o/i Dr. Jerdon's 'Birds of India.' 231 



which is merely modified externally to confer extraordinary 

 vigour of wing. The Ct/pselidce have not even one chai*acteristic 

 of that very variously modified special ornithic type, and in- 

 ternally as well as externally — in the bony framework equally 

 with the exterior adaptations — are modified to attain the maxi- 

 mum power of flight ; and the same remai'k applies to the Tro- 

 chilidie. There is a fundamental conformity in the organization 

 of the Ct/pselidce and Trochilidce, analogous to what exists in the 

 genus Indicator and the great family Picida, and which alike 

 removes Indicator from Cuculidce and Ci/pselidce from Hirun- 

 dinidce; and in the same way Leptosomus, which has been com- 

 monly assigned to Cuculidce, is far more nearly akin to Coracias 

 and Merops, if not also (as I long ago suggested) to the South 

 American family Bucconidce, which latter group I formerly 

 styled Tamatiada*, and separated altogether from the special 

 group which comprehends the Rhamp/iastida and kindred Me- 

 galcemida and Capitonida (if these latter can be properly recog- 

 nized apart). There is no occasion to pursue this subject fur- 

 ther here, as in the sequel I have found occasion to comment on 

 the affinities of particular groups. Let me now, therefore, pro- 

 ceed to the special object of this contribution, which will occupy 

 a good many pages of the ' The Ibis.' 



In his first page the author states that the rapacious birds have 

 " all their toes upon one plane,'' — the kindred genera Sarcorham- 

 phus and Gyparchus, and Cathartes also to some extent, being the 

 only exceptions that I know of, alike appertaining to the minor 

 continent. 



* Mag. Nat. Hist. n. s., 1838, p. 317. Firfealsop. 256 et seq. of the 

 same volume for remarks exceedingly in unison with what I have now 

 written, and which I have been led to peruse upon having occasion to seek 

 for the date of them. Two mistakes occur, however, the rectification of 

 which is necessary to render my papers of 1838 as intelligible as they 

 would otherwise be. I mistook Pteropfochus (or some kindred form) for 

 Meganodius ; and by Promerops I intended sundry passerine birds which 

 were then usually classed in that genus, as distinguished from the real 

 African Promeropidce, which are intermediate to Bucerotidce and Upupidee. 

 With this explanation, the outlines of classification which I then proposed 

 are very nearly the same as what I at present adopt and adhere to, with 

 the advantage of greatly increased information and of more than a quarter 

 of a century of further experience. 



