552 Zoological Society. 



upon trees, whether it be in the manner of the species of MelUphaga, 

 Paradisea, or Dendrocolaj)tes. 



"As in these genera likewise, the claws in Promerops are very- 

 strong and much arched. The birds of this genus, in fact, appear 

 to us to be Cinnyrida, but on a large scale. 



" The genus Upupa, as at present constituted, consists only of two 

 or three species, — one from Europe, an African species, and one from 

 India : in these there is so great a similarity in form, colouring and 

 habits, that upon a cursory view they might be mistaken for one 

 species. 



*' This genus, therefore, does not, as in most other genera, present 

 certain species which recede from the type and form a transition 

 between it and other genera, with which it is then natural to group 

 them. 



" From these considerations, the genus XJpupa appears to us to be 

 one of those isolated genera, like many others in the class, which 

 cannot be naturally placed in any other group, but which ought to 

 be regarded as constituting by itself a family or subfamily, under the 

 name of Upupidce or Upupince, its situation being in the section 

 Tenuirostres ; and if it be only regarded as a subfamily, it is with 

 another subfamily of the cursorial Tenuirostres it should be grouped, 

 which division should contain the genera Upucerthia of M. Isidore 

 GeofFroy St. Hilaire, and some other genera peculiar to Chili, de- 

 scribed by Killitz, and by Mr. Gould in the Voyage of the Beagle, 

 and the species of which, in the form of their beak and feet as well 

 as in their cursorial habits, afford a positive analogy with our genus 

 Upupa, from which the genus Promerops is so isolated." 



Mr. Gould, after reverting to the account given by him at the 

 Meeting on the 8th of September, of that singular bird the Brush 

 Turkey of New South Wales, proceeded to state that he had since 

 received from Swan River another bird, having similar habits and a 

 similar mode of nidification, but from which it differs in inhabiting 

 the open sandy plains, instead of dense and gloomy glens, and in 

 forming the mound for the reception of the eggs of sand, dead 

 grasses and boughs, depending as much upon the sun's rays as upon 

 the heat produced by decomposition to develope the young. 



Mr. Gould added, that a most interesting note, detailing these 

 facts, accompanied the specimens, and that an equally important 

 sketch of its range, &c., had been furnished him by Capt. Grey, who 

 has just returned from the north-west coast of Australia. The ac- 

 quisition of this new species, and the notes here alluded to, are more 

 than ordinarily acceptable, since they materially tend to clear up the 

 long-disputed point as to what group the Brush Turkey should be 

 referred to. Mr. Gould further stated, that the views of those natu- 

 ralists who have considered it to be closely allied to the Megapodii 

 were perfectly correct, and that the Brush Turkey and the new spe- 

 cies now exhibited would in fact form part of a large and singular 

 family of birds inhabiting Australia and the Indian Islands, all of 

 which assimilate in their habits and mode of nidification, This new 



