1901.] SHUFELDT — OSTEOLOGY OF THE CUCKOOS. 9 



then arrived at it appeared clear to me that Garrod's classification 

 of the Cuadidce was well supported." 1 



Nitzsch did something with the classification of the Cuckoos, 

 using their various patterns in pterylography, but the work was only 

 partial and in the main not quite satisfactory. 2 



In 1873 (P. Z. S., p. 578) Mr. Sharpe, of the British Museum, 

 again attacked them, selecting for his labors the cuculine birds of 

 the Ethiopian Region. He made two subfamilies of the forms 

 there represented and examined, viz: (1) CuciiHnce, containing 

 Cuculus and Coccystes, and (2) Phcenicophaincs, in which he 

 placed Phcenicophacs, Centropns, Cona and others. 



About twelve years later another important paper on the Caculidce 

 appeared, being a contribution by Mr. F. E. Beddard, 3 and in it he 

 agrees in the main with Sharpe, but makes some few but apparently 

 justifiable changes. His opinions are deduced from a study of the 

 muscles of the thigh, the syrinx and the pterylosis of the Cuciriidce. 

 He was fortunate in being enabled to study a very large series of 

 species representing some thirteen genera, and upon this material 

 he divides the Family Cuculid^e into three Subfamilies, the Cucu- 

 lines, in which our Coccyzus is found in group (b) ; the Phceni- 

 cophaina, containing only Old World forms; and the Centropodince y 



1 SHUFELDT, R. W. Contribittions to the Anatoiny of Geococcyx californi- 

 anus. Proc. Zo'dl. Soc. of London, 1886, pp. 466-491, Pis. XLII-XLV. It. 

 was shown here that our United States Cuculidce properly belonged to three sub- 

 families, the Crotophagince, or Anis, the Centropodincz, or Ground Cuckoos, 

 and the Cuctilina:, or True Cuckoos. Besides the paper on the Osteology of 

 Geococcyx, published in the Journal of Anatomy of London, and referred to 

 above, the writer has also produced two other minor contributions to the morphology 

 of this bird — viz., one in the Ibis with a colored plate, showing the colored skin- 

 tracts around the eye and back of the head (Lond., 1885, pp. 286-288, PI. VII) : 

 and the other in the Journal of Anatomy of London entitled, " Osteological 

 note upon the young of Geococcyx califomianus'''' (Vol. xxi, pp. 101, 102, Figs. 

 1 and 2). The last-named will to some extent be incorporated in the present 

 memoir, and both have already been cited in the Introduction above. 



2 Pterylography, English edition, p. 91". 



8 Beddard, F. E. On the Structural Characters and Classification of the 

 Cuckoos. P. Z. S., Lond., 1885, pp. 168-1S7, wcc. in text. In this paper the 

 writer points out an error formerly made by Owen (Owen, R., Comp. Anat. of 

 Verts., Vol. ii, p. 177), and says: "The gall-bladder is stated by Owen to be 

 wanting in almost all the Cuculidce. This statement is by no means correct; 

 indeed the gall-bladder appears to be very generally present, and those cases 

 where it is absent are the exceptions." 



