404 Dr. J. Murie on the Motmots and their Affinities. 



6. Their supposed affinities.— l^ the ' Systema Naturae'* of 

 LinnBeus, Momota comes under Rhamphastos, between the 

 Psittacea and Buceros. Buffonf places in sequence the Anis 

 (Crotophaginse), the Houtou (Motmots), the Huppe {Vpupa) 

 Promerops, and the Guepiers (Meropidse)! Cuvier, in his 

 ' Regne Animal/ ranges under his syudactyles the Bee-eaters, 

 Motmots, Kingfishers, Todies, and Hornbills, in the order here 

 given. Vieillot % says of Prionites : — " Cette famille se compose 

 des genres Motmot et Calao." Latham's arrangement § runs: 

 — Parrots, Toucans, Motmots, Australian Channel-bird {Sci/- 

 throps), Hornbills, Beef-eater {Buphaga) . Lesson ||, who studied 

 the group circumspectly as to specific forms, locates them in 

 the family Buceridees, containing Motmot and Calaos {Buceros) 

 — thus following Vieillot, but altering the title of the 

 group. 



Swainson^y took up the subject warmly, and ran a tilt with 

 all and sundry, unquestionably bringing forward cogent reasons 

 for their separation from the Toucans. But he goes to the op- 

 posite extreme in classing them under the Trogonidse, and as 

 the nearest form to the Jacamars(Ga/iM/a). Blyth"^^ strings in 

 linear order his Cylindrirostres, containing Meropidse, Cora- 

 ciidse, and Halcyonidse, his Anguhrostres combining Todidse 

 and Galbulidse, his Serratirostres composed solely of Prionitidse 

 {Motmots), and his Levirostres, wherein are the Bhamphastidse 

 and Musophagidse. He observes : — " Thus_, although no pas- 

 sage exists from the Motmots into the Kingfishers or into the 

 Toucans, and although the Kingfishers and Toucans differ mate- 

 rially, yet the interposition of the Motmots so connects those 

 two other groups, that they cannot be ranged with either of them 

 to the exclusion of the other; and the Toucans, in like manner, 

 combine the characters of the Motmots and Touracos, fee" 



Nitzsch'sft pterylographic studies lead him to class in his 



* 12th ed. 1788, vol. i. p. 357. t Hist. Nat. 1818, vol. xi. p. 333. 



X Diet. d'Hist. Nat. vol. xxviii. p. lo3. 



§ Hist, of Bii-ds, 1822, vol. ii. || Mauuel d'Ornith. torn. ii. p. 103. 



^ Classification of Birds, vol. ii. 

 ** Mag. of Nat. Hist. 1838, vol. ii. pp. 318 & 422, &c. 

 tt Pterylograpliie, &c., Eng. Trans. Ray Soc. 1867. 



