Mr. R. B. Sharpe's Catalogue of Accipitres. 465 



tarsi, except Macheerhamphus, in which the tarsus is propor- 

 tionally longer, as it is also in Rostrhamus amongst the Mil- 

 vinse, a similarity which induces me to consider M«c/i«rAam/?AM5 

 in immediate succession to Rostrhamus*, notwithstanding the 

 great diflFerence in the form of the bill. This form in each 

 case is unique, but affords a strong contrast between the ex- 

 tremely elongated upper mandible o£ Rostrhamus and the 

 remarkably contracted one oi Macharhamphus , in which genus 

 the bill is smaller in proportion than in any other Raptorial 

 bird, though this peculiarity is combined with a gape pro- 

 portionally larger than that of any other of the Rap tores. 



The outline of the bill and the very wide gape in both 

 species of Macharhamphus may well remind the observer of 

 the corresponding parts in the Caprimulgine genus Nyctibiusf, 

 as has already been noted by Mr. Hume in his article on M. 

 alcinus in 'Stray Feathers,' vol. iii. pp. 269-271. 



MM. Milne-Edwards and Grandidier, who give an excellent 

 account of M. anderssom, and especially of its osteology, with 

 illustrations, in their work on the Birds of Madagascar, 

 pp. 77-83, refer to this similarity, remarking, in speaking of 

 that species, " il oflFre certaines particularites qui le rappro- 

 chent des representants de la famille des Engoulevents ;'* and 

 again, '^ son crane ressemble k beaucoup d'egards^ k celui d'uu 

 Caprimulgus.'' 



The principal characteristics of the genus Macharhamphus 

 are detailed in the two articles above referred to; but in 

 neither of them is reference made to two peculiarities which 



* MM. Milne-Edwarda and Grandidier remark, with reference to the 

 natural position of the genus Machcerhamphu?, '■'• C'est entre les repre- 

 sentants de la famille des Bondrees et ceux de la famille des Milans que 

 doit se placer le Machserhamphe " {vide Ois. de Madagascar, vol. i. p. 79). 



t It has sometimes occurred to me that the strange circumstance of 

 Le Vaillant having figured and described Nyctihius forjicatus (vide Ois. 

 d'Afr. pi. 47) as a species of which he captured a pair in a hollow mimosa 

 in Great Namaqua Land may possibly have arisen from his having so 

 obtained a pair of MachcerJiamphus anderssoni, and when his collection was 

 lost by shipwreck, having figured, as a substitute, a skin of the Nyctibius, 

 as bearing some resemblance to the birds of which he had been thus 

 deprived. 



