456 Mr. N. A. Vicors on the Natural Affinities 
while the straighter and more lengthened bill of the true Bucco 
united itself to that of Picus. Many other particulars in form, 
and also an extraordinary conformity in colouring, still further 
pointed out the affinity ; and I was at length confirmed in my 
conjectures respecting the situation of these birds, by arriving 
at the knowledge of their habits being actually those of the true 
Woodpeckers*, and of their chief affinity being to that group. 
The regular gradation by which these two families, united in 
their general characters—and those the characters, it must be 
remembered, most prominent and typical in their own tribe—are 
also united in their minuter points of formation, appears to me 
now eminently conspicuous. 
We are thus introduced to the family of Picidæ, a very impor- 
tant and well-defined group both in manners and general con- 
formation. It is composed, as we have seen, of the genus Pogo- 
nias, Ill., in some species of which the serrated bill is gradually 
lost, or rather changes into the entire bill of some of the shorter- 
billed species of the true Bucco, Auct., which succeed them. 
The bills of these again lengthen by degrees, and nearly assume 
the form of those of the Linnean Picus, which composes the 
* « The only birds were a little noisy Barbet (Pogonias, 1l.— Bucco niger, Gmel.), 
which the Hottentots called Hout Kapper (Woodcutter), from the noise it makes with 
the beak against the branches of trees, in search of insects."— Burchell, Travels in 
Africa, vol. i. p. 318. My attention was first called to the above peculiarity in the 
manners of the Barbets by Mr. Swainson, to whose friendship I am indebted for much 
valuable information in my inquiries into affinities: and on applying to my friend 
Mr. Burchell for further information, 1 received still more corroborating proofs of the 
intervention of these birds between the Parrots and Woodpeckers. That gentleman 
also entered into a detailed account of these affinities, before a meeting of the Zoological 
Club of the Linnean Society, extracted from his personal observations during his Tra- 
vels. But [ refrain from entering further into the subject than the foregoing extract 
from his published narrative, lest I should in any way anticipate the very interesting 
observations which the scientific world are anxiously looking for, on the Natural Hi- 
story of Southern Africa. Nov. 1824. 
greater 
