456 Mr. N. A. Vigors on the Natural Affinities 



while the straighter and more lengthened bill of the true Biicco 

 united itself to that of Picas. 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 Picidce, 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, 111., 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, 111. — Bucco niger, Gmel.), 

 which the Hottentots called Hout Kapper {ffoodcutter), 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 I 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 



