AVES ZYGODACTYLA. 291 



Troi/on. Two only of these genera, Bucco and Psilopogon approximate llic 

 Woodpeckers in some degree by their bony frame-work, a great resemblance 

 being found between them in the form of the pelvis, sternum, and last 

 caudal vertebra, while the strongly marked excavation upon the body of all 

 the cervical, with occurrence of inferior comb-like spines upon all the tho- 

 racic, vertebra, joined to the external contour of the cranium, distinguish the 

 Barbets generically from the Woodpeckers. The genera Centropus, Goccyzns, 

 Phcenicophteus, Crotophaga, and Cuculus, seem in Like manner to constitute 

 " inter se" a distinct natural group, characterized chiefly by the structure of 

 the cervical vertebrae, pelvis and sternum. As regards Trogon and the 

 genera therewith allied by our author, viz., Caprimulgus and Cypselus, they, 

 too, resemble the Woodpeckers as little as do the genera of the preceding- 

 group. They present a great similarity to each other in the structure of the 

 cranium and that of the broad rouuded-otf pelvis, though each again 

 possesses the characters of the three genera that are peculiar to, and serve 

 as it were to isolate, them. Lastly, the Parrots stand apart from all the 

 scausorial birds, and approximate the diurnal birds of prey. 



CUCULIN.E. Hartlaub, in the ' Rev. ZooP p. 215, 

 believes that he has added a new species, under the name of 

 Gecoccyx affinis, to the genus. 



I had, however, already remarked, more than ten years ago, that this species 

 is to be distinguished from G. viaticus ; and in the ' Miuichu. gel. Anzeig.' 

 iii (1836), S. 95, described it also as Cuculus (Geococcyx) velox, from speci- 

 mens brought by Baron Karwinski from Mexico. 



In the ' Ann. of Nat. Hist.' xiii, p. 403, the opinions current among the 

 people concerning the Cuckoo, as a prophetic bird and harbinger of good- 

 luck, have been compiled from Grimm's ' Deutscher Mythologie.' 



A new species has been brought from the Kokos Islands, in the north of 

 the Indian Ocean, and nominated by Gould, in ' Ann. of Nat. Hist.' xiii, p. 

 475, as Coccyzus ferrugineus. 



RHAMPHASTID^E. Two new species of Toucans have again fell to the lot 

 of Gould to determine, and are called by him R/iainpastos citreolaemns and 

 Pteroglossus pcecilosternus ; both from Santa Fe di Bogota. (Ann. of Nat. 

 Hist, xiv, p. 61.) 



PICIN.E. K. Kessler gives, in the ' Bullet, de la Soc. dcs 

 Naturalistes de Moscou/ 1844, pp. 285-362, contributions 

 to the natural history of the Woodpeckers. 



A very comprehensive and profound, though chiefly osteological, work 

 upon the Woodpeckers. The author first of all gives a very detailed 

 description of the osseous fabric in a general point of view, and then divides 



