL-BIRD or REELER, a local name for what in books is
called the Grasshopper- WARBLER, Locustella nsevia, while the prefix
" Night " signified what is usually known as Savi's WARBLER,
Potamodus luscinioides, in the days when it inhabited the English
Fen-country. In either case the name was applied from the resem-
blance of the bird's song to the noise of the reel used by the hand-
spinners of wool.

KEEVE, the hen RUFF, a word that puzzles philologists as
offering an apparently inexplicable vowel-change (cf. Skeat, Etymol.
Diet. s.v.).

REGENT-BIRD, a very beautiful and by no means abundant
inhabitant of the eastern part of Australia, conspicuous for the
deep golden-yellow and velvety-black of the male's plumage.
Originally described in 1801 by Latham (Ind. Orn. Suppl p. xliv.)
from a specimen in Lambert's collection, as a Thrush, Turdus melinus,
it was figured and again described in 1808 by J. W. Lewin (B. N.
Holl. p. 10, pi. vi.) as Meliphaga chrysocephala, the Golden-crowned
Honey-sucker ; a name changed by him in the subsequent issue of
his work in 1822 (B. N. S. Wales, p. 6) to King Honey-sucker. In
1823, Quoy and Gaimard (Ann. Sc. Nat. v. p. 489),1 referred it to
the Orioles as Oriolus regens. In 1825 Swainson (Zool. Journ. i. p.
476), though not removing it from the Orioles, perceived in it some
affinities to the Birds-of-Paradise, and founded for it a new genus,
Sericulus, which has since been generally accepted, while in 1845
G. R. Gray (Gen. B. i. p. 233), aided probably by access to the un-
published drawings of Lambert, was able to establish the identity of
Lewin's species with Latham's (which must have been from a female
specimen), and thus the bird became the Sericulus melinus of ornith-
ology.2 Still its affinities remained in doubt until Mr. Coxen's
account in 1864 of the discovery by Mr. Waller of Brisbane that it

1 From their more elaborate account ( Voy. de I' Urania et de la Physicienne,
Zool. pp. 46, 105, pi. 22) it appears that when they were in Australia in 1819
the colonists called the bird the "Prince Regent," and this indicates the origin
of its present name. A few years later Lesson ( Voy. de la Coquille, Zool. p. 641)
confirmed their statement, but improved upon it by mistakes of his own which
have gained currency in this country. He supposed it to have been discovered
during the Regency (which only began in 1810), and declared that Lewin (the
number of whose plate he misquotes) had called it " King's Honey-sucker " after
a former governor of that name, whereas the change, as mentioned in the text,
was doubtless due to the Regent becoming King in 1820. The earliest appearance
of the name Regent -bird known to me is in the list of Australian animals
included in the Geographical Memoirs of New South Wales, edited in 1825 by
Barron Field (p. 503).

2 Stephens (Gen. Zool. x. p. 240) has the name mellinus, and the spelling,

780 REGULUS—REMIGES

was a BOWER-BIRD (Gould, Handb. B. Austral, i. pp. 458-461) — a
fact confirmed shortly after by Mr. E. P. Ramsay (Ibis, 1867, p. 456)
who had really observed it earlier. The " bower " of this bird,
however, does not seem to be so elaborate as are the structures
raised by its allies, but it is applied to exactly the same uses, and
has nothing whatever to do with the nest, which is built in a tree.
The name " Mock Regent-bird " is said to be given to one of the
Australian HONEY-SUCKERS, Meliphaga phrygia, from its black and
yellow plumage.

REGULUS, a genus founded in 1800 by Cuvier (Le$. d'Anat.
comp. tab. ii.) for the Motacilla regulus of Linnaeus (GOLDCREST), and
often used as an English word; but it is to be noted that the
regulus of classical or at least mediaeval writers was the WREN.

REMIGES, the principal FEATHERS of the wing by which the
bird is sustained and rowed forward in FLIGHT, consisting of two
series — PRIMARIES or "manuals," and CUBITALS commonly called
"secondaries," according as they are borne by the bones of the
manus or the ulna.1 If the method of enumeration before recom-
mended (pp. 118, 741) be adopted, as long ago suggested by Forbes
(Proc. Zool. Soc. 1879, p. 256, note 2), but as yet followed only by a
few scientific writers, vague and often contradictory expressions are
obviated. The taxonomic value of Remiges is not to be despised,
being as good as that of many internal characters ; but it is curious
that their least important features are made most of by ordinary
ornithological writers, while the really useful information they give
is persistently ignored. The phylogenetic development of the
Remiges furnishes an interesting problem. The late Mr. Wray
(Proc. Zool. Soc. 1887, pp. 343-357, pis. xxix.-xxxii.) discovered that
in the embryo the first traces of wing-feathers appear on the dorsal
surface in successive rows, of which the last but one or last but
two grows more rapidly than the rest, and in conjunction with the
growing tendinous fascia at the posterior margin of the wing, the
stronger series develops into the Remiges, while the weaker becomes
the " reversed " TECTRICES.

The earliest Reptilian Birds 2 most likely possessed a somewhat
uniform covering of feathers on their fore limbs, those of the lower
surface being softer and more downy, those of the upper firmer and
smoother, while the first that grew out strong and large were those
on the upper hind margin of the forearm, with the effect of
protecting the sides of the body and possibly of occasionally serving
as a parachute, these advantages being preserved and increased by

since adopted by G. R. Gray and Prof. Cabanis may be grammatically more
correct if the word, not a common one, really signifies honey-coloured.

1 " Tertials," spoken of by many writers, have no separate existence.

2 " Herpetornithes," Gadow, Thier-Reich, Vogel, ii. p. 86.

REMIGES 781

Natural Selection, just as the scales on the hind margin of Turtles'
paddles are elongated and flattened out. Subsequently their
lengthening and strengthening extended to the feathers of the
metacarpus and so on to the digits, which at this stage were still
free (Archseopteryx). If these ancestral Birds possessed a patagium
or duplication of the skin which would assist as a parachute, it was
gradually restricted to the proximal region between the fore limb
and the trunk, or it might interfere with the folding of the limb
now become a wing. Already in the Reptiles the POLLEX had
shewn a tendency to shorten, and it remained outside the series of
the other fingers, taking part only to a slight extent in the forma-
tion of the wings. The metacarpals became elongated and
coalesced because of their simultaneous and one-sided use. The
other bones of the mid-hand and of the fifth, fourth and in part
of the third digits were reduced in size and number, since the
newly-gained and much-strengthened axis required their presence
the less, and moreover the full development of those digits
would have hindered the folding of the wing, which is effected
by a strong abduction towards the ulnar side. From purely
mechanical causes the primaries grew into quills stronger and larger
than the cubitals. In the embryos of many Birds the Remiges of
the forearm appear earlier and for some time grow more rapidly
than those of the manus, until they are overtaken by the primaries
— thus repeating their phylogenetic development.

After the reduction and partial ancylosis of the bones of the
manus have once taken place it is as impossible to free or separate
the coalesced metacarpals again as it is to restore the lost digits.
Neither the soft Remiges of the Ostrich nor the vane-less quills of
the Cassowaries could ever have produced their typically " Neor-
nithic " wing-skeleton.1

1 As bearing on this important subject the following references may be of
use : — E. Alix, "Sur les plumes ou remiges des ailes des Oiseaux," Journ. Soc.
Philomath. 1874, p. 10; J. Cabanis, ' ' Ornithologische Notizen," Arch. f.
Naturg. xiii. (1847), pp. 16, 256 ; E. Coues, "On the number of the primaries in
Oscines," Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, i. p. 60 (1876) ; H. Gadow, "Remarks on the
numbers and on the phylogenetic development of the Remiges of Birds," Proc.
Zool. Soc. 1888, p. 655 ; J. G. Goodchild, "Observations on the disposition of
the cubital coverts in Birds," op. cit. 1886, p. 184; J. A. Jeffries, "On the
number of primaries in Birds," Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, vi. p. 156 (1881) ; W. P.
Pycraft, "Contribution to the pterylography of Birds' Wings," Trans. Leicester
Lit. and Philos. Soc. ii. pt. 3 (1890) ; C. J. Sundevall, "Om Foglarnes vingar,"
K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1843, p. 303 (Engl. transl. Ibis, 1886, p. 389) ; J. Vian,
" De la plume batarde dans les Oiseaux," Rev. Mag. Zool. 1872, p. 83 ; A. R.
Wallace, " On the arrangement of the Families constituting the Order Passeres,"
Ibis, 1874, p. 406; R. S. Wray, "On some points in the morphology of the
wings of Birds," Proc. Zool. Soc. 1887, p. 343 ; with of course the great works
of Nitzsch and Prof. Fiirbringer.

782

REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS

REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS, or those which serve for pro-
pagation, consist of the germ-producing glands and their efferent
ducts, and are best considered according to sex.

I. In the Female, a pair of Ovaries are developed, but with rare
exceptions only that on the left side becomes functional. The
mass of embryonic eggs (see page 195) of which each is composed
presents the appearance of a cluster of grapes, situated at the
anterior end of the KIDNEY of the same side, immediately below
the posterior end of the LIVER, and is separated from its fellow by
the descending AORTA, whence it receives its supply of blood,

FIG. 2.

REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS OF PIGEON.

Fig. 1.— Female. cZ2, second cloacal chamber in urodseum ; cis, inmost chamber ; k, kidney ;
l.od, left oviduct; lod', opening of the same into the urodseum ; l.od", infundibulum ;
l.od'", opening of the same into the body cavity; ov, ovary; r.od, abortive right oviduct ;
ur, ureter ; ur', opening of the same into the urodseum. (About 2/3 of the natural size.
After T. J. Parker.)

Fig. 2. — Male. 1, 2, 3, the three principal lobes of the kidney ; Ep, epididymis ; SR, suprarenal
bodies ; T, testes ; u, ureter ; v, vena cava posterior ; v.d, vas deferens with a swelling at 5.
(Natural size.)

while it discharges into the posterior vena cava. The number of
germs which form the ovary frequently amounts to several hundred,
which during the breeding-season exhibit all stages of development
from a mere microscopic object to a full-grown ripe ovum, with its
large amount of yolk. The germs which do not ripen during the
season undergo a process of resorption, and this is accompanied by
the dwindling in size of the whole ovary, so that during winter the
determination of the sex of any particular bird may be a doubtful

REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 783

if not a difficult matter.1 The ripe eggs are received by the
Oviducts, which furnish them with the " white albumen," the shell-
membrane and the shell, before expelling them into the CLOACA
(pp. 197, 198). In young birds both oviducts are almost equally
developed, but the right one soon becomes reduced to an insignifi-
cant ligamentous strand along the ventral side of part of the
Kidney. This one-sided suppression of the organs may possibly
be referable to the inconvenience that might be caused were each
oviduct to contain an egg ready to be deposited. Practically the
Oviduct is a gut-like tube suspended by its own mesentery and open-
ing by a wide slit-like infundibulum into the body-cavity near the
Ovary. This upper portion of the Oviduct, corresponding with the
Fallopian tube of human anatomy, has extremely thin walls, while
peritoneal elastic lamella? attach it to the hinder margin of the left
LUNG in such a way as to secure the reception of any ripe egg that
may burst from the Ovary. The next portion of the Oviduct is
much narrower with thick glandular walls, which, twisting and
turning irregularly, secrete the albumen, and it is connected by a
constricted portion, the isthmus (p. 197), with a dilated "uterus,"
situated on the ventral and partly on the right side of the RECTUM
and cloaca. The walls of the isthmus deposit the shell-membrane,
while those of the uterus secrete the calcareous shell and the pigment,
and the uterus leads into a rather glandless portion, the " vagina "
(which in a common Fowl is about an inch, and in a Goose two
inches in length) opening into the dorsal wall of the urodaeum
(p. 90) to the left of the urethral papilla.

Microscopically examined, the structure of the parts above
mentioned is seen to be as follows — The whole duct consists of four
layers : (1) an outer peritoneal, mesenteric lamella ; (2) a layer of
smooth unstriped muscular and, for the most part, longitudinal
fibres, most numerous in the uterus and the vagina, but scanty or
absent in the infundibulum; (3) connective tissue with blood-
vessels ; and (4) the tunica mucosa, mucous membrane, which in
the infundibulum is thin and contains numerous cells with cilia,
the vibrating motion of which propels the ovum downward. In
the other portions of the duct the mucous membrane forms from
ten to twenty or even more folds, and contains numerous secreting
glands.

During the breeding-season the whole Oviduct is in a state of
hypertrophic turgescence. In the common Fowl at the period of
rest it will be only some six or seven inches long and scarcely a

1 This is so often the case that the usual notes on the labels which collectors
attach to their specimens are at that season mostly the expression of fancy. The
vicinity of the suprarenal capsules, which are of a pale yellow colour and
"granular" in appearance, makes them liable to be mistaken for ovaries, or
more often for the testes when in a dormant and much reduced condition.

784 RETINA

line wide, but at the time of laying eggs it becomes more than two
feet in length and nearly half an inch in width, thus increasing its
volume about fifty times ; and this remarkable change takes place
annually.

II. In the Male, the Testes are a pair of whitish-yellow glands,
of oval or globular shape — occasionally (as in Cypselus) vermiform —
and lie at the anterior end of the KIDNEYS, being kept in position
by an enveloping peritoneal lamella, whence septa extend into the
interior. Within the meshwork thus formed are embedded the
spermatic vesicles or tubuli seminiferi, which combine toward the
median side of each testis into wider tubes that in their turn leave
it, and joining numerous convoluted canals, the whole constitute
the Epididymis, which is irregular in shape and as a rule of a
deeper colour. Generally the left testis is bigger than the right,
although both are equally functional. During the breeding-season
they are greatly enlarged, as has been most often remarked in the
case of the House-Sparrow, where they increase from the size of a
mustard-seed to that of a small cherry, temporarily displacing the
usual arrangement of intestine, liver and stomach. The canals of
each epididymis unite to form a narrow tube, the vas deferens, that,
with small undulations, passes laterally along the ureter of the
same side, over the ventral surface of the kidney, and opens upon
a small papilla into the urodseum of the CLOACA (p. 90). The
walls of the vasa deferentia are furnished with unstriped muscular
fibre, but are devoid of glands, and there are no accessory glands,
seminal or prostate. In many birds, especially the Passeres, the
vasa deferentia increase considerably in length during the breeding-
season, and form a closely convoluted mass which often causes
a protrusion of the cloacal walls, a peculiarity that is particularly
remarkable in some of the Ploceidze,1 and has been observed in
Accentor collaris.

The spermatozoa of Birds, though extremely minute, have a
complicated structure, the different parts of which present so many
differences of shape, size and proportion in various groups, that
they may possibly afford characters of no mean taxonomic value (cf.
Ballowitz, Anat. Anzeiger, 1886, pp. 363-376, and Arch, mikrosk.
Anat. xxxii. pp. 402-473, tabb. 14-18).

RETINA, the visual or perceptive screen formed by the
terminal expansion of the optic nerve and lining the inner
chamber of the EYE.

1 The external protrusion thus caused in certain of the South -African
Weaver-birds is often visible in their prepared skins, for it dries into a hard
hook-shaped excrescence and has given rise to various absurd and speculative
explanations.

RHEA 785

RHEA, the name given in 1752 by Mohring1 to a South-
American bird which, though long before known and described by the
earlier writers — Nieremberg, Marcgrave and Piso (the last of whom
has a recognizable but rude figure of it) — had been without any
distinctive scientific appellation. Adopted a few years later by
Brisson, the name has since passed into general use, especially
among English authors, for what their predecessors had called the
American Ostrich ; but on the European continent the bird is com-
monly called Nandu,2 a word corrupted from a name it is said to
have borne among the aboriginal inhabitants of Brazil, where the
Portuguese settlers called it Ema (cf. EMEU). The resemblance of
the Rhea to the OSTRICH was at once perceived, but the differences
between them were scarcely less soon noticed, for some of them are
very evident. The former, for instance, has three instead of two
toes on each foot, it has no apparent tail, nor the showy wing-
plumes of the latter, and its head and neck are clothed with feathers,
while internal distinctions of still deeper significance have since
been dwelt upon by Prof. Huxley (Proc. Zool Soc. 1867, pp. 420-
422) and the late Mr. W. A. Forbes (op. cit. 1881, pp. 784-787);
thus justifying the separation of these two forms more widely even
than as Families ; and there can be little doubt that they should be
regarded as types of as many Orders — Struthiones and Hhese — of the
Subclass RATIT^E.3 Structural characters no less important separate
the Rheas from the Emeus, and, apart from their very different
physiognomy, the former can be readily recognized by the rounded
form of their contour-feathers, which want the AFTERSHAFT that in
the Emeus and CASSOWARIES is so long as to equal the main shaft,
and contributes to give these latter groups the appearance of being
covered with shaggy hair. Though the Rhea is not decked with
the graceful plumes which adorn the Ostrich, its feathers have yet
a considerable market-value, and for the purpose of trade in them
it is annually killed by thousands, so that it has been already
extirpated from much of the country it formerly inhabited,4 and its
total extinction as a wild animal is probably only a question of
time. Its breeding -habits are precisely those which have been

1 What prompted his bestowal of this name, so well known in classical
mythology, is not apparent.

2 The name Touyou, also of South- American origin, was applied to it by
Brisson and others, but erroneously, as Cuvier shews, since by that name, or
something like it, the JABIKU is properly meant.

3 Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, xx. p. 500.

4 Mr. Harting, in his and Mr. De Mosenthal's Ostriches and Ostrich Farming,
from which the woodcut here introduced is by permission copied, gives (pp. 67-72)
some portentous statistics of the destruction of Rheas for the sake of their
feathers, which, he says, are known in the trade as "Vautour" to distinguish
them from those of the African bird.

50

786

RHEA

already described in the case of other Katite birds. Like most of
them it is polygamous, and the male performs the duty of incuba-
tion, brooding more than a score of eggs, the produce of several
females — facts known to Nieremberg more than two hundred and
fifty years since, but hardly accepted by naturalists until recently.

RHEA.

From causes which, if explicable, do not here concern us, no
examples of this bird seem to have been brought to Europe before
the beginning of the present century, and accordingly the descriptions
previously given of it by systematic writers were taken at second
hand, and were mostly defective if not misleading. In 1803
Latham issued a wretched figure of the species from a half-grown

RHEA 787

specimen in the Leverian Museum, and twenty years later said he
had seen only one other, and that still younger, in Bullock's collec-
tion (Gen. Hist. B. viii. p. 379).1 A bird living in confinement at
Strasburg in 1806 was, however, described and figured by Hammer
in 1808 (Ann. du Museum, xii. pp. 427-433, pi. 39), and, though he
does not expressly say so, we may infer from his account that it had
been a captive for some years. In England the Report of the
Zoological Society for 1833 announced the E/hea as having been
exhibited for the first time in its gardens during the preceding
twelvemonth. Since then many other living examples have been
introduced, and it has bred both there and elsewhere in Britain,
but the young do not seem to be very easily reared.2

Though considerably smaller than the Ostrich, and, as before
stated, wanting its fine plumes, the Ehea in general aspect far more
resembles that bird than the other Ratitx. The feathers of the
head and neck, except on the crown and nape, where they are dark
brown, are dingy white, and those of the body ash-coloured tinged
with brown, while on the breast they are brownish-black, and on
the belly and thighs white. In the course of the memorable voyage
of the ' Beagle,' Darwin came to hear of another kind of Rhea,
called by his informants Avestruz petise, and at Port Desire on the
east coast of Patagonia he obtained an example of it, the imperfect
skin of which enabled Gould to describe it (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1837,
p. 35) as a second species of the genus, naming it after its dis-
coverer. Rhea darwini differs in several well-marked characters
from the earlier known R. americana. Its bill is shorter than its
head ; its tarsi are reticulated instead of scutellated in front, with
the upper part feathered instead of being bare ; and the plumage
of its body and wings is very different, each feather being tipped
with a distinct whitish band, while that of the head and neck is
greyish-brown. A further distinction is also asserted to be shewn
by the eggs — those of R. americana being of a yellowish-white, while
those of R. darwni have a bluish tinge. Some years afterwards
Mr. Sclater described (op. cit. 1860, p. 207) a third and smaller
species, more closely resembling the R. americana, but having
apparently a longer bill, whence he named it R. macrorhyncha, more
slender tarsi and shorter toes, while its general colour is very much
darker, the body and wings being of a brownish-grey mixed with
black. The precise geographical range of these three species is
still undetermined. While R. americana is known to extend from
Paraguay and southern Brazil through the state of La Plata to an
uncertain distance in Patagonia, R. darwini seems to be the proper

1 The ninth edition of the Companion to this collection (1810, p. 121) states
that the specimen "was brought alive" [?to England].

2 Interesting accounts of the breeding of this bird in confinement are given,
with much other valuable matter, by Mr. Halting in the work already cited.

788 RHINOCEROS-BIRD—RIBS

inhabitant of the country last named, though M. Claraz asserts (op.
cit 1885, p. 324) that it is occasionally found to the northward of
the Eio Negro, which had formerly been regarded as its limit, and,
moreover, that flocks of the two species commingled may be very
frequently seen in the district between that river and the Kio
Colorado. On the " pampas " E. americana is said to associate with
herds of deer (Cariacus campestris), and R. darwini to be the constant
companion of guanacos (Lama huanacus) — just as in Africa the Ostrich
seeks the society of zebras and antelopes. As for R. macrorhyncha,
it was found by Forbes (Ibis, 1881, pp. 360, 361) to inhabit the
dry and open "sertoes" of north-eastern Brazil, a discovery the
more interesting since it was in that part of the country that
Marcgrave and Piso became acquainted with a bird of this kind,
though the existence of any species of Rhea in the district had been
long overlooked by or unknown to succeeding travellers.1

RHINOCEROS-BIRD, an old book-name for one or more of
the HORNBILLS (p. 433), and occasionally used by modern South-
African travellers for the OX-PECKER (p. 680).

RIBS, if typically developed, have a double attachment to the
vertebrae — a capitulum or " head " articulating with the centrum of
a vertebra, and a tuberculum or knob movably applied to the trans-
verse process of the same vertebra. The portion next to the
" head " is known as the " neck," and to it succeeds the shaft,
composed of two pieces, the dorsal or vertebral (to the posterior
margin of which is generally attached an UNCINATE PROCESS) and
the ventral, which is sometimes called the sternal or sterno-costal
rib. If this ventral piece reaches and articulates with the sternum,
the whole is called a " true " Rib ; but if the sternum is not reached,
the whole is called a "false" Rib, even if the ventral piece be
present.

According to their position Ribs are usually distinguished as
(1) Cervical Ribs possessing only a short shaft, while both head and
tubercle are immovably fused with the vertebra ; (2) Cervico-dorsal
Ribs movably attached to the vertebrae, being in number from 1 to
4 on each side, with a shortened shaft which may in some cases
carry a small ventral piece; (3) Thoracic Ribs, connecting the
vertebral column with the sternum, from 3 to 9 in number — as

1 Beside the works above named and those of other recognized authorities
on the ornithology of South America such as Azara, Prince Max of "Wied, Prof.
Burmeister and others, more or less valuable information on the subject is to be
found in Darwin's Voyage ; Dr. Booking's " Monographic des Nandu" in (Wieg-
mann's) Archivfur Naturgeschichte (1863, i. pp. 213-241) ; Prof. R. 0. Cunning-
ham's Natural History of the Strait of Magellan and paper in the Zoological
Society's Proceedings for 1871 (pp. 105-110), as well as Dr. Gadow's still more
important anatomical contributions in the same journal for 1885 (pp. 308 et seqq.}

RICE-BIRD—RIFLEMAN-BIRD 789

3 or 4 in Columbidte, 4 or 5 in Passeres and most Picarise, 4 to 7 in
Steganopodes and 4 to 9 in Anseres ; (4) Lumbar Ribs, following the
Thoracic, and often consisting only of a short dorsal piece which is
thus frequently fused with the overlapping part of the ILIUM. The
number of Ribs varies (not so much as a whole, but according to
the regions to which they belong) among closely-allied species as
well as among individuals of the same species. Usually an
increased number of cervical or lumbar " false " Ribs means a
reduced number of " true " or thoracic Ribs, and vice versd. Speak-
ing generally, a greater number of Ribs, and especially of thoracic
Ribs, indicates a lower and therefore phylogenetically older condition,
a feature which is found in the Bird not only in its embryonic but
even during its adolescent stage. From a taxonomic point of view
Ribs are valueless.

RICE -BIRD, one of the many names of the BOBOLINK (p. 46),
and perhaps locally applied in the East Indies to others not at all
allied (cf. PADDY-BIRD, p. 683).

RICHEL-BIRD (etymology1 and spelling doubtful) said to be
a local name of the Lesser TERN.

RIFLEMAN - BIRD, or RIFLE -BIRD, names given by the
English in Australia to a very beautiful inhabitant of that country,2
probably because in coloration it resembled the well-known uniform
of the rifle -regiments of the British army, while in its long and
projecting hypochondriac plumes and short tail a further likeness
might be traced to the hanging pelisse and the jacket formerly
worn by the members of those corps. Be that as it may, the cock
bird is clothed in velvety-black generally glossed with rich purple,
but having each feather of the abdomen broadly tipped with a
chevron of green bronze, while the crown of the head is covered
with scale -like feathers of glittering green, and on the throat
gleams a triangular patch of brilliant bluish emerald, a colour that
reappears on the whole upper surface of the middle pair of tail-
quills. The hen is greyish-brown above, the crown striated with
dull white ; the chin, throat and a streak behind the eye are pale
ochreous, and the lower parts deep buff, each feather bearing a
black chevron. According to James Wilson (III Zool. pi. xi.),

1 "Rekels" (Cathol. Angl. p. 302), "Richelle" or "Rychelle" (Prompt. Parvul.
pp. 66, 433), derived from reke or reek (smoke), is an old word for incense, but
no connexion with the bird's name is apparent.

2 Its English name seems to be first printed in 1825 by Barron Field
(Geog. Mem. N. S. Wales, p. 503). In 1828 Lesson and Garnot said (Voy.
de la Coquille, Zool. p. 669) that it was applied "pour rappeler que ce fut
un soldat de la garnison [of New South Wales] qui le tua le premier," — which
seems to be an insufficient reason, though the statement as to the bird's first
murderer may be true. The Rifleman of New Zealand is Acarthidositta, chloris.

790 RING-DO VE—R1NG-PLO VER

specimens of both sexes were obtained by Sir T. Brisbane at Port
Macquarie, whence, in August 1823, they were sent to the Edinburgh
Museum, where they arrived the following year ; but the species
was first described by Swainson in January 1825 (Zool. Journ. i.
p. 481) as the type of a new genus Ptiloris, more properly written
Ptilorrhis,1 and it is generally known in ornithology as P. paradisea.
It inhabits the northern part of New South Wales and southern
part of Queensland as far as Wide Bay, beyond which its place is
taken by a kindred species, the P. victorias of Gould, which was
found by John Macgillivray on the shores and islets of Rockingham
Bay. Further to the north, in York Peninsula, occurs what is
considered a third species, P. alberti, very closely allied to and by
some authorities thought to be identical with the P. magnified
(Vieillot) of New Guinea — the "PROMEROPS" of many writers.
From that country a fifth species, P. wilsoni, has also been described
by Mr. Ogden (Proc. Acad. Philad. 1875, p. 451, pi. 25). Little is
known of the habits of any of them, but the Rifleman-bird proper
is said to get its food by thrusting its somewhat long bill under
the loose bark on the boles or boughs of trees, along the latter of
which it runs swiftly, or by searching for it on the ground beneath.
During the pairing-season the males mount to the higher branches
and there display and trim their brilliant plumage in the morning
sun, or fly from tree to tree uttering a note which is syllabled
" yass " greatly prolonged, but at the same time making, apparently
with their wings, an extraordinary noise like that caused by the
shaking of a piece of stiff silk stuff. In February 1887 Mr. A. J.
Campbell of Melbourne described (Viet. Nat. ii. p. 165) the egg of
the Queensland species, P. wctorise, which he had lately received
from Rockingham Bay, being apparently the first authentic
account of the nidification of any species of the genus ever
given. The nest is said to have been an open one, placed in dense
scrub, and containing two eggs of a light flesh-colour with subdued
spots and small blotches of dull red or brown. The genus Ptilorrhis
is now generally considered to belong to the Paradiseid%, or
BIRDS-OF-PARADISE, and in his Monograph of that Family all the
species then known are beautifully figured by Mr. Elliot, as will
doubtless be the case also in the similar work by Dr. Sharpe
now in course of publication.

RING-DOVE, properly Columba palumbus, see DOVE (p. 162);
but a name often misapplied to the Collared or Barbary Dove (p. 1 65).

RING-OUSEL, Turdus torquatus, see OUSEL (p. 667).
RING-PLOVER, ^gialitis hiaticola, see PLOVER (p. 482). This

1 Some writers have amended Swainson's faulty name in the form Ptilornis,
but that is a mistake.

RINGTAIL— ROC 79i

bird Sir Thomas Browne called " Ringlestones," the derivation of
which word is open to conjecture; but Prof. Skeat thinks it may
refer to the bird's habit of " ranging " (an old form of arranging) the
stones for its nest.

RINGTAIL, the old name for the female HARRIER (p. 410),
long thought to be specifically distinct from the male; but also
occasionally applied to the immature Golden EAGLE (p. 177).

RIPPOCK or R1TTOCK (Icelandic Ritw), a local name for a
TERN.

ROAD-RUNNER, a name for the CHAPARRAL-COCK (p. 84).

ROBIN, a well-known nickname of the REDBREAST, which in
common use has almost supplanted the stock on which it was
grafted, while it has been transplanted as well to the oldest as to
the newest settlements of England beyond sea, as to Jamaica in the
case of the Green TODY, to North America where the Robin pure
and simple is Turdus migmtorius (p. 250), but with the prefix Blue
signifies some member of the genus Sialia (BLUEBIRD), in conse-
quence only of their red breast, while in Australia the name is
applied, irrespective of that character, to several species of Petrceca,
Melanodryas and others (WHEATEAR), and in New Zealand to some
of the birds of the probably kindred genera Miro and Myiomoira,
which have no red at all about them. Robin-Snipe in North
America is the KNOT in summer-plumage, when it is in winter-
dress the prefix White is added.

ROC, RUC and RUKH, transliterations of the name of the
colossal bird celebrated in the Arabian Nights, which as everybody
knows could carry off elephants in its clutch ; and according to the
best authorities frequented Madagascar and its neighbourhood !
Discoveries of the last half -century, or thereabouts, have shewn
that what so long passed for an idle tale was possibly founded on
fact, however gross have been the exaggerations. In November
1849 Strickland, who had already cited (The Dodo &c. p. 60) the
testimony of Flacourt in 1658 (Histoire de la grande isle Madagascar,
p. 165) as to a large bird, called " Vouron patra" a kind of Ostrich
said to frequent the south of that island, published in 1849 (Ann.
Nat. Hist. ser. 2, iv. p. 338) information received through Mr.
Joliffe, an English naval officer, from a French trader named
Dumarele, that he had seen in Madagascar the shell of an enormous
egg capable of holding 13 wine-quarts, and used as a vessel for
liquor by the natives (Sakalaves), who declared that such eggs
were but rarely found and the bird which laid them still more
rarely seen. Strickland remarked on the coincidence of this
gigantic egg being in the locality to which the great traveller Marco
Polo had referred the Roc. In January 1851 Isidore Geoffroy-

792 ROC

St. Hilaire exhibited to the French Academy of Sciences (Comptes
Rendus, xxxii. pp. 101-107 ; Eng. transl. Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 2, vii.
p. 161) some fossils — two eggs and a few fragments of bone, which
had just been brought to Paris from Madagascar by Capt. Abadie,
— referring them to a bird which he named dEpyornis maximus and
declared to be a " Rudipenne " — or allied to the Ostrich. He soon
after republished (Ann. Sc. Nat. Zool. ser. 3, xiv. pp. 205-216) his
original remarks, together with some additional information of con-
siderable interest to the effect that, in 1832, Sganzin, who resided
for some years in Madagascar, sent thence to Jules Verreaux, then
at Capetown, a full-sized drawing of a gigantic egg, but this was
lost at sea with all his collections ; while in 1834, Goudot', another
traveller in that island, obtained some fragments of egg-shells which
Gervais had mentioned in 1841 (Diet. Sc. Nat. Suppl. i. p. 524) as
resembling Ostriches'. In 1861, Prof. Bianconi (Mem. Accad. Bologna,
xii. pp. 61-76) seriously took up the question of the identity of the
Roc, described by some one to Marco Polo (for the great Venetian
himself did not see it) ; of the " Chrocko " (which is only another
form of the same word) mentioned on the map of Fra Mauro (1450)
whose egg was as big as a butt ; and of the ^pyornis of ornithology,
declaring the latter to be no Struthious bird but a Vulture — an
opinion which he steadily maintained throughout a long series
of papers. The matter has therefore attracted some scientific
attention, especially as other remains have come to light ; but none
can doubt after the masterly treatise of MM. Alphonse Milne-
Edwards and Grandidier (Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 5, xii. pp. 167-196,
pis. 6-16) that the original determination was right; and therefore,
according to the views taken in the present work, a group or Order
JEpyorniihes should be recognized as of equal rank with the
Struthiones and others that form the Subclass RATIT^E. A consider-
able number of eggs, which from their enormous size — being the
largest eggs known — are conspicuous objects, and no small number
of fossil bones have now been discovered, and have been attributed
to five species of which ^. maximus, medius and modestus are
indicated by the eminent naturalists last named, who think it
possible that one of the smaller species may have survived long
enough for a tradition of its existence to be transmitted, especially
since some of the bones found shew marks of a cutting instrument,
evidently the work of a human hand and presumably made on the
recently-killed bird.1 Sir Henry Yule (Book of Ser Marco Polo, ii.
pp. 346-354) treated the question in his usual happy style and,

1 They cite from a French work of fiction published in 1696 under the title
of Furteriana a passage describing enormous birds inhabiting Madagascar and
there carrying off sheep and human beings, so that the latter had to walk about
with tame tigers for their own protection ! This modern embellishment of the
old Arabian stories is hardly an improvement if probability is to be regarded.

ROCKIER— ROLLER 793

acting on the hint first given by Strickland, suggested that the
story of the Rue, though it may have originated much further to
the eastward, became localized in Madagascar through some
rumour of ^pyornis and its stupendous eggs, one of which (now in
the British Museum, and measuring more than 13 inches by 9'5)
he figured of the natural size ; 1 but there seems no doubt that the
largest species of dSpyornis as yet found by no means equalled in
bulk or height the larger forms of Dinornithes. Herr R. Burck-
hardt (Paldeontol. Abhandl. vi. Heft 2, 1893) has referred some
remains obtained by the late Dr. Hildebrandt to a fifth species
JEi. hildebrandti.

ROCKIER, the name of a Pigeon, presumably Columba
commonly called the Rock-DoVE ; but (teste Gilb. White, N. H.
Selborne, Lett. xliv. to Pennant) applied to the Stock -Dove,
C. anas, so long confounded with it (p. 163).

RODE-GOOSE (Germ. Rotgans\ a local name given by fowlers
to the BRANT-GOOSE (pp. 57, 375).

ROERDOMP, the Dutch name of the BITTERN (p. 40), commonly
used by colonists in South Africa.

ROLLER, a very beautiful bird, so called from its way of
occasionally rolling or turning over in its flight,2 somewhat after
the fashion of a Tumbler-Pigeon. It is the Coracias garrulus of
ornithology, and is widely though not very numerously spread over
Europe and Western Asia in summer, breeding so far to the north-
ward as the middle of Sweden, but retiring to winter in Africa. It
occurs almost every year in some part or other of the British
Islands, from Cornwall to the Shetlands, while it has visited Ireland
several times and is even recorded from St. Kilda. But it is only
as a wanderer that it comes hither, since there is no evidence of its
having ever attempted to breed in Great Britain ; and indeed its
conspicuous appearance — for it is nearly as big as a Daw, and very
brightly coloured — would forbid its being ever allowed to escape
the gun of the always-ready murderers of stray birds. Except the
back, scapulars and inner cubitals, which are bright reddish-brown,
the plumage of both sexes is almost entirely blue — of various shades,

1 One possessed by the late Mr. Rowley was said to measure 12 '25 by 9 '75
inches. He referred it to a distinct species which he named dE. grandidicri.
Dr. von Nathusius has described (Zeitschr. wissensch. Zool. 1871, pp. 330-334, pi.
xxv.) the microscopical examination of the egg-shell in ^Epyornis.

2 Gesner in 1555 said that the bird was thus called, and for this reason, near
Strasburg, but the name seems not to be generally used in Germany, where the
bird is commonly called Hake, apparently from its harsh note. The French have
kept the name Rollier. It is a curious fact that the Roller, notwithstanding its
occurrence in the Levant and conspicuous appearance, cannot be identified with
any species mentioned by Aristotle.

794 ROODEBEC

from pale turquoise to dark ultramarine — tinted in parts with
green. The bird seems to be purely insectivorous. The genus
Coracias, for a long while placed by systematists among the Crows,
has really no affinity whatever to them, and is now properly con-

COBACIAS. EUBYSTOMUS.

(After Swainson.)

sidered to belong to the PICARI.E, in which it forms the type of the
Family Coratiidse • and its alliance to the Meropidte (BEE-EATER) and
Alcedinidaz (KINGFISHER) is very evident. Some eleven other
species of the genus have been recognized, one of which, C. leuco-
cephdlus or abyssinus, is said to have occurred in Scotland. India
has two species, C. Miens and C. affinis, of which thousands upon
thousands are annually destroyed to supply the demand for gaudy
feathers to bedizen ladies' dresses. One species, (7. temmincJci, seems
to be peculiar to Celebes and the neighbouring islands, but other-
wise the rest are natives of the Ethiopian or Indian Eegions.
Allied to Coracias is the genus Eurystomus with some eight species,
of similar distribution, but one of them, E. pacificus, has a wider
extent, for it ranges from Celebes through New Guinea to Tasmania
and strays to New Zealand. Madagascar has five or six very remark-
able forms, belonging to the genera Brachypteracias, Geobiastes and
Atelornis, which are considered to belong to the Family; and,
according to Prof. A. Milne-Edwards, no doubt should exist on that
point. Yet if doubt may be entertained it is in regard to Leptosomus
discolor, with the cognate L. gracilis of the Comoros, which on
account of its zygodactylous feet some authorities place among the
Cuculidse, while others have considered it the type of a distinct
Family Leptosomatidse. Bracliypteracias and Atelornis present fewer
structural differences from the Rollers, and perhaps may be
rightly placed with them ; but the species of the latter have long
tarsi, and are believed to be of terrestrial habit, which Rollers
generally certainly are not. These very curious and in some
respects very interesting forms, which are peculiar to Madagascar,
are admirably described and illustrated by a series of twenty plates
in the great work of MM. Grandidier and A. Milne-Edwards on
that island (Oiseaux, pp. 223-250), while the Family Coraciidse is the
subject of a monograph, published in 1893, by Mr. Dresser, as a
companion volume to that on the Meropidse.

ROODEBEC (Red beak), the colonial name of a bird in South
Africa, Estrilda astrild, belonging to the WEAVER-BIRDS and akin to

ROOK 795

the AMIDAVAD (p. 11), while Vidua, principalis (WIDOW-BIRD) is the
" Koning Roodebec " or King of the same (cf. Layard, B. S. Afr.
pp. 192, 188).

ROOK (Anglo-Saxon Hrfc, Icelandic Hrdkr,1 Swedish Baka,
Dutch Eoekj Gaelic Rocas), the Corvus frugilegus of ornithology, and
throughout a great part of Europe the commonest and best -known
of the Cnow-tribe. Beside its pre-eminently gregarious habits, which
did not escape the notice of Virgil (Ge&rg. i. 382)2 and are so unlike
those of nearly every other member of the Corvidze,B the Rook is at
once distinguishable from the rest by commonly losing at an early
age the feathers from its face, leaving a bare, scabrous and greyish-
white skin that is sufficiently visible at some distance. In the
comparatively rare cases in which these feathers persist, the Rook
may be readily known from the black form of Crow by the rich
purple gloss of its black plumage, especially on the head and neck,
the feathers of which are soft and not pointed. In a general way
the appearance and manners of the Rook are so well known, to
most inhabitants of the British Islands especially, that it is needless
here to dwell upon them, and particularly its habit of forming com-
munities in the breeding-season, which it possesses in a measure
beyond that of any other land-bird of the northern hemisphere.
Yet each of these communities, or rookeries, seems to have some
custom intrinsically its own, the details of which want of space
forbids any attempt to set before the reader. In a general way the
least-known part of the Rook's mode of life are facts relating to
its migration and geographical distribution. Though the great
majority of Rooks in Britain are sedentary, or only change their
abode to a very limited extent, it is now certain that a very consider-
able number visit this country in or towards autumn, not necessarily
to abide here, but merely to pass onward, like most other kinds of
birds, to winter further southward; and, at the same season or even a
little earlier, it cannot be doubted that a large proportion of the young
of the year emigrate in the same direction. As a species the Rook
on the European continent only resides during the whole year

1 The bird, however, does not inhabit Iceland, and the language to which the
word (from which is said to come the French Freux) belongs would perhaps be more
correctly termed Old Teutonic. There are many local German names of the same
origin, such as Rooke, Rouch, Ruch and others, but the bird is generally known
in Germany as the Saat-Krahe, i.e. Seed- ( = Corn-) Crow. In Pomerania it was
formerly Korrock (A. von Homeyer, Zeitschr. fur Om. xiv. p. 136).

2 This is the more noteworthy as the district in which he was born and
educated is almost the only part of Italy in which the Rook breeds. Shelley
also very truly mentions the "legioned Rooks," to which he stood listening
"mid the mountains Euganean," in his Lines written among those hills.

3 The winter-gatherings of one of the American species, though sufficiently
remarkable, seem to be in no way comparable to those of the Rook.

796 ROSEHILL—ROTCHE

throughout the middle tract of its ordinary range. More to the
northward, as in Sweden and northern Russia, it is a regular
summer-immigrant, while further to the southward, as in southern
France, Spain and most parts of Italy, it is, on the contrary, a
regular winter-immigrant. The same is found to be the case in
Asia, where it extends eastward as far as the upper Irtish and the Ob.
It breeds throughout Turkestan, in the cold weather visiting
Affghanistan, Cashmere and the Punjab, and Sir Oliver St. John
found a rookery of considerable size at Casbin in Persia. In
Palestine and in Lower Egypt it is only a winter-visitant, and Canon
Tristram noticed that it congregates in great numbers about the
mosque of Omar in Jerusalem.1

There are several moot points in the natural history of the
Rook which it is impossible here to do more than mention. One is
the cause of the curious shedding on reaching maturity of the
feathers of its face, and another the burning question whether
Rooks are on the whole beneficial or detrimental to agriculture. In
England the former opinion seems to be generally entertained, but in
Scotland the latter has long been popular. The absence of suffi-
cient observations made by persons at once competent and without
bias compels the naturalist to withhold his judgment on the matter,
but the absence of such observations is eminently discreditable to
the numerous Agricultural Societies of the United Kingdom.

ROSEHILL (often corrupted by dealers into ROSELLE), an
Australian PARAKEET, Platycercus eximius, so called from the place of
that name in New South Wales where, if it was not (as is possible)
first obtained, it was formerly abundant. The nearly allied P.
icterotis of Western Australia also frequently bears the same name.

ROTCHE (German or Dutch Eotges 2— ostensibly from its cry,
" rot-tet-tet "), a bird familiar to all Arctic navigators, the Little
AUK of books, and Mergulus alle of ornithology. It is, or used to
be, abundant almost beyond belief at many of its breeding-haunts,

1 It is right to mention that the Canon considers the Rook of Palestine
entitled to specific distinction as Corvus agricola (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 444 ;
Ibis, 1866, pp. 68, 69). In like manner the Rook of China has been described as
forming a distinct species, under the name of C. pastinator (Proc. Zool. Soc.
1845, p. 1), from having the feathers of its face only partially deciduous.

2 Thus spelt the name is given by Friderich Martens (Spitsbergische oder Groen-
landische Seise Beschreibung. Hamburg : 1675, p. 61) who voyaged to Spitsbergen
in a Friesland ship in 1671, and is, like the others used by him, confessedly (p. 55) of
Dutch origin, though possibly in a German form. Yet the word seems not to be
recognized as Dutch by authorities on that language. An English translation of
Martens's narrative appeared in London in 1694 in an anonymous volume bearing
the title of An Account of several Late Voyages and Discoveries to the South and
North, dedicated to Samuel Pepys, Secretary of the Admiralty and author of the
well-known Diary, by whom its publication was probably instigated.

/? UDDER-BIRD— R UDDOCK 797

and in 1818 Beechey (Voy. Dorothea and Trent ', p. 46) estimated
that he frequently saw a column in Magdalena Bay which he
calculated to consist of " nearly four millions of birds on the wing
at one time.1 These numbers may have dwindled at the present
day through the depredations of sealing and whaling crews ; but
some of the most recent voyagers yet speak of countless congrega-
tions, though it must be remembered that, as with the Alcidse in
general, the breeding-places are comparatively few in regard to the
extent of coast, and especially so in the case of the Rotche, which
lays its bluish-white and generally spotless egg not on a ledge of
rock, but in a cavity worn by the weather, or in the " scree " of
loose stones at the foot of high cliffs. Consequently suitable
stations are by no means common, but often many miles apart, and
are, moreover, not unfrequently situated at some distance from the
sea, security against foxes being apparently one great object sought
in their selection. In Smith Sound the Rotche is said not to
breed below lat. 68° or above 79°, and not even to occur in the
so-called Polar Basin ; but it goes much further northward in the
Spitsbergen seas and is included among the birds of Franz-Josef
Land, as presumably nesting there. Though it frequents the shores
of Nova Zembla (Proc. Zool Soc. 1877, p. 29), it is not found east
of the Kara Sea, and thus its breeding-range is not so very wide,
while 'the most southern locality at which its eggs have been taken
is Grimsey on the north coast of Iceland, an island which is just
cut by the Arctic Circle. In winter stray examples are not at all
unfrequently met with on the shores of the British Islands, or are
driven by stress of weather far inland, and they have occurred even
in the Azores and Canaries (Godman, Ibis, 1866, p. 102; 1874,
p. 224), but these are mere accidental wanderers from the vast
hosts that must somewhere exist, and what becomes of the enor-
mous number of birds of this and other kindred species at that
season is a problem as yet unsolved, though it is obvious that they
must resort to some part of the North Atlantic when the waters
near their homes are frozen.

The Little Auk is a compactly - built bird, some 8 inches in
length, with the general coloration of its Family, glossy black above
and pure white beneath, the latter in winter-plumage extending to
the chin. The squab young, with their dark blue skin thinly
clothed with black down, are strange-looking objects.

RUDDER-BIRD or -DUCK, a name for Erismatura rubida, one
of the Spiny-tailed DUCKS (p. 168).

RUDDOCK, A.S. Eudduc, a well-known name for the RED-
BREAST.

1 This result may seem incredible ; but from my own experience (Ibis, 1865,
p. 204) I do not feel justified in doubting it (cf. suprti, PUFFIN, p. 751, note 2).

798 RUFF

RUFF, so called from the very beautiful and remarkable frill of
elongated feathers that, just before the breeding -season, grow
thickly round the neck of the male,1 who is considerably larger
than the female, known as the EEEVE. In many respects this
species, the Tringa pugnax of Linnseus and the Machetes pugnax of
the majority of modern ornithologists, is one of the most singular
in existence, and yet its singularities have been very ill appreciated
by zoological writers in general.2 These singularities would require
almost a volume to describe properly. The best account of them
is unquestionably that given in 1813 by Montagu (Suppl. Orn.
Diet.), who seems to have been particularly struck by the extra-
ordinary peculiarities of the species, and, to investigate them,
expressly visited the fens of Lincolnshire, possibly excited thereto by
the example of Pennant, whose information, personally collected there
in 1769, was of a kind to provoke further enquiry, while Daniel
(Rural Sports, iii. p. 234) had added some other particulars, and
subsequently Graves (Brit. Orn. iii.) in 1816 repeated in the same
district the experience of his predecessors. Since that time the
great changes produced by the drainage of the fen-country have
banished this species from nearly the whole of it, so that Lubbock
(Fauna Norf. pp. 68-73; ed. 2, Southwell, pp. 102, 103) and
Stevenson (Birds Norf. ii. pp. 261-271) can alone be cited as
modern witnesses of its habits in England, while the trade of
netting or snaring Ruffs and fattening them for the table has for
many years ceased.3

The cock -bird, when out of his nuptial attire, or, to use the
fenman's expression, when he has not "his show on," and the hen
at all seasons, offer no very remarkable deviation from ordinary

1 This " ruff" has been compared to that of Elizabethan or Jacobean costume,
but it is essentially different, since that was open in front and widest and most
projecting behind, whereas the bird's decorative apparel is most developed in
front and at the sides and scarcely exists behind. It seems to be at present
unknown whether the bird was named from the frill, or the frill from the bird.
In the latter case the name should possibly be spelt Rough (cf. "rough-footed"
as applied to Fowls with feathered legs), as in 1666 Merrett (Pinax, p. 182)
had it.

2 Mr. Darwin, though frequently citing (Descent of Man and Sexual Selection,
i. pp. 270, 306 ; ii. pp. 41, 42, 48, 81, 84, 100, 111) the Ruff as a witness in various
capacities, most unfortunately seems never to have had its peculiarities presented
to him in such a form that he could fully perceive their bearings. Though the
significance of the lesson that the Ruff may teach was hardly conceivable before
he began to write, the fact is not the less to be regretted that he never elucidated
its importance, not only in regard to " Sexual Selection," but more especially
with respect to " Polymorphism."

3 I can well recollect considerable numbers, both alive and dead, being
annually imported from Holland ; but I believe that this practice is now given
up.

RUFF

799

Sandpipers, and outwardly 1 there is nothing, except the unequal
size of the two sexes, to rouse suspicion of any abnormal peculiarity.
But when spring comes all is changed. In a surprisingly short
time the feathers clothing the face of the male are shed, and their
place is taken by papilla or small caruncles of bright yellow or pale
pink. From each side of his head sprouts a tuft of stiff curled
feathers, giving the appearance of long ears, while the feathers of
the throat change colour, and beneath and around it sprouts the
frill or ruff already mentioned. The feathers which form this
remarkable adornment, almost unique among birds, are, like those

RUFF.

of the " ear-tufts," stiff and incurved at the end, but much longer —
measuring more than' two inches. They are closely arrayed, capable
of depression or elevation, and form a shield to the front of the
breast impenetrable by the bill of a rival. More extraordinary than
this, from one point of view, is the great variety of coloration that
obtains in these temporary outgrowths. It has often been said
that no one ever saw two Ruffs alike. That is perhaps an over-
statement; but, considering the really few colours that the birds
exhibit, the variation is something marvellous, so that fifty examples
or more may be compared without finding a very close resemblance

1 Internally there is a great difference in the form of the posterior margin of
the sternum, as long ago remarked by Nitzsch.

8oo RUFF

between any two of them, while the individual variation is increased
by the " ear-tufts," which generally differ in colour from the frill,
and thus produce a combination of diversity. The colours range
from deep black to pure white, passing through chestnut or bay,
and many tints of brown or ashy-grey, while often the feathers are
more or less closely barred with some darker shade, and the black
is very frequently glossed with violet, blue or green — or, in
addition spangled with white, grey or gold-colour. The white, on
the other hand, is not rarely freckled, streaked or barred with
grey, rufous-brown or black. In some examples the barring is
most regularly concentric, in others more or less broken-up or un-
dulating, and the latter may be said of the streaks. It was ascer-
tained by Montagu, and has since been confirmed by the still wider
experience and if possible more carefully-conducted observation of
Mr. Bartlett, that every Kuff in each successive year assumes tufts
and frill exactly the same in colour and markings as those he wore
in the preceding season ; and thus, polymorphic as. is the male as a
species, as an individual he is unchangeable in his wedding-garment
— a lesson that might possibly be applied to many other birds.
The white frill is said to be the rarest.

That all this wonderful " show " is the consequence of the
polygamous habit of the Ruff can scarcely be doubted. No other
species of Limicoline bird has, so far as is known, any tendency to
it. Indeed, in many species of Limicolse, as the DOTTEREL, the
GODWITS, PHALAROPES and perhaps some others, the female is
larger and more brightly coloured than the male, who in such cases
seems to take upon himself some at least of the domestic duties.
Both Montagu and Graves, to say nothing of other writers, state
that the Ruffs, in England, were far more numerous than the
Reeves, and their testimony can hardly be doubted ; though in
Germany Naumann (Fog. Deutschl. vii. p. 544) considers that this
is only the case in the earlier part of the season, and that later the
females greatly outnumber the males. It remains to say that the
moral characteristics of the Ruff exceed even anything that might
be inferred from what has been already stated. By no one have
they been more happily described than by Wolley, in a communica-
tion to Hewitson (Eggs of Brit. Birds, ed. 3, p. 346), as follows : —

" The Ruff, like other fine gentlemen, takes much more trouble with
his courtship than with his duties as a husband. Whilst the Reeves are
sitting on their eggs, scattered about the swamps, he is to be seen far
away flitting about in flocks, and on the ground dancing and sparring
with his companions. Before they are confined to their nests, it is
wonderful with what devotion the females are attended by their gay
followers, who seem to be each trying to be more attentive than the rest.
Nothing can be more expressive of humility and ardent love than some of
the actions of the Ruff. He throws himself prostrate on the ground, with

RUNNER-SADDLE-BACK 801

every feather on his body standing up and quivering ; but he seems as if
he were afraid of coming too near his mistress. If she flies off, he starts
up in an instant to arrive before her at the next place of alighting, and
all his actions are full of life and spirit. But none of his spirit is
expended in care for his family. He never comes to see after an enemy.
In the [Lapland] marshes, a Keeve now and then flies near with a
scarcely audible ka-ka-kuk ; but she seems a dull bird, and makes no
noisy attack on an invader."

Want of space forbids a fuller account of this extremely inter-
esting species. Its breeding-grounds extend from Great Britain l
across northern Europe and Asia; but the birds become less
numerous towards the east. They winter in India, reaching even
Ceylon, and Africa as far as the Cape of Good Hope. The Ruff
also occasionally visits Iceland, and there are several well-authen-
ticated records of its occurrence on the eastern coast of the United
States, while an example is stated (Ibis, 1875, p. 332) to have been
received from the northern part of South America,

RUNNER, a local name for the Water-RAiL (p. 763).

s

SACRUM, see SKELETON.

SADDLE-BACK, in Britain and North America, a local name
for the adult of either of the Black-backed GULLS, Larus marinus and
fuscus ; but in New Zealand applied to Creadion, a genus founded in
1816 by Vieillot (Analyse, p. 34) of which the Sturnus carunculatus
of Gmelin, based on the
Wattled Stare of Latham
(Gen. Synops. iii. p. 9, pi.
36) is usually considered
the type.2 Its real affinity
must be regarded as doubt-
ful ; for, like several other
forms of the New-Zealand ^^

Region, it does not enter

readily into any of the recognized Families of Birds, and thus has
been placed among the Stumidse or Cwvida, while it very possibly

1 In England of late years it has been known to breed only in one locality,
the name or situation of which it is not desirable to publish.

2 This is not to be confounded with the Anthoch&ra carunculata, which has
also been called Creadion carunculatus (Vieillot, Encycl Method, ii. p. 874) and
is a HONEY-SUCKER.

802 SAGE-COCK— SAKER

represents an earlier and more generalized form from which both
may have sprung. That point must be left to future examination
(which may be hoped for before extirpation has done its work), mean-
while it is enough to remark that the habits, as described by Sir W.
Buller (B. New Zeal ed. 2, i. pp. 18-20), of the Saddle-back of New
Zealand shew little trace of agreement with those of either of the
Families to which it has been assigned, and that the bird derives
its name from the distribution of its strongly-contrasted colours,
black and ferruginous, of which the latter covers the shoulders
and back in a way suggestive of saddle-flaps. A second species
described by Sir Walter in 1865 (Essay Orn. N. Z. p. 10), under
the name of 0. cinereus, was subsequently repudiated by him
(B. N. Z. ed. 1, p. 149), but in 1888 was restored (op. cit. ed. 2,
i. p. 21). It is said to be known as the Jack-bird.

SAGE-COCK, Centrocercus urophasianus (GROUSE, p. 394), the
" sage " being an Artemisia.

SAINT CUTHBERT'S DUCK, a local name of the EIDER
(p. 192).

SAKER, Fr. Sacre — said to be from the Arabic Saqr ( — Falcon)
and to have no connexion, as was once thought, with the Latin Sacer,
a translation of itpa% ( = Hawk) — a species of FALCON which was
allowed to drop almost out of knowledge with the neglect of
Falconry, so that though some of the older systematists recognized a
Falco sacer,1 they had but little acquaintance with it, and mostly
described it at second hand. It had been especially confounded
with the LANNER, and figured under that name in the works of
Naumann and Gould. To Schlegel, in 1844 (Rev. Grit. pp. ii. 9 ;
TraiU de la Fauconnerie, pp. 17-19, pi.), is due the disentangle-
ment of the complication, and the placing of the species on a sound
base, yet doubt may still be entertained as to the scientific name it
should bear.2 In Europe it inhabits only the south-eastern portion,
beginning with Bohemia,3 but in North Africa it ranges from

1 The F. sacer of J. R. Forster (Phil. Trans. Ixii. p. 383) was evidently the
young of the American GOSHAWK, and neither (as he thought) the Sacre of
Brisson and Buffon, nor (as has lately been supposed) the young of F. gyrfalco.
Schlegel took it to be the young of F. candicans, which he at that time believed
to be brown.

2 It cannot be F. sacer, Gmelin 1788, since that was anticipated by Forster
in 1772 (see preceding note). According to most synonymies, F. cherrug, J. E.
Gray (III. Ind. Zool. pi. 25), is next in point of time, and perhaps should stand.
It is certainly the F. cyanopus of Thienemann (Rhea, pp. 39, note, and 62, pis. i.
and ii.) in 1846-49.

3 Messrs. Salvin and Brodrick (Falconry in the British Islands, p. 96) say
that in 1848 Mr. A. C. Cochrane obtained breeding birds in Hungary, and twelve
years later Mr. Hudleston took a nest in the Dobrudska (Ibis, 1860, p. 377,
pi. xii. fig. 1).

SANDERLING 803

Morocco to Egypt, and thence across Asia to north-eastern China,
being highly esteemed by the falconers of that tract of country, as
well as by those of India, to whom it is known as the Cherrug,
though it there occurs only as a cold-weather visitant (cf. Jerdon,
Ibis, 1871, pp. 238-240), its place as a native being taken by its
smaller relative the LUGGAR, which it a good deal resembles in its
generally dull-coloured plumage. Falcons, however, are met with
as large as the Saker or larger, but coloured almost like a hen
KESTREL, and on such a bird was founded the F. milmpes of
Hodgson, published as a bare name in 1844 (Zool. Miscell. p. 81).
Some authors appear still to consider this a distinct species, but the
late Mr. Gurney referred it to the Saker (Ibis, 1882, pp. 444-447;
List Diurn. B. Prey, p. 1 1 0). In India the Saker is flown chiefly at
hares, small deer and the larger birds, as Bustards, Cranes and
Kites, often shewing remarkable sport with the last, yet in its wild
state it preys chiefly on rats, lizards and even insects, and when
trained for a more powerful quarry it has to be drugged to give it
courage.

SANDERLING (Icel. Sanderla1), one of the commonest and
most widely-ranging of the LIMICOL^E that frequent our shores, and
one in which great interest has been manifested, from the fact that
for a very long while naturalists were unable to reach its breeding-
haunts, though they were asserted to have been found in the Parry
Islands ; and Iceland was also suspected to be one of them. All
doubt was, however, put aside when it became known that, in June
1863, its nest and eggs had been discovered near Franklin Bay by
Mr. MacFarlane (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. xiv. p. 427), a discovery the
more fortunate since the species is rare in that quarter, and he was
never able to obtain a second nest. One of the eggs, on being sent
to England by the Smithsonian Institution (for whom that gentle-
man, at the instigation of the late Prof. Baird, was collecting) was
described and figured2 (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 76, pi. iv. fig. 2).
Shortly after, the eggs collected by the German North-Pole Expedi-
tion were received in this country and among them were ten, in a
more or less fragmentary condition, obtained by Dr. Pansch on the
east coast of Greenland, which, by an exhaustive process, were
shewn (torn. cit. p. 546 ; Wissensch. Ergebn. deutsch. Nordpolarfahrt,
pp. 204, 240-242) to be those of this species, while the series also
served to corroborate the suspicion before entertained of the breed-

1 A name often confounded with Sand-Ida, the Icelandic name of the Ringed
PLOVER, whereby several mistakes have arisen.

2 The egg had been professedly figured before both by Thienemann (Fortpflanz.
gesammt. Vogel, t. Ixii. fig. 2) and Bsedeker (Eier Europ. Vogel, t. Ixxi. fig. 5),
but no doubt their specimens had been wrongly assigned, as were many others in
various collections.

804 SANDERLING

ing of this species in Iceland, since they shewed that an egg which
had been brought thence in 1858 could hardly belong to any other.
In the Arctic Expedition of 1875-6 Col. Feilden (Ibis, 1877, p. 406,
and Nares, Voyage to the Polar Sea, ii. p. 210, pi.) found a nest
with two eggs, which fully agree with the rest. Thus it will appear
that the breeding-range of this species, so far as is at present known
with certainty, extends only from Iceland (say long. 15° W.) to
Point Barrow (say long. 155° W.), and that interruptedly, though it
is just possible that some part of the Arctic coast of Asia may have
to be included, but not that of Europe, Nova Zembla or Spits-
bergen.1 In autumn the Sanderling is well known to pass south-
ward across, or along the coast of all the great continents, though it
winters in no inconsiderable numbers in temperate climes, our own,
for example ; but, while it reaches Patagonia in the New World and
the Cape of Good Hope in the Old, it seems mostly content to stay
on the northern margin of the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, only
rarely venturing to Ceylon or Burma ; and, hitherto unknown to
the Malay Peninsula, has been observed but on two of the islands
(Borneo and Java) of that Archipelago. Yet it appears on the
Chinese sea-board generally, and has even been obtained in New
South Wales, while its occurrence, perhaps more or less accidental,
has been recorded at spots distant enough from its true home — such
as the Sandwich Islands, the Galapagos and the Marshall group in
the Pacific, the Lacdivies, Aldabra and Madagascar in the Indian
Ocean, and the Canaries, Madeira and Bermuda in the Atlantic, to
say nothing of the Antilles. Observation seems to shew that in
such outlying places it appears less frequently and more irregularly
than several of its wandering kindred, and wherever it tarries,
whether on passage or to winter, it rather prefers the drier sandy
shores, where it consorts with PLOVERS of the genus ^Egialitis, to
the expanses of mud or marsh that so many of its allies affect.

The Sanderling belongs to the group Tringinaz (SANDPIPER) but
is always recognizable by wanting the small hind toe, a distinction
that justifies its generic separation, and it has long been the Calidris
arenaria of ornithology.2 It undergoes a seasonal change quite as
remarkable as the KNOT and some others, its winter-suit being of a
beautiful silvery-grey, making the bird at times look almost wholly
white, but in spring the head, back and breast become mottled with
rust-colour and black, the former predominating in the form of a
broad edging to the feathers; but the belly and lower parts are
white all the year round.

1 It is pretty obvious that there must be places in high northern latitudes
where the Sanderling, the Knot and several other allied species breed in
profusion.

2 Linnaeus described it twice, first as a Charadrius and then as a Tringa. The
absence of the hallux induced many systematists to put it among the Plovers.

SAND-GROUSE 805

SAND-GROUSE, the name1 by which are commonly known
the members of a small but remarkable group of birds frequenting
sandy tracts, and having their feet more or less clothed with
feathers after the fashion of GROUSE, to which they were originally
thought to be closely allied, and the species first described were by
the earlier systematists invariably referred to the genus Tetrao.
Their separation therefrom is due to Temminck, who made for
them a distinct genus which he called Pterodesf and his view, as
Lesson tells us (Traitt, p. 515), was subsequently corroborated by
De Blainville ; while in 1831 Bonaparte (Saggio &c. p. 54) recognized
the group as a good Family, Pediophili or Pterodidse. Further
investigation of the osteology and pterylosis of the Sand-Grouse
revealed still greater divergence from the normal GALLING, as well
as several curious resemblances to the Pigeons ; and Prof. Huxley
(Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, p. 303) for sufficiently weighty reasons, pro-
posed to regard them, under the name of PTEROCLOMORPH^E, as
forming a group equivalent to the ALECTOROMORPH^E and PERISTER-
OMORPH^E.3 The group consists of two genera4 — Pterocles, with
about fifteen species, arid Syrrhaptes, with two. Of the former, two
species inhabit Europe, P. arenarius, the Sand-Grouse proper, and
that which is usually called P. alchata, the Pin-tailed Sand-Grouse.
The European range of the first is practically limited to Portugal,
Spain and the southern parts of Russia, while the second inhabits
also the south of France, where it "is generally known by its
Catalan name of " Ganga," or locally as " Grandaulo" or, strange to
say, " Perdrix d'Angleterre" Both species are also abundant in
Barbary, and have been believed to extend eastwards through Asia
to India, in most parts of which country they seem to be only
winter- visitants ; but in 1880 Herr Bogdanow pointed out (Bull. Ac.
Sc. Petersb. xxvii. p. 164) a slight difference of coloration between
eastern and western examples of what had hitherto passed as
P. alchata ; and the difference, if found to be constant, may require
the specific recognition of each. India, where these birds are com-
monly known to sportsmen as " Rock-Pigeons," moreover, possesses

1 It seems to have been first used by Latham in 1783 (Gen. Synops. iv. p. 751)
as the direct translation of the name Tetrao arenarius given by Pallas.

2 He states (Man. d'Orn. ed. 2, ii. p. 474, note) that he published this name
in 1809 ; but hitherto research has failed to find it used until 1815.

3 Some more recent writers, recognizing the group as a distinct Order, have
applied to it the name of "PTEROCLETES," while another calls it Heteroclitse.
The former of these words is based on a grammatical misconception, while the
use of the latter has long since been otherwise preoccupied in zoology. If there
be need to set aside Prof. Huxley's term, Bonaparte's Pediophili (as above
mentioned) may be accepted, and indeed has priority of all others.

4 Bonaparte (Compt. rend. xiii. p. 880) proposed to separate the Pin-tailed
Sand-Grouse as Pterodurus, and therein has been followed by Mr. Ogilvie Grant
(Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxii. pp. 2, 6), but this separation seems needless.

8o6

SAND-GROUSE

five other species of Pterodes, of which however only one, P. fasciatus,
is peculiar to Asia, while the others inhabit Africa as well, and all
the remaining species belong to the Ethiopian Region — one, P.
personatus, being peculiar to Madagascar, and four occurring in or
on the borders of Cape Colony.

Sytrhaptes, though in general appearance resembling Pterodes,
has a conformation of foot quite unique among birds, the three
anterior toes being encased in a common "podotheca," which is
covered to the claws with hairy feathers, so as to look much like

SYRRHAPTES PARADOXUS. (From the Prospectus of Yarrell's British Birds, ed. 4.)

a fingerless glove, while the hind toe is wanting. The two species
of Syrrhaptes are S. tibetanus — the largest Sand-Grouse known —
inhabiting the country whence its trivial name is derived, and S.
paradoxus, ranging from Northern China across Central Asia to
the confines of Europe, which it occasionally, and in a marvellous
manner, invades, as has been already mentioned (MIGRATION, p.
571). Here the subject, which has a large literature of its own,1
must be treated very concisely. Hitherto known only as an
inhabitant of the Tartar steppes, a single example was obtained at

1 Dr. Leverkiihn lias been at great pains to compile a bibliography of Syrrhaptes
which will be found in the Monatssclirift des Deutschen Verein zum Schutze der
Vogelwelt for 1888-92.

SAND-GROUSE 807

Sarepta on the Volga in the winter of 1848. In May 1859 a pair
is said to have been killed in the Government of Vilna on the
western borders of the Russian Empire, and a few weeks later five
examples were procured, and a few others seen, in Western Europe
— one in Jutland, one in Holland, two in England and one in
Wales, beside which a sixth was killed near Perpignan at the foot
of the Pyrenees in the October following (Ibis, 1871, p. 223). In
1860 another was obtained at Sarepta; but in May and June 1863
a horde, computed to consist of at least 700 birds, overran Europe
— reaching Sweden, Norway, the Fseroes and Ireland in the north-
west, and in the south extending to Bimini on the Adriatic and
Biscarolle on the Bay of Biscay. On the sandhills of Jutland and
Holland some of these birds bred, but war was too successfully
waged against the nomads to allow of their establishing themselves,
and a few survivors only were left to fall to the gun in the course
of the following winter and spring.1 In 1872 and 1876 there were
two small visitations ; but from the former, observed in only two
localities — one on the coast of Northumberland, the other on that
of Ayrshire, both in the month of June — no specimen is known to
have been obtained, while the latter was observed in three localities
— one near Winterton in Norfolk in May, another near Modena in
Italy in June, and the third in the county Wicklow in Ireland,
where at least one was killed. In 1888 occurred an irruption in
numbers quite incalculable. The excess of observations over those
of 1863 is no doubt due in some measure to the increased attention
paid to it, mainly in consequence of a warning issued (29th April)
by Prof. R.. Blasius of Brunswick so soon as the movement was
known to him, but still there is proof of the invasion being on a
much larger scale. Most of the features of 1863 were repeated,
and the general line taken was much as in that year, suggesting the
same "radiant point" (to use an astronomical phrase) in both
cases ; 2 but, owing to the meagre reports that have reached us from
the East, that point is still to seek, and its determination must
await another opportunity. Some differences, however, are to be
noted : the event took place nearly a month earlier in the year,
and the passage across Europe soon expanded more widely. In the
north-east the Gulf of Finland was crossed to Helsingfors, but the
most northerly (Roraas in Norway) and westerly (Belmullet in Ire-
land) points reached were only a little further than the limits of
1863. Southward a great extension was shewn not only in Italy

1 Ibis, 1864, pp. 185-222. A few additional particulars which have since
become known to me are here inserted.

2 But the species seems to have established itself in 1876 on the left bank of
the Lower Volga (K. G. Henke, Bull. Soc. Nat. Hose. 1877, i. p. 119), and the
incursionists of 1888 may have had their origin there. South-west of the
Caspian the species is a rare visitant.

8o8 SAND-GROUSE

(Santa Severa, not far from Rome) but in Spain (Albufera of
Valencia), that country being now invaded for the first time. If
records are to be trusted, flocks of many hundreds appeared on the
steppes of Orenburg at the end of February (qu. O.S. ?), all moving
due westward, and a month later a bird was killed at Saratov
(Baron A. von Kriidener, Zool. Gart. 1888, p. 282). On the 4th
April, from 30 to 40 were seen at Selb on the boundary of
Bohemia and Bavaria. On the 17th Husum in Sleswick was
reached, and Heligoland on the 8th May — but there is reason to
believe that one of the Fame Islands was visited on the 6th, and
certainly within a very few days the British Islands were com-
pletely occupied,1 while after that dates become of little value since,
as before, the movement was practically unchecked, though doubt-
less here and there affected in some measure by local causes. Just
as when a billow has broken upon the beach it is a thousand
accidents that determine the way in which the spray is scattered,
so was it with these birds, for no sooner had they arrived than
they were hastening in one direction or another in quest of food,
and with their wonderful wing-power the search was pretty easy.
A suitable place being found, they occupied it in parties of from 6
to 8, or 20 to 30 — and so far as Britain is concerned it was plain
that they were nearly all paired and ready to breed. This object
they effected in several localities, both here and on the continent ;
but many false rumours, some of them intentionally set about, were
current. As regards England, two nests were certainly found in
the East Eiding of Yorkshire,2 and in Scotland a young bird was
found by Mr. Scott, a gamekeeper, on the Culbin Sands in Moray.
This was not preserved, but in the following year he obtained
another, which was subsequently exhibited at the Newcastle meet-
ing of the British Association, and from it the first description and
figure of the chick were published.3 Notwithstanding the destruc-
tion carried on, small parties or even considerable flocks were
observed from time to time during the autumn of 1888 in one part
of Europe or another, but gradually their numbers dwindled, and
the spring and summer of 18894 saw but few remaining. Some,

1 Mr. W. Evans computes the garrison of Scotland at from 1500 to 2000 birds.

2 I was indebted to the kindness of Mr. J. C. Swailes for the opportunity of
seeing the eggs there obtained.

3 In numerous instances, especially in Germany, the young of Crex pratensis
seem to have been taken for those of Syrrhaptes. Some old birds taken alive
bred in the aviary of Herr J. B. Christensen, near Copenhagen, and after an
incubation of 23 days several eggs were hatched, from which, in 1891, one young
bird reached maturity, as he kindly informed me. In the zoological garden of
Amsterdam eggs were also laid and some hatched after an incubation of 28 days ;
but it does not appear that any produce was reared (Ibis, 1890, p. 466).

4 In 1888 an Act of Parliament was passed to protect these birds, but as it
was not to come into operation until February 1889 it was a futile measure.

SAND-GROUSE 809

however, contrived to get through another winter in Great Britain,
and if rumour may be credited, all had not disappeared even in
1892, but this is by no means certain. The interest attaching to
the several European irruptions has almost made ornithologists for-
getful of the somewhat similar inroad upon the plains between
Pekin and Tientsin in China in the autumn of 1860, which affords
another proof of the propensity of the species to irregular
migration.1

Externally all Sand-Grouse present an appearance so distinctive
that nobody who has seen one of them can be in doubt as to any
of the rest. Their plumage assimilates in general colour to that of
the ground they frequent (cf. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, p. 336),
being above of a dull ochreous hue, more or less barred or mottled
by darker shades, while beneath it is frequently varied by belts of
deep brown intensifying into black. Lighter tints are, however,
exhibited by some species — the drab merging into a pale grey, the
buff brightening into a lively orange, and streaks or edgings of an
almost pure white relieve the prevailing sandy or fawn-coloured
hues that especially characterize the group. The sexes seem
always to differ in plumage, that of the male being the brightest
and most diversified. The expression is decidedly Dove-like, and

so is the form of the body,

s / but their appearance when

i A ~ f f flying in a flock is more like

jTJ[A- that of Plovers.2 The long
wings, the outermost primary
of which in Syrrhaptes has
its shaft produced into an

SYRRHAPTES ON THE WING. , j 01

(Wilton, Norfolk, sth October 1888.) attenuated filament, are in

all the species worked by

exceedingly powerful muscles, and in several forms the middle
rectrices are likewise protracted and pointed, so as to give to their
wearers the name of Pin-tailed Sand-Grouse. The nest is a shallow
hole in the sand. Three seems to be the regular complement of eggs
laid in each nest, but there are writers who declare (most likely in
error) that the full number in some species is four. These eggs are
of peculiar shape, being almost cylindrical in the middle and nearly
alike at each end, and are of a pale earthy colour, spotted, blotched

1 It appears to be the "Barguerlac" of Marco Polo (ed. Yule, i. p. 239) ; and
the "Loung-Kio" or "Dragon's Foot," so unscientifically described by the Abbe
Hue (Souvenirs djun Voyage dans la Tartarie, i. p. 244), can scarcely be any
thing else than this bird.

2 I write with especial reference to Syrrhaptes, a flock of which may be easily
mistaken for one of Golden Plovers, as the figure shews, though the former have
the wing more curved and keep stroke with far more regularity, their ' ' time "
(as an oarsman would say) being absolutely perfect.

CL£L

8io

SANDPEEP— SANDPIPER

or marbled with darker shades, the markings being of two kinds,
one superficial and the other more deeply seated in the shell. The
young are hatched fully clothed in down (P. Z. S. 1866, pi. ix. fig.
2), and though not very active would appear to be capable of
locomotion soon after birth. Morphologically generalized as the
Sand-Grouse undoubtedly are, no one can contest the extreme
specialization of many of their features, and thus they form a very
instructive group. The remains of an extinct species of Pterodes,
P. sepultus, intermediate apparently between P. akhata, and P.
gutturalis, have been recognized in the Miocene caves of the Allier
by Prof. A. Milne-Edwards (Ois. foss. France, p. 294, pi. clxi. figs.
1-9) ; and, in addition to the other authorities on this very interest-
ing group of birds already cited, reference may be made to Mr.
Elliot's "Study" of the Family (Proc. Zool Soc. 1878, pp. 233-264)
and Dr. Gadow, " On certain points in the Anatomy of Pterodes "
(op. cit. 1882, pp. 312-332).

SAND PEEP, used in America for SANDPIPER.

SANDPIPER (Germ. Sandpfeifer), according to Willughby in
1676 the name given by Yorkshiremen to the bird now most
popularly known in England as the " Summer-Snipe," — the Tringa
liypoleucos of Linnaeus and the Totanus, Actitis or Tringoides hypoleucus
of later writers, — and probably even in Willughby 's time of
much wider signification, as for more than a century it has
certainly been applied to nearly all the smaller kinds of the group
termed by modern ornithologists LIMICOL^E which are not PLOVERS
or SNIPES, but may be said to be intermediate between them.
Placed by most systematists in the Family Scolopaddse, the birds
commonly called Sandpipers seem to form three sections, which
have been often regarded as subfamilies — Totaninse, Tringinss and

Phalaropodinse, the last of which has
already been treated (PHALAROPE), and
in some classifications takes the higher
rank of a Family — Phalaropodidse.
The distinctions between Totaninse
and Tringinaz, though believed to be
real, are not easily drawn, and space
is wanting here to describe them
minutely. Both of these groups have
been the sport of nomenclators and
systematists, so that a vast mass of
synonymy, puzzling to unravel, and
many superfluous genera have been
introduced. The most obvious dis-
tinctions may be said to lie in the form of the tip of the bill (with
which is associated a less or greater development of the sensitive nerves

. (After swainson.)

SANDPIPER 811

running almost if not quite to its extremity, and therefore closely
connected with the mode of feeding) and in the style of plumage —
the Tringinw, with blunt and flexible bills, mostly assuming a
summer-dress in which some tint
of chestnut or reddish -brown is
very prevalent, while the Totaninze,
with more acute and stiffer bills,

,. , -L T i i TOTANUS. (After Swainson.)

display no such lively colours.

Furthermore, the Tringinse, except when actually breeding, frequent
the sea-shore much more than do the Totaninte.1 To the latter belong
the GREENSHANK and REDSHANK, as well as the Common Sandpiper
of English books, the "Summer-Snipe" above-mentioned, a bird
hardly exceeding a Skylark in size, and of very general distribution
throughout the British Islands, but chiefly frequenting clear streams,
especially those with a gravelly or rocky bottom, and most generally
breeding on the beds of sand or shingle on their banks. It usually
makes its appearance in May, and thenceforth during the summer
months may be seen in pairs skimming gracefully over the water
from one bend of the stream to another, uttering occasionally a
shrill but plaintive whistle, or running nimbly along the margin, the
mouse-coloured plumage of its back and wings making indeed but
little show, though the pure white of its lower parts often renders
it conspicuous. The nest, in which four eggs are laid with their
pointed ends meeting in its centre (as is usual among Limicoline
birds), is seldom far from the water's edge, and the eggs, as well
as the newly-hatched and down-covered young, so closely resemble
the surrounding pebbles that it takes a sharp eye to discriminate
them. Later in the season family-parties may be seen about the
larger waters, whence, as autumn advances, they depart for their
winter-quarters. The Common Sandpiper is found over the greater
part of the Old World. In summer it is the most abundant bird of
its kind in the extreme north of Europe, and it extends across Asia
to Japan. In winter it makes its way to India, Australia and the
Cape of Good Hope. In America its place is taken by a closely-
kindred species, which is said to have also occurred in England — T.
macularius, the " Peetweet," or Spotted Sandpiper, so called from its
usual cry, or from the almost circular marks which spot its lower
plumage. In habits it is very similar to its congener of the Old
World, and in winter it migrates to the Antilles and to Central and
South America. Of other Totaninse, one of the most remarkable is
that to which the inappropriate name of Green Sandpiper has been

1 There are unfortunately no English words adequate to express these two
sections. By some British writers the Tringinse have been indicated as " Stints,"
a term cognate with Stunt and not wholly applicable to all of them, while recent
American writers restrict to them the name of "Sandpiper," and call the
Totaninse, to which that name is especially appropriate, " Willets."

812 SANDPIPER

assigned, the Totanus or Helodromas ochropus of ornithologists, which
most curiously differs (so far as is known) from all others of the
group both in its osteology l and mode of nidification, the hen laying
her eggs in the deserted nests of other birds — Jays, Thrushes or
Pigeons — but nearly always at some height (from 3 to 30 feet) from
the ground (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1863, pp. 529-532). This species
occurs in England the whole year round, and is presumed to have
bred here, though the fact has never been satisfactorily proved, and
our knowledge of its erratic habits comes from naturalists in
Pomerania and Sweden ; yet in the breeding-season, even in England,
the cock-bird has been seen to rise high in air and perform a variety
of evolutions on the wing, all the while piping what, without any
violence of language, may be called a song. This Sandpiper is
characterized by its dark upper plumage, which contrasts strongly
with the white of the lower part of the back and gives the bird as
it flies away from its disturber much the look of a very large
House-Martin. The so-called Wood-Sandpiper, T. glareola, which,
though much less common, is known to have bred in England, has
a considerable resemblance to the species last mentioned, but can at
once be distinguished, and often as it flies, by the feathers of the
axillary plume being white barred with greyish-black, while in the
Green Sandpiper they are greyish-black barred with white. It is
an abundant bird in most parts of northern Europe, migrating in
winter very far to the southward.

Of the section Tringinse the best known are the DUNLIN, the
KNOT and the SANDERLING (the last to be distinguished from every
other bird of the group by wanting a hind toe), while the Purple
Sandpiper, Tringa striata or maritime!, is only somewhat less numerous,
but is especially addicted to rocky coasts. The Curlew-Sandpiper,
T. subarquata, appears not unfrequently, and is of especial interest
since its nest has never been discovered, and none can point even
approximately to any breeding-place for it, except it be, as Yon
Middendorff supposed, on the tundras of the Taimyr. The Little
and Temminck's Stints, T. minuta and T. temmincki, are more regular
in their visits, and have been traced to their homes in the most
northern part of Scandinavia and the Russian Empire, but want of
space forbids more than this record of their names ; and, for the
same reason, no notice can be taken of many other species, chiefly
American, belonging to this group, with the exception of T. maculata
or pedoralis, concerning which a few words must be said on account
of the extraordinary faculty, first noticed by the late Mr. Edward
Adams (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 130), possessed by the male of
puffing out its oesophagus, after the manner of a Pouter-Pigeon.

1 It possesses only a single pair of posterior " emarginations " on its sternum,
in this respect resembling the RUFF. Among the PLOVERS and SNIPES other
similarly exceptional cases may be found.

SAND-PLO VER—SAR US

813

EURYNORHYNCHtJS.

(From The Ibis.)

This habit, unique, so far as is known, among the group, is indulged
in during the breeding-season, and the inflation is accompanied by
the utterance of a deep, hollow and resonant note, as subsequently
observed by Mr. E. W. Nelson (Auk, 1884, pp. 218-221), who
afterwards figured the bird (N. H. Collect.
Alaska, pp. 108, 109, pi. vii.) in this extra-
ordinary condition, when it presents almost
the appearance of a RUFF, while his experi-
ence has been corroborated by Mr. Murdoch
(Rep. Internal. Pol. Exped. Point Barrow, p.
111). Two other forms must however be
mentioned.1 These are the broad-billed
Sandpiper, T. platyrliyncha, of the Old World,
which seems to be more Snipe-like than any
that are usually kept in this section, and the
marvellous Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Euryno-
rhynchus pygm&us (cf. Harting, Ibis, 1869,
pp. 426-434), the true home of which
has still to be discovered, according to the
experience of Baron Nordenskjold in the
memorable voyage of the ' Vega.' 2

SAND-PLOVER, a name given locally to PLOVERS of the

genus JEgialitis.

SAND-RUNNER, like the foregoing, but perhaps sometimes
used more for SANDPIPER.

SAPSUCKER, a common name in North America for many of
the smaller WOODPECKERS, Dendrocopus pubescens, wllosus and others,
but strictly only applicable to Sphyropicus varius, which with its
local forms, nuchalis and ruber, and congener thyroideus, has a lingual
structure, first described by Macgillivray for Audubon (Orn. Biogr. v.
pp. 537, 538), very different from that of most Picidas, and a mode of
feeding to correspond (cf. Coues, Birds of the North West, pp. 285-289).

SARUS (Hind. Saras and Sarhans), often corrupted into
" Cyrus," the ordinary name for Grus antigone, one of the finest of
the CRANES (p. 112).

1 Reference has already been made to the presumably extinct ^Echmorhynchus
(p. 712, note 2) and Prosobonia (pp. 225, 226), if the latter really belonged to
this group.

2 Air. Seebohm's volume before mentioned (p. 733, note 2) The Geographical
Distribution of the Family Cliaradriidae, or the Plovers, Sandpipers, Snipes and
their allies, contains an account of every species and figures of a great many of the
Sandpipers. Yet a good work on the subject is still to be desired, especially if it
will describe accurately the range of the various species, distinguishing between
their summer-homes and their winter-resorts, while recording also their occasional
wanderings.

8 1 4 SA TIN-BIRD— SCA MEL

SATIN-BIRD, one of the BOWER-BIRDS (p. 49), Ptilorhynchus
violaceus or holosericeus, so-called from its glossy plumage.

SATIN-SPARROW, the name in Tasmania for Myiagra nitida,
a FLYCATCHER.

SAURIUR^E or SAURIURI, Prof. Hackel's names in 1866
(Gen. Morphol i. p. cxxxix.) for the first of his two Subclasses of
Aves, consisting so far as is at present known of Archseopteryx
(FossiL BIRDS, pp. 278-280), his second Subclass being named
OrnHhurx, and composed of two "Legions," (1) Autophagse or
NlDlFUG^:, the latter therefore not used in the same sense as in the
present work (p. 635) ; and (2) Psedotroplids or INSESSORES (p. 459),
which last differs from the meaning attached to it by Vigors.
Prof. Huxley having adopted the modified term SAURURJE as
one of his Orders (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 418), it has come into
general use, while Ornitliurse may be said to have lapsed.1

SAUROGNATH^E, the late Prof. W. K. Parker's name (Trans.
R. Micros. Soc. 1872, p. 219) for the CELEOMORPILE of Prof.
Huxley (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 456), consisting of the Picidaz
(WOODPECKER) and lynginx, (WRYNECK), thereby raising them to
the same rank as the latter's other Suborders of CARINAT^E.

SAVANNA BLACKBIRD, a common West-Indian name of
Orotophoga ani (ANI).

SAWBILL, a name commonly given to the GOOSANDER and
MERGANSER, and also used in some books for the MOTMOTS.

SAW-SHARPENER, a widely-spread local name for the Great
TITMOUSE, Parus major, from the peculiar song of the cock.

SAW-WHET, a little OWL, Nydala acadica, so-called in Audubon's
words (Orn. Biogr. ii. p. 567) from "the sound of its love-notes
bearing a great resemblance to the noise produced by filing the
teeth of a large saw."

SAYSIE, a name applied in South Africa to several FINCHES of
the genus Crithagra (Layard, B. S. Afr. ed. 2, pp. 485-487).

SCALE-DUCK, a local name for the SHELD-DRAKE.

SCAMEL, a word, used once by Shakespear (Tempest, Act II.
Sc. ii., line 176), that has given rise to many conjectures (cf. Wright,
Cambr. Shakesp. i. p. 51); but is commonly accepted as a bird's
name, a signification rendered more likely by the fact that at
Blakeney, on the coast of Norfolk, it was applied to a GODWIT
(Stevenson, B. Norf. ii. p. 260), though it is not to be supposed that
Shakespear used it in that sense. It seems to be otherwise

1 Botanists, however, had made a prior application of Saururas.

SCANSORES— SCAUP 815

unknown, and the most plausible suggestions are that the word was
a misprint for "Seamel" (i.e. SEA-MEW) or for "Stannel" (a
KESTREL).

SCANSOEES, Illiger's name in 1811 (Prodr. p. 194) for his
First Order, made to contain 5 Families : — (1) Psittacini, with the
genera Psittacus and Pezoporus ; (2) Serrati, made up of fiamphastos,
Pteroglossus, Pogonias, CorytJiaix, Trogon and Musophaga ; (3) Amphiboli,
including CrotopJiaga, Scythrops, Hucco, Cuculus and Centropus; (4)
Sagittilingues, formed by lynx and Picus ; and (5) Syndadyli, con-
sisting of Galbula.

SCAPULARS, a set of feathers on each side of a bird's dorsal
surface, so called as lying along the scapulas or shoulder-blades ;
but by some writers termed Humerals, since they run across the
humeri. These feathers form part of the PARAPTERON of Illiger and
Sundevall, and in some groups of birds are very conspicuous and
characteristic.

SCAEF (Icel. Skarfr), otherwise SCAET, a local name for a
CORMORANT or SHAG.

SCAUP, the wild-fowlers' ordinary abridgment of ScAUP-DucK,
meaning a Duck so called "because she feeds upon Scaup, i.e.
broken shel-fish," as may be seen in Willughby's
Ornithology (p. 365); but it would be more
proper to say that the name comes from the
"Mussel-scaups," or "Mussel-scalps,"1 the beds
of rock or sand on which mussels (Mytilus edulis,
and other species) are aggregated - the Anas
marila of Linnaeus and Nyroca or Fuligula marila
of modern ornithology, a very abundant bird around the coasts of
most parts of the northern hemisphere, repairing inland in spring for
the purpose of reproduction, though so far as is positively known
hardly but in northern districts, as Iceland, Lapland, Siberia and the
fur-countries of America. It was many years ago believed (Edinb.
N. Philos. Journ. xx. p. 293) to have been found breeding in Scotland,
but assertions to that effect have not been wholly substantiated,
though apparently corroborated by some later evidence (Proc. N. H.
Soc. Glasg. ii. p. 121, and Proc. Phys. Soc. Edinb. vii. p. 203). The
Scaup-Duck has considerable likeness to the POCHARD, both in
habits and appearance; but it much more generally affects salt-
water, and the head of the male is black, glossed with green, and
hence the name of " Black-head," by which it is commonly known
in North America, where, however, a second species or race> smaller
than the ordinary one, is also found, the N. or F. affinis. The

1 "Scalp" primarily signifies a shell; cf. Old Dutch schelpe and Old Fr.
escalope (Skeat, JZtymol. Dictionary, p. 528).

8i6 SCA URIE—SCIZZORS-TA1L

female Scaup-Duck can be readily distinguished from the Dunbird
or female Pochard by her broad white face.

SCAURIE or SCOREY. In Orkney the young of the Herring-
GULL is so-called (Niell, Tour through Orkney and Shetland, p. 201),
and the name is perhaps elsewhere applied (Montagu, Suppl. Orn.
Diet.] to that of some other species.

SCEIZOGNATKLE, Prof. Huxley's second Suborder of CARI-
NAT^E, composed of six groups — CHARADRIOMORPILE, GERANO-
MORPILE, CECOMORPH^E, SPHENISCOMORPM, ALECTOROMORPH.E
and PERISTEROMORPH^E — in all of which the vomer, however
variable, always tapers to a point anteriorly, while behind it
embraces the basisphenoidal rostrum between the palatals ; but
neither these nor the pterygoids are borne by its posterior divergent
ends. The maxillopalatals are usually elongated, and, bending
backward along their inner edge, leave a fissure (whence the name
of the Suborder) between the vomer and themselves. In addition
to these characters, the birds composing this group often want
intrinsic muscles in the lower larynx, and never possess more than
a single pair of them. With the exception of Podicipes (GREBE) all
the genera which he had examined have two carotid arteries (Proc.
Zool Soc. 1867, pp. 426-435; 456-460).

SCHIZORHINAL, the epithet bestowed by Garrod (Proc. Zool.
Soc. 1873, p. 36), in his first and crude systematic arrangement of
Birds, on what appeared to him to be a " Suborder," in contra-
distinction to those possessing what he called the HOLORHINAL
structure. This view was virtually abandoned by him within little
more than twelve months (op. cit. 1874, pp. 111-123); but that
fact has not hindered some writers from continuing to use these
terms as if they had any taxonomic signification.

SCIZZOES-TAIL, Milvulus forficatus, one of the most beautiful
of the Tyramvictee (TYRANT), so called in some of the Southern
States of North America from its habit of opening and closing its
long and deeply-forked tail like the blades of a pair of scissors.
It is only an accidental wanderer to the Northern or even the
Middle States, but is or was abundant on the prairies of Texas, and
inhabits Mexico and Central America as far as Costa Rica. With-
out possessing any tints that may be called brilliant in its plumage,
the delicate harmony of lavender-grey and rose-red that it displays
— and it is very fond of the display — as well as its graceful form
combine to make its appearance most engaging, and almost justify
its being known, according to Mr. Dresser (Ibis, 1865, p. 472), in
Western Texas as the " Bird-of -Paradise " — for its long tail (10
inches) helps to give it that name, and its habits render it con-
spicuous. It is of a fearless disposition and quarrelsome towards
its fellows, though it will join with them in playful and lofty

SCOBBY— SCOTER 817

flights, in which all will shoot rapidly upwards, making the strokes
of their wings resound so as to be heard at a considerable distance.
The same kind of behaviour has been observed in the allied M.
tyrannus, a more soberly - coloured and even longer - tailed bird,
which, though properly a native of Central and pretty generally of
South America, occasionally strays to the northern part of that
continent, and has occurred more than once within the limits of the
United States. Mr. Hudson (Argent. Orn. i. p. 161 ; Nat. in La
Plata, pp. 271, 272) states that the birds of this species, though
not gregarious, rise just before sunset to the tree-tops, and after
calling to one another with loud and excited chirps, "mount
upwards like rockets, to a great height in the air; then, after
whirling about for a few moments, they precipitate themselves
downwards with the greatest violence, opening and shutting their
tails during their wild zigzag flight, and uttering a succession of
sharp, grinding notes."

SCOBBY, a north-country name for the CHAFFINCH (p. 82).

SCOLDER — perhaps from Icel. Skjoldr (cf. SHELD-DRAKE), or
possibly from Icel. Tjaldr ; Fseroese Tjaldur, — in Orkney a name
for the OYSTER-CATCHER (p. 681); but, according to Mr. Trumbull
(Names & Portr. B. p. 89), on the east coast of North America for
the Long-tailed DUCK (see HARELD, p. 406).

SCOOPER, said to have 'been a local name for the AVOSET
(p. 23).

SCOTER, a word of doubtful origin, perhaps a variant of
SCOUT — one of the many local names snared in common by the

SCOTER. SURF-DUCK.

(After Swainson.)

GUILLEMOT and the RAZORBILL, — or perhaps primarily connected
with CooT,1 — the English name of the Anas nigra of Linnaeus,
which with some allied species has been justifiably placed in a

1 In the former case the derivation seems to be from the 0. Fr. Escoutc, and
that from the Latin auscultare (cf. Skeat, Etymol. Diet. p. 533), but in the
latter from the Dutch Koet (Coox), which is said to be of Celtic extraction —
Cwtiar (op. cii. p. 134). The French Macreuse, possibly from the Latin macer,
indicating a bird that may be eaten in Lent or on the fast days of the Roman
Church, is of double signification, meaning in the south of France a Coot and in
the north a Scoter. By the wild-fowlers of parts of North America Scoters are
commonly called Coots.

52

8 1 8 SCO UTI-A LLEN—SCRA BER

distinct genus, CEdemia (often misspelt Oidemia) — a name coined in
reference to the swollen appearance of the base of the bill. The
Scoter is also very generally known around the British coasts aa
the " Black Duck," from the male being, with the exception of a
stripe of orange l that runs down the ridge of the bill, wholly of
that colour. In the representative American form, (E. americana,
the protuberance at the base of the bill, black in the European
bird, is orange as well. Of all Ducks the Scoter has perhaps the most
marine habits, keeping the sea in all weathers, and rarely resorting
to land except for the purpose of breeding. Even in summer small
flocks of Scoters may generally be seen in the tideway at the mouth
of any of the larger British rivers or in mid-channel, while in
autumn and winter these flocks are so increased as to number
thousands of individuals, and the water often looks black with
them. A second species, the Velvet -Duck, (E. fusca, of much
larger size, distinguished by a white spot under each eye and a
white bar on each wing, is far less abundant than the former, but
examples of it are occasionally to be seen in company with the
commoner one, and it too has its American counterpart, (E.
velvetina ; while a third, known only to Europe as a straggler, the
Surf-Duck, (E. perspicillata, with a white patch on the crown and
another on the nape, and a curiously-shaped and particoloured bill,
is a not uncommon bird in North- American waters. All the species
of (Edemia, like most of our other Sea-Ducks, have their true home
in arctic or subarctic countries, but the Scoter itself is said to breed
in Scotland (Zool. 1869, p. 1867; Vert. Faun. Sutherl. &c. pp.
194, 195). The females display little of the deep sable hue that
characterizes their partners, but are attired in soot-colour, varied,
especially beneath, with brownish white. The flesh of all these
birds has an exceedingly strong taste, and, after much controversy,
was allowed by the ecclesiastical authorities to rank as fish in the
dietary (cf. Graindorge, Tmitt de Vorigine des Macreuses, Caen :
1680; and Correspondence of John Eay, Ray Soc. ed. p. 148).

SCOUTI-ALLEN, variously spelt, a name in Orkney for the
Arctic Gull (SKUA).2

SCRABER (Gael. Sgrab), a name given in St. Kilda to the
DOVEKEY (Martin, St. K. p. 58) ; but said to be used in the other
Hebrides for the Manx SHEARWATER, which is possibly the more

1 This varies much in extent (J. H. Gurney, Zool. 1894, pp. 292-295).

2 The allied species known to English ornithologists as Buffon's Skua is
commonly called Skaiti by Lapps and Queens in Finmark, and the subjacent
parts of Finland and Sweden, though I have not found that word in any printed
book, and know not whether it can have any connexion with the Orcadian name.
We are told, and doubtless rightly, that Scandinavian words beginning with Sk
lose the S when adopted by Finns ; but for all that I have heard this uttered
many times and seen it in manuscript still oftener.

SCRAYE— SCREAMER 819

correct application since the word seems to be the same as the
Norsk Skrape (Icel. Scrofa), which in some form or other is the
ordinary Scandinavian name for a Shearwater.

SCRAYE, from its cry, a name for a TERN.

SCREAMER,1 a bird inhabiting Guiana and the Amazon valley,
so called in 1773 by Pennant (Gen. Birds, p. 42) "from the violent
noise it makes," — the Palamedea 2 cornuta of Linnaeus. First made
known in 1648 by Marcgrave under the name of "Anhima,"it
was more fully described and better figured
by Buffon under that of Kamichi, still
applied to it by French writers. Of about
the size of a Turkey, it is remarkable for
the " horn " or slender caruncle, more
than three inches long, it bears on its
forehead, the two sharp spurs with which
each wing is armed, and its elongated toes.
Its plumage is plain in colour, being of PALAMEDEA. (After Swainson.)
an almost uniform greyish -black above,

the space round the eyes and a ring round the neck being varie-
gated with white, and a patch of pale rufous appearing above
the carpal joint, while the lower parts of the body are white.
Closely related to this bird, known as the "Horned Screamer,"
is another first described by Linnaeus as a species of Parra
(JACANA), to which group it certainly does not belong, but
separated therefrom by Illiger to form the genus Chauna, and
now known as C. chavaria, or in English very generally as the
"Crested Screamer,"3 though that name was first bestowed
on the SERIEMA. This bird inhabits the lagoons, swamps,
and open level country of Paraguay and Southern Brazil, where
it is called " Chaja " or " Chaka," and is smaller than the pre-
ceding, wanting its " horn," but having its head furnished with
a dependent crest of feathers. Its face and throat are white, to
which succeeds a blackish ring, and the rest of the lower parts are
white, more or less clouded with cinereous. According to Mr.
Gibson (Ibis, 1880, pp. 165, 166), its nest is a light construction of
dry rushes, having its foundation in the water, and contains as
many as six eggs, which are white tinged with buff. The young
are covered with down of a yellowish -brown colour. A most
singular habit possessed by this bird is that of rising in the air
and soaring in circles at an immense altitude, uttering at intervals

1 In some parts of England the SWIFT is called "Screamer."

~ This name was adopted from Mbhring ; but why it was given is unknown.

3 Under this name its curious habits have been well described by Mr. "NV. H.

Hudson (Gentleman's Magazine, Sept. 1885, pp. 280-287 ; Argent. Orn. ii. pp.

119-122 ; Nat. in La Plata, chap. xvii.).

820 SCREECH— SCR UB-BIRD

the very loud cry of which its local name is an imitation. From
a dozen to a score may be seen at once so occupying themselves.
The young are often taken from the nest and reared by the people
to attend upon and defend their poultry, a duty which is faith-
fully * and, owing to the spurs with which the Chaka's wings are
armed, successfully discharged. Another very curious property of
this bird, which was observed by Jacquin, who brought it to the
notice of Linnaeus,2 is its emphysematous condition, — there being
a layer of air-cells between the skin and the muscles, so that on
any part of the body being pressed a crackling sound is heard. In
Central America occurs another species, C. derbiana, chiefly dis-
tinguished by the darker colour of its plumage. For this a
distinct genus, Ischyrornis, was proposed, but apparently without
necessity, by Reichenbach (Syst. Avium, p. xxi.).

The taxonomic position of the Palamedeidse, for all will allow
to the Screamers the rank of a Family at least, has been much
debated, and cannot be regarded as fixed. Their Anserine relations
were pointed out by Parker (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1863, pp. 511-518),
and Prof. Huxley (op. cit. 1867, pp. 436, 460) placed them among
his CHENOMORPH^E ; but this view was contravened by Garrod
(op. cit. 1876, pp. 189-200), to whom it seemed that "the
Screamers must have sprung from the primary avian stock as an
independent offshoot at much the same time as did most of the
other important families." Accordingly in 1880 Mr. Sclater
regarded them as forming a distinct " Order," Palamedete, which
he, however, placed next to the true ANSERES, from the neighbour-
hood of which they can hardly be removed.

SCREECH or SCREECH-BIRD, the Mistletoe-THRUSH, Turdus
msdvorus (cf. SHRIKE) ; SCREECH-OWL, properly the Barn-OwL,
Aluco flammeus ; but not unfrequently misapplied to the SWIFT.

SCRUB-BIRD, the name (for want of a better, since it is not
very distinctive) conferred upon the members of an Australian
genus, one of the most curious ornithological types of the many
furnished by that country. The first examples were procured by
the late Mr. Gilbert between Perth and Augusta in West Australia,
and were described by Gould (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1844, pp. 1, 2) as
forming a new genus and species under the name of Atrichia damosa,
the great peculiarity observed by that naturalist being the absence
of any bristles around the gape, in which respect alone it seemed
to differ from the already-known genus Sphenura. In March
1866 Mr. Wilcox obtained on the banks of the Richmond river

1 Hence Latham's name for this species is " Faithful Jacana," — he supposing
it to belong to the genus in which Linnaeus placed it.

2 "Tacta manu cutis, sub pennis etiam lanosa, crepat ubique fortiter" (Syst.
Nat. ed. 12, i. p. 260).

SCRUB-BIRD

821

on the eastern side of Australia some other examples, which
proved the existence of a second species, described by Mr. Ramsay
(op. cit. 1866, pp. 438-440) as A. rufescens; but still no suspicion
of the great divergence of the genus from the ordinary Passerine
type was raised, and it was generally regarded as belonging to the
Maluridze or Australian Warblers. However, the peculiar forma-
tion of the sternum in Atrichornis — as the genus has to be called,
since Atrichia had long been preoccupied in zoology l — attracted
the present writer's attention almost as soon as that of A. clamosa
was exhibited in the museum of the College of Surgeons, and at

ATRICHORNIS CLAMOSA. (After Gould.)

his request Mr. Ramsay a little later sent to the museum of the
University of Cambridge examples in spirit of A. rufescens, which
shewed a similar structure. The Scrub-birds were consequently
declared in 1875 (Encydop. Brit. ed. 9, iii. p. 741) to form a distinct
Family, Atrichiidse, standing, so far as was known, alone with the
LYRE-BIRDS as " abnormal Passeres." 2 Much the same view was also
taken by Garrod, who (Proc. Zool Soc. 1876, pp. 516, 518, pi. Hi.

1 This fact seems to have been detected by Dr. Stejneger (Stand. Nat. Hist.
iv. pp. 459, 462).

2 Mr. Sclater (Ibis, 1874, p. 191, note) remarked on the peculiar form of
sternum ; but, writing doubtless from memory, ascribed to it two emarginations
on each side of the posterior end, which it has not. The sternum is fairly
figured and briefly described by Eyton in 1874 (OsteoL Av. Suppl. ii. pi. 20,

822 SEA SECRETAR Y-BIRD

figs. 4-7), further dwelt on the taxonomic importance of the
equally remarkable characters of the syringeal muscles exhibited
alike by this form and Menura, which he accordingly placed
together in a division of the Acromyodian Passeres, differing from
all the rest and since recognized by Mr. Sclater (Ibis, 1880, p. 345)
as a Suborder PSEUDOSCINES — the SUBOSCINES of the present
work. A detailed anatomical description of Atrichornis has, how-
ever, yet to be given, and a comparison of many other Australian
types is needed x before it can be certainly said to have no nearer
ally than Menura. Both the known species of Scrub-bird are
about the size of a small Thrush — A. damosa being the larger of
the two. This species is brown above, each feather barred with
a darker shade ; the throat and belly are reddish white, and there
is a large black patch on the breast ; while the flanks are brown
and the lower tail-coverts rufous. A. rufescens has the white and
black of the fore-parts replaced by brown, barred much as is the
upper plumage. Both species are said to inhabit the thickest
" scrub " or brushwood forest ; but little has been ascertained as
to their mode of life except that the males are noisy, imitative of
the notes of other birds and given to violent gesticulations. The
nest and eggs seem never to have been found, nor indeed any
example of the female of either species to have been procured,
whence that sex may be inferred to escape observation by its
inconspicuous appearance and retiring habits.

SEA- used as a prefix in more birds' names than can here be
mentioned, and often without much precision. Thus in one part
of the country SEA-CROW may be the CHOUGH, in another the
CORMORANT, and very generally (especially inland) a GULL, while
in America it may mean either a COOT or a SKIMMER according to
locality. SEA-DOTTEREL and SEA-LARK are names of the
Ringed PLOVER, SEA-MALL, -MEL (cf. SCAMEL) or -MEW have
been used indifferently for GULLS : SEA-PARROT is the PUFFIN,
SEA-PHEASANT the PINTAIL, SEA-PIE the OYSTER-CATCHER,
SEA-SWALLOW a Tern, and so on.

SECONDARIES, see CUBITALS (p. 118).

SECRETARY-BIRD, a very singular African form, first accur-
ately made known, from an example living in the menagerie of
the Prince of Orange, in 1769 by Yosmaer,2 in a treatise published

fig. 1, p. 29) ; but a fuller description is needed, and the figure in Garrod's
paper, presently noticed in the text, is "bad.

1 Forbes shewed (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1882, p. 544) that ORTHONYX (p. 657) did
not belong to the group as at one time had been suspected.

2 Le Vaillant (Sec. Voy. Afrique, ii. p. 273) truly states that Kolben in 1719
(Caput Bonse, Spei hodiernum, p. 182, French version, ii. p. 198) had mentioned

SEC RET AR Y-BIRD

823

simultaneously in Dutch and French, and afterwards included in
his collected works issued, under the title of Regnum Animate, in
1804. He was told that at the Cape of Good Hope this bird was
known as the " Sagittarius " or Archer, from its striding gait being
thought to resemble that of a bowman advancing to shoot, but that
this name had been corrupted into that of " Secretarius." In
August 1770 Edwards saw an example (apparently alive, and the
survivor of a pair which had been brought to England) in the pos-
session of Mr. Raymond near Ilford in Essex ; and, being unac-
quainted with Yosmaer's work, he figured and described it as " of

SECRETARY-BIRD.

a new genus " in the following year (Phil. Trans. Ixi. pp. 55, 56,
pi. ii.) In 1776 Sonnerat (Voy. Nottv. Guinde, p. 87, pi. 50) again

this bird under its local name of " Snake-eater" (Slangenvreeter, Dutch transla-
tion, i. p. 214) ; but that author, who was a bad naturalist, thought it was a
Pelican and also confounded it with the Spoonbill, which is figured to illustrate
his account of it. Though he doubtless had seen, and perhaps tried to describe,
the Secretary-bird, he certainly failed to convey any correct idea of it. Latham's
suggestion (loc. infra cit.} that the figure of the "Grus Capensis cauda cristata"
in Petiver's Gazophylacium (tab. xii. fig. 12) was meant for this bird is negatived
by his description of it (p. 20). The figure was probably copied from one of
Sherard's paintings and is more likely to have had its origin in a Crane of some
species. Vosmaer's plate is lettered " Amerikaanischen Roof-Vogel," of course
by mistake for " Afrikaanischen."

824 SECRETARY-BIRD

described and figured, but not at all correctly, the species as found
also in the Philippine Islands, whither, if that be true, it must have
been brought. A better representation was given by D'Aubenton
(PI. Enl 721) : and in 1780 Buffon (Oiseaux, vii. p. 330) published
some additional information derived from Querhoent, saying also
that it was to be seen in some English menageries ; and the follow-
ing year Latham (Synops. i. p. 20, pi. 2) described and figured it
from three examples which he had seen alive in England. None
of these authors, however, gave the bird a scientific name, and the
first conferred upon it seems to have been that of Falco serpentarius,
inscribed on a plate bearing date 1779, by John Frederick Miller
(ML Nat. Hist, xxviii.), which plate appears also in Shaw's Cimelia
Physica (No. 28) and is a misleading caricature. In 1786 Scopoli
called it Otis secretarius — thus referring it to the Bustards,1 and
Cuvier in 1798 designated the genus to which it belonged, and of
which it still remains the sole representative,2 Serpentarius. Suc-
ceeding systematists have, however, encumbered it with many
other names, among which the generic terms Gypogeranus and
Ophiotheres, and the specific epithets reptilivorus and cristatus, re-
quire mention here.3 The Secretary-bird is of remarkable appear-
ance, standing nearly 4 feet in height, the great length of its legs
giving it a resemblance to a Crane or a Heron ; but the expert
will at once notice that, unlike those birds, its tibiae are feathered
all the way down. From the back of the head and the nape
hangs, loosely and in pairs, a series of black elongated feathers,
capable of erection and dilation in periods of excitement.4 The
skin round the eyes is bare and of an orange colour. The head,
neck and upper parts of the body and wing-coverts are bluish-grey,
but the carpal feathers, including the primaries, are black, as also
are the feathers of the vent and tibiae, — the last being in some
examples tipped with white. The tail-quills are grey for the
greater part of their length, then barred with black and tipped
with white ; but the two middle feathers are more than twice as
long as those next to them, and drooping downwards present a
very unique appearance.

The habits of the Secretary-bird have been very frequently

1 Curiously enough, Boddaert in 1783 omitted to give it a scientific name.

2 Ogilby's attempt to distinguish three species (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1835, pp.
104, 105) has met with no encouragement ; but examples from the north of the
equator are somewhat smaller than those from the south.

3 The scientific synonymy of the species is given at great length by Drs.
Finsch and Hartlaub (Vogel. Ost-Afr. p. 93) and later by Dr. Sharpe (Cat. B. Brit.
Mus. i. p. 45) ; but each list has some errors in common.

4 It is from the fancied resemblance of these feathers to the pens which a
clerk is supposed to stick above his ear that the bird's name of Secretary is really
derived.

SEDGE-BIRD— SENEGALI 825

described, one of the best accounts of them being by Verreaux
(Proc. Zool. Soc. 1856, pp. 348-352). Its chief prey consists of
insects and reptiles, and as a foe to snakes it is held in high esteem.
Making every allowance for exaggeration, it seems to possess a
strange partiality for the destruction of the latter, and successfully
attacks the most venomous species, striking them with its knobbed
wings and kicking forwards at them with its feet, until they are
rendered incapable of offence, when it swallows them. The nest is
a huge structure, placed in a bush or tree, and in it two white eggs,
spotted with rust-colour, are laid. The young remain in the nest
for a long while, and even when four months old are unable to
stand upright. They are very frequently brought up tame, and
become agreeable riot to say useful pets about a house, the chief
drawbacks to them being that when hungry they will help them-
selves to the small poultry, and the liability of their legs to fracture,
which follows on any sudden alarm, and causes death. The
Secretary-bird is found, but not very abundantly and only in some
localities, over the -greater part of Africa, especially in the south,
extending northwards on the west to the Gambia and in the
interior to Khartum, where Von Heuglin observed it breeding.

The systematic position of the genus Serpentarius has long been
a matter of discussion, and is still one of much interest, though of
late classifiers have been pretty well agreed in placing it in the
Order Acdpitres. Most of them, however, have shewn great want
of perception by putting it in the Family Falconidse. No anatomist
can doubt its forming a peculiar Family, Serpentariidse, differing
more from the Falconidse than do the Vulturidx ; and the fact of
Prof. A. Milne-Edwards (Ois. foss. Fr. ii. pp. 465-468, pi. 186,
figs. 1-6) having recognized in the Miocene of the Allier the fossil
bone of a species of this genus, 8. robustus, proves that it is an
ancient form, one possibly carrying on a direct and not much
modified descent from a generalized form, whence may have sprung
not only the Falconidse but perhaps the progenitors of the Ardeidse
and Ciconiidte, to say nothing of others.

SEDGE-BIRD, the common name for what in most books is
called the Sedge- WARBLER.

SEGGE, Angl.-Sax. Sugge (especially in composition as Heges-
sugge), an old name, apparently for any small bird, that seems still
to survive in places for the Hedge-SPARROW ; but taking also the
form Heysuck (cf. HAY-JACK) and even corrupted into Isaac.

SENEGALI, a dealers' name which should properly belong to
the Fringilla senegala of Linnaeus, the Estrilda or Lagonosticta senegala
of some modern writers, but seems to be often applied in a general
way to small species of Ploceidse (WEAVER-BIRD) from West Africa,
or perhaps even other countries.

826

SERIEMA

SERIEMA, otherwise CARIAMA,1 a South-American bird, suffi-
ciently well described and figured in Marcgrave's work (Hist. Rer.
Nat. Brasilia, p. 203), posthumously published by De Laet in 1648,
to be recognized by succeeding ornithologists, among whom Brisson
in 1760 acknowledged it as forming a distinct genus Cariama,

SERIEMA.

while Linnaeus regarded it as a second species of Palamedea
(SCREAMER, p. 819), under the name of P. cristata, Englished
in 1785 by Latham (Gen. Synops. v. p. 20) the "Crested
Screamer," — an appellation, as already observed, since transferred
to a wholly different bird. Nothing more seems to have been
known of it in Europe till 1803, when Azara published at Madrid
his observations on the birds of Paraguay (Apuntamientos, No. 340),
wherein he gave an account of it under the name of " Saria," which
it bore among the Guaranis, — that of " Cariama " being applied to
it by the Portuguese settlers, and both expressive of its ordinary
cry.2 It was not, however, until 1809 that this very remarkable

1 In this word the initial C, as is usual in Portuguese, is pronounced soft,
and the accent laid upon the last syllable.

2 Yet Forbes states (Ibis, 1881, p. 358) that Seriema comes from Siri, "a
diminutive of Indian extraction," and Uma, the Portuguese name for the Rhea
(cf. EMEU, p. 212, note 1), the whole thus meaning "Little Rhea."

SERIEMA 827

form came to be autoptically described scientifically. This was
done by the elder Geoffroy-St. Hilaire (Ann. du Musdum, xiii. pp. 362-
370, pi. 26), who had seen a specimen in the Lisbon museum ; and,
though knowing it had already been received into scientific nomen-
clature, he called it anew Microdactylus marcgravii. In 1811 Illiger,
without having seen an example, renamed the genus Dicholoplius —
a term which has since been frequently applied to it — placing it in
the curious congeries of forms having little affinity which he called
Alectorides. In the course of his travels in Brazil (1815-17) Prince
Max of Wied met with this bird, and in 1823 there appeared from
his pen (N. Ad. Acad. L.-C. Nat. Curiosorum, xi. pt. 2, pp. 341-350,
tab. xlv.) a very good contribution to its history, embellished by a
faithful life-sized figure of its head. The same year Temminck
figured it in the Planches Colorizes (No. 237). It is not easy to say
when any example of the bird first came under the eyes of British
ornithologists; but in the Zoological Proceedings for 1836 (pp.
29-32) Martin described the visceral and osteological anatomy of
one which had been received alive the preceding year.1

The Seriema, owing to its long legs and neck, stands some two
feet or more in height, and in menageries bears itself with a stately
deportment. Its bright red beak, the bare greenish blue skin
surrounding its large yellow eyes, and the tufts of elongated
feathers springing vertically from its lores, give it a pleasing and
animated expression; but its plumage is generally of an in-
conspicuous ochreous-grey above and dull white beneath, — the
feathers of the upper parts, which on the neck and throat are long
and loose, being barred by fine zigzag markings of dark brown,
while those of the lower parts are more or less striped. The wing-
quills are brownish-black, banded with mottled white, and those of
the tail, except the middle pair, which are wholly greyish-brown,
are banded with mottled white at the base and the tip, but dark
brown for the rest of their length. The legs are red. The Seriema
inhabits the campos or elevated open parts of Brazil, from the
neighbourhood of Pernambuco to the Rio de la Plata, extending
inland as far as Matto Grosso (long. 60°), and occurring also, though
sparsely, in Paraguay. It lives in the high grass, running away in
a stooping posture to avoid discovery on being approached, and
taking flight only at the utmost need. Yet it builds its nest in
thick bushes or trees at about a man's height from the ground,
therein laying two eggs, which Burmeister likened to those of
the Land-Rail in colour.2 The young are hatched fully covered

1 The skeleton has been briefly described and figured by Eyton (Osteol.
Avium, p. 190, pis. 3, K, and 28 bis, fig. 1).

2 This distinguished author twice cites the figure given by Thienemann
(Fortpflanzungsgesch. gesammt. Vogel, pi. Ixxii. fig. 14) as though taken from
a genuine specimen ; but little that can be called Ralline in character is

828 SERIEMA

with grey down, relieved by brown, and remain for some time in
the nest. The food of the adult is almost exclusively animal, —
insects, especially large ants, snails, lizards and snakes ; but it
also eats certain large red berries.

Until 1860 the Seriema was believed to be without any near
relative in the living world of birds ; l but in the Zoological Pro-
ceedings for that year (pp. 334-336) Dr. Hartlaub described an
allied species discovered by Prof. Burmeister in the territory of the
Argentine Republic.2 This bird, which has since been regarded as
entitled to generic division under the name of Chunga burmeisteri
(Proc. Zool. Soc. 1870, p. 466, pi. xxxvi.), and seems to be known
in its native country as the " Chunnia," differs from the Seriema
by frequenting forest or bushy districts. It is also darker in
colour, has less of the frontal crest, shorter legs, a longer tail and
the markings beneath take the form of bars rather than stripes.
In other respects the difference between the two birds seems to be
immaterial.

There are few birds which have more exercised the taxonomer
than this, and the reason seems to be plain. The Seriema must
be regarded as the not greatly modified heir of some very old type,
such as one may fairly imagine to have lived before many of the
existing groups of birds had become differentiated. Looking at it
in this light, we may be prepared to deal gently with the sys-
tematists who, having only the present before their eyes, have
relegated it positively to this, that or the other Order, Family or
other group of birds. There can be no doubt that some of its
habits point to an alliance with the BUSTARD or perhaps certain
PLOVERS, while its digestive organs are essentially, if not absolutely,
those of the HERON. Its general appearance recalls that of the
SECRETARY-BIRD; but this, it must be admitted, may be merely
an analogy and may indicate no affinity whatever. On the one
hand we have had authorities, starting from bases so opposed as
Prof. W. K. Parker (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1863, p. 516) and Sundevall,
placing it among the Accipitres, while on the other Nitzsch, Bur-
meister,3 Martin (ut supra), and Dr. Gadow (Journ. f. Orn. 1876,

observable therein. The same is to be said of an egg laid in captivity at Paris ;
but a specimen in Mr. Walter's possession undeniably shews it (Proc. Zool.
Soc. 1881, p. 2).

1 A supposed fossil Cariama from the caves of Brazil, mentioned by Bona-
parte (Comptes Rendus, xliii. p. 779) and others, has since been shewn by Rein-
hardt (Ibis, 1882, pp. 321-332) to rest upon the misinterpretation of certain
bones, which the latter considers to have been those of a Rhea.

2 Near Tucuman and Catamarca (Burmeister, Reise durch die La Plata
Staaten, ii. p. 508).

3 Nitzsch, as Burmeister stated in his masterly contribution to the natural
history of this bird (Abhandl. naturf. Gesellsch. Halle, i. pp. 1-68, pis. 1, 2),

SERIN— SHAG 829

pp. 445, 446) have declared in effect that this view of its affinities
cannot be taken. Prof. Huxley (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 455)
expressed himself more cautiously, and, while remarking that
in its skull "the internasal septum is ossified to a very slight
extent, and the maxillo-palatine processes may meet in the middle
line, in both of which respects it approaches the birds of prey,"
added that " the ossified part of the nasal septum does not unite
below with the maxillo-palatines," and that in this respect it is
unlike the Accipitres ; finally he declared (p. 457) that, as Otis con-
nects the Geranomorphx with the Charadriomorphte, so Cariama con-
nects the former with the Aetomorphse, "but it is a question
whether these two genera may be better included in " the Gerano-
morphx, " or made types of separate groups." The latter course is
followed by Prof. Fiirbringer (Untersuchungen, p. 1566) and Dr.
Gadow (Thier-reich, Vogel, ii. pp. 184-186), who unhesitatingly regard
the Seriema as the type of a distinct Family, whose nearest living
allies may be found in the Gruidw (CRANE), Psophiidee (TRUMPETER)
and Otididse (BUSTARD) — a determination which is probably final.

SERIN, Fr. Serin, O.F. Serene, Proven^ Serena, supposed to be
from Sirene (Lat. Siren), and applied to the bird from its agreeable
song — the Fringilla serinus of Linnaeus and Serinus hortulanus of
recent ornithologists — a small FINCH long known to inhabit
Southern Europe with Northern Africa, and of late years observed
to be extending its range on the continent and to have appeared
in England (Yarrell, Br. B. ed. 4, ii. p. 111). Its habits have
been described by Mr. Dresser (B. Eur. iii. pp. 551-553) from his
personal observation, and by no one better. It is nearly allied to
the CANARY-BIRD, though recognizable by its tints, its larger size,
proportionally shorter wings and longer tail. Dr. Sharpe (Cat. B.
Br. Mus. xii. p. 370) accounts the latter a " subspecies " of the
Serin, but without giving his reason for departing from the general
practice of considering them distinct species, and thus one is unable
to appreciate the validity of his judgment. He however admits
18 other species of the genus.

SHAG, the English name commonly applied all over the world
to members of the genus Phalacrocorax in general ; but specialized
by British ornithological writers for P. graculus, the smaller of the
two species which inhabit the coasts of these islands (CORMORANT,
p. 106). In breeding- plumage the Shag, with its plumage of
uniform glossy green, its tufted crest — the feathers of which curve

in 1834 saw a defective skeleton sent to Munich by the Brazilian travellers
Spix and Martins. His description of it was not, however, published until
1853. To it is appended a description by Dr. Creplin of some Entozoa found in
the Seriema, but this unfortunately seems to give no help as to the systematic
position of the bird.

830 SHEA R WA TER

forwards — the deep yellow of the bare skin about its face, and its
beryl-coloured eyes, is one of the most beautiful of sea-birds.

SHEARWATER, the name of a bird first published in
Willughby's Ornithologia (p. 252), as made known to him by Sir
T. Browne, who sent a picture of it with an account that is given
more fully in Ray's translation of that work (p. 334), stating that
it is "a Sea-fowl, which fishermen observe to resort to their
Vessels in some numbers, swimming l swiftly to and fro, backward,
forward, and about them, and doth as it were radere aquam, shear
the water, from whence perhaps it had its name." 2 Ray's mis-
taking young birds of this kind obtained in the Isle of Man for
the young of the Coulterneb, now usually called PUFFIN, has already
been mentioned (p. 752); and not only has his name Puffinus
anglorum hence become attached to this species, commonly described
in English books as the Manx Puffin or Manx Shearwater, but the
barbarous and misapplied word Puffinus has come into regular use
as the generic term for all birds thereto allied, forming a well-
marked group of the Family Procellariidse (PETREL, p. 708), dis-
tinguished chiefly by their elongated bill, and numbering some
twenty species, if not more — the discrimination of which, owing
partly to the general similarity of some of them, and partly to the
change of plumage which others through age are believed to
undergo, has taxed in no common degree the ingenuity of those
ornithologists who have ventured on the difficult task of determin-
ing their characters.3 Shearwaters are found in nearly all the seas
and oceans of the world,4 generally within no great distance from
the land, though rarely resorting thereto, except in the breeding-
season. But they also penetrate to waters which may be termed
inland, as the Bosphorus, where they have long attracted attention

1 By mistake, no doubt, for flying or "hovering," the latter being the
word used by Browne in his Account of Birds found in Norfolk (Mus. Brit.
MS. Sloane, 1830, fol. 5. 22 and 31), written in or about 1662. Edwards
(Gleanings, iii. p. 315) speaks of comparing his own drawing "with Brown's
old draught of it, still preserved in the British Museum," and thus identifies
the latter's "Shearwater" with the "Puffin of the Isle of Man."

2 LIRA, LYRA or LYRIE (all three forms being found) appears to be the most
common local name for this bird in Orkney and Shetland ; but SCRABER and
Scraib are also used in the Hebrides. These are from the Scandinavian Skrape
or Skrofa, and considering Prof. Skeat's remarks (Etym. Diet. p. 546) as to the
alliance between the words shear and scrape it may be that Browne's hesitation
as to the derivation of " Shearwater " had more ground than at first appears.

3 Mr. Salvin's catalogue of the specimens of Procellariidee, in the British
Museum, which is understood to be in a forward condition, will doubtless throw
much light on this difficult question.

4 The chief exception would seem to be the Bay of Bengal and thence
throughout the western part of the Malay Archipelago, where, though they
may occur, they are certainly uncommon.

SHEATHBILL 831

by their daily passage up and down the strait, in numerous flocks,
hardly ever alighting on the surface, and from this restless habit
they are known to the French-speaking part of the population as
dmes damndes, it being held by the Turks that they are animated
by condemned human souls. Four species of Puffinus are recorded
as visiting the coasts of the United Kingdom ; but the Manx
Shearwater aforesaid is the only one that at present is known to
occur commonly or breed in the British Islands. It is a very
plain-looking bird, black above and white beneath, and about the
size of a Pigeon. Some other species are considerably larger,
while some are smaller, and of the former several are almost whole-
coloured, being of a sooty or dark cinereous hue both above and
below. All over the world Shearwaters seem to have precisely
the same habits, laying their single purely white egg in a hole
under ground. The young are thickly clothed with long down,
and are extremely fat. In this condition they are thought to be
good eating, and enormous numbers have been caught for this
purpose in some localities, especially of a species commonly known
as the MUTTON-BIRD, P. brevicauda, which used to frequent the
islands off the coast of Australia ; but is probably meeting if it
has not already met the fate of its congener P. auduboni in Ber-
muda, where the latter was known as the "Cahow " (variously spelt)
and was once abundant.1

SHEATHBILL, a bird so-called in 1781 by Pennant (Gen. B.
ed. 2, p. 43) from the horny case 2 which ensheathes the basal part

1 Details of the mournful and instructive story of the almost complete
annihilation of this species on those islands can be gathered from Lefroy's
Memorials &c. of the Bermudas or Somers Islands (i. pp. 13, 18, 35, 36, 76,
137, 330, 331 ; ii. p. 578), where many extracts, chiefly from Purchas's Pil-
grimes and Smith's Virginia, are given. The swine, let loose in early days
by the original Spanish discoverers, produced the usual effect, but the birds
still abounded on the smaller islets, where there were no hogs, and in 1614
(apparently) the settlers being reduced to distress by famine and fever, the
English Governor sent 150 of the " most weake and sicke" to Couper's Isle,
where were "infinite numbers of Birds called Cahowes." But through the
"hunger and gluttony" of these poor people "those heavenly blessings they
so much consumed and wasted by carelessness and surfeiting " that many died.
The next Governor, in 1616 apparently, had to issue -"a Proclamation against
the spoile of Cahowes, but it came too late, for they were most destroyed before."
Almost all knowledge of such a bird in the colony had vanished according to
Mr. J. M. Jones (Nat. in Bermuda, pp. 94-96) when, in 1849, Sir John
Campbell-Orde and a brother-officer visited the Black Rock, near Cooper's
Island, and found three birds, the sole remnant of those that had once crowded
every available part of the group. In 1874 Capt. Reid (Zool. 1877, p. 491)
found two nests, and considered that a few pairs of the birds still frequented the
islands. How many may be there now I know not.

2 A strange fallacy arose early, and of course has been repeated late, that
this case or sheath was movable. It is absolutely fixed.

832 SHEATHBILL

of its bill. It was first made known from having been met with
on New-Year Island, off the coast of Staten Land, where Cook
anchored on New Year's eve 1774.1 A few days later he dis-
covered the islands that now bear the name of South Georgia, and
there the bird was again found, — in both localities frequenting the
rocky shores. On his third voyage, while seeking some land
reported to have been found by Kerguelen, Cook in December
1776 reached the cluster of desolate islands now generally known
by the name of the French explorer, and here, among many other
kinds of birds, was a Sheathbill, which for a long while no one
suspected to be otherwise than specifically identical with that of
the western Antarctic Ocean ; but, as will be seen, its distinctness
has been subsequently admitted.

The Sheathbill, so soon as it was brought to the notice of
naturalists, was recognized as belonging to a genus
hitherto unknown, and the elder Forster in 1788
(Enchirid. p. 37) conferred upon it, from its snowy
plumage, the name Chionis, which has most properly
received general acceptance, though in the same year
the compiler Gmelin termed the genus Vaginalis, as
a rendering of Pennant's English name, and the
species alba. It has thus become the Chionis alba of
ornithology. It is about the size of and has much
the aspect of a Pigeon ; 2 its plumage is pure white,
its bill somewhat yellow at the base, passing into
BILL OF CHIONIS, le • k towaras the tip. Round the eyes the

from above. ** : • i , , . • ,.« 11

(After swainson ) s^m 1S karej an(i beset with cream-coloured pa-
pillae, while the legs are bluish-grey. The second
or eastern species, first discriminated by Dr. Hartlaub (fiev. Zool.

1 Doubtless some of the earlier voyagers had encountered it, as Forster
(Dcscr. Anim. p. 330) suggests and Lesson (Man. d'Orn. ii. p. 343) asserts ;
but for all practical purposes we certainly owe its discovery to the naturalists
of Cook's second voyage. By some error, probably of transcription, New Zea-
land, instead of New-Year Island, appears in many works as the place of its
discovery, while not a few writers have added thereto New Holland. Hitherto
there is no real evidence of the occurrence of a Sheathbill in the waters of
Australia or New Zealand ; but one (C. alba) was shot by the lighthouse-keeper
at Carlingford in Ireland, 2 Dec. 1892, as recorded by Mr. Barrington (Zool.
1893, p. 28 ; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1893, p. 178). Examples of this species have
been often brought alive to this country, and the bird thus killed may well
have escaped from confinement.

2 In the Falkland Isles it is called the "Kelp-Pigeon," and by some of the
earlier French navigators the " Pigeon blanc antarctique. " The cognate
species of Kerguelen Land is named by the sealers "Sore-eyed Pigeon," from
its prominent fleshy orbits, as well as "Paddy-bird" — the last perhaps from
its white plumage resembling that of some of the smaller Egrets, often so
called.

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