AN INTERESTING BIRD. 663 



locality of their nests. The Rev. Mr. Eaton, naturalist to the English 

 party, kindly gave ine an egg which he had found on the day of our 

 breaking up camp, January 10th, it being one of a nest of three, and 

 evidently very fresh. It is a large egg, rather less than a hen's, 

 pointed like a Guinea-fowl's, and marked by streaks and blotches of 

 different shades of brown, which are said to vary much in hue in dif- 

 ferent specimens. 



The sheath-bill is not only " an interesting bird " to know, on 

 account of its trustful and familiar habits, but has been something of 

 a puzzle to ornithologists from the time of its iirst description, by 

 Forster, in 1788.' Up to 1841 his species, C. alba {(iiecrophaga^ Vieil- 

 lot) was the only one known, and has been quite variously classified. 

 By G. R. Gray it was placed as a member of the fifth family ( Cliioni- 

 didcB) of the order GalUnce, a place retained for it in the British 

 Museum Catalogue. Bonaparte associated it with gulls and petrels, 

 as a member of his tribe Longipennes, order Gavke j and De Blain- 

 ville, after a careful anatomical examination, decided that its nearest 

 afiinities were with the Oyster-catchers {Hcenyiatopus). This last deci- 

 sion has been accepted as final by ornithologists in general. Mr. W. 

 K. Parker ' thus refers to another relationship : " There are certain 

 curious, thoroughly marine plovers (chionis), in which the sheathing 

 of the upper jaw is very perfect ; they thus retain a struthious charac- 

 ter, but have it in an exaggerated condition." Were this a proper 

 place for the discussion of osteological details, it would be easy to 

 point out other characteristics that might show a very plausible atfin- 

 ity of chionis to the ostrich ! 



Not to go deeply into the troubled and doubtful sea of the various 

 grounds of classification of birds, it will perhaps not be out of j^lace to 

 mention some of the principal groups of characteristics uj^on which we 

 rely to determine the place in Nature of any particular bird. First, 

 there ai*e the external parts: bill, eyes, plumage, feet, legs, etc., I'elied 

 upon almost entirely by the older writers, and likely to hold their own, 

 because of their convenience, for a long time yet. Then there is the 

 digestive system, indicating also some of the affinities based upon 

 habit. Third, and doubtless most to be relied upon, the structure of 

 the skeleton, particularly of the skull (Huxley) and sternum, and the 

 variations in muscular form and attachment. Last, biit by no means, 

 in my opinion, least, the habits and behavior of the bird during life. 



Considered as to externals only, we find Chionis minor with tli'e 

 general form of a pigeon, the beak of a crow, surmounted by a sheath 

 declared to be a characteristic of the ostrich family, with stout, knob- 

 by, short legs and feet, four-toed like a fowl's, but bare for a little way 



1 "Enchiridion Hist. Nat. Ins.," p. 37. 



^ " Sur la place que doit occuper dans le systeme ornithologique le genre Chionis, ou 

 Bec-en-fourreau," De Blainville, Ann. Sc. Nat., 1836, vi., p. 93. 



2 "Osteology of Gallinaceous Birds," "Transactions of Zoological Society," p. 206. 



