in the Order Strepitores. 599 



tire group Cylindrirostres, " the kingfisher family (Halcyon- 

 idce) only, is feebly represented in America by a few piscivo- 

 rous species ; all the remainder [that is, of course, the rest of 

 the Halcyonida— necessarily comprising the whole extensive 

 group of insectivorous species, together with every member 

 of the Meropidce and Coracidce], being peculiar to the east- 

 ern hemisphere." Now this Mr. Swainson designates an 

 " unfounded assertion " ! And proceeds to enlighten us in 

 the following flighty strain. — " Why ! America is actually the 

 chief metropolis of the piscivorous kingfishers ! a circum- 

 stance well known to every experienced ornithologist. With 

 the exception, indeed, of my Ispida gigantea and bitorquata, 

 and another, I am unacquainted with any long-tailed king- 

 fishers that are not found in America, where the largest and 

 most powerful species abound on the banks of all the great 

 rivers. On the other hand, the short-tailed ' feeble ' race 

 [feeble between inverted commas], represented by Aleedo is- 

 pida, is totally excluded from America, while those 'which 

 are peculiar to the eastern hemisphere ' (Halcyon, Sw.) are not 

 piscivorous, but almost entirely insectivorous." — In reply to 

 all this, I must observe that the latter remarks are superfluous, 

 as coinciding with my statement; from which, moreover, I do 

 not perceive how it could have been gathered that the Ame- 

 rican kingfishers are " feeble." Mr. Swainson, too, is over 

 hasty in what he remarks of the " long-tailed " species of the 

 eastern hemisphere ; for he must necessarily be well acquaint- 

 ed with the common Aleedo (or Syma) rudis, and guttata, 

 figured in Gould's Century. Then, with regard to the num- 

 ber of species inhabiting the New World, I can learn only of 

 Aleedo halcyon in all North America ; while Lesson gives but 

 four additional species to the whole southern continent, where, 

 it would appear from Mr. Swainson 1 s flourishing correction, 

 (assuming that his kingfishers are more definitely character- 

 ized than his todies), that more have since been discovered 

 than I was aware of: and this is the extent of my unlucky 

 defalcation. The following corrigendum will therefore suf- 

 fice. Instead of " feebly represented in America by a few 

 piscivorous species," read — " represented in America by pis- 

 civorous species only." It will be remembered that I con- 

 fessedly wrote as much to elicit as to convey information : for 

 I freely confess that my studies have generally had reference 

 to forms, rather than to species, — to those fundamental and 

 distinctive characters of groups, which do not, like the se- 

 condary or adaptive characters (which have reference to ha- 

 bit), the comparatively superficial modifications on which the 

 quinary system of birds is fabricated, grade and pass insen- 



