114 DICTIONARY OF BIRDS 



doubtless rightly attached to them does not help us, though perhaps the 

 Flamingos may. From fossil remains we know that they are not of 

 yesterday ; and both to Huxley and to Dr. Gadow they seem intermediate 

 between the Geese and the Storks and Herons. These last may well 

 be considered to be akin to the Steganopodes, which in their turn indi- 

 cate some relation to the Accijiitres. 



Whatever may be the alliances of the genealogy of the Accipitres, the 

 Diurnal Birds- of- Prey, their main body must stand alone, hardly divisible 

 into more than two principal groups — (1) containing the Sarcorhamphidx 

 or the Vultures of the New World (page 1016), and (2) all the rest, though 

 no doubt the latter may be easily subdivided into two Families, Vulturidee 

 and Falconidse, and the last into many smaller sections, as has commonly 

 been done ; but then we have the outliers left. The African Serpentariidx 

 (Secretary-bird), though now represented only by a single species,^ are 

 fully allowed to form a type equivalent to the true Accipitres composing 

 the main body, and in it we may possibly see a trace of the link connecting 

 the Accipitres with the Heriodiones. 



It was so long the custom to place the Owls next to the Diurnal Birds- 

 of-Prey that any attempt to remove them from that position could not fail 

 to incur criticism. Yet it is now admitted by almost every investigator 

 that when we disregard their carnivorous habits, and certain modifications 

 which may possibly be thereby induced, we find almost nothing of value to 

 indicate relationship between the two groups. That the Striges stand quite 

 independently of the Accipitres as above limited can hardly be doubted, 

 and, while the Psittaci (Parrot) form a very distinct group, and may 

 on some grounds appear to be the nearest allies of the Accipitres, the 

 nearest relations of the Owls must be looked for in the multifarious group 

 PiCARiiE. Here we have the singular Steatornis (Guacharo), which, long 

 confounded with the Gaprimidgidx (Nightjar), has at last been recognized 

 as an independent form, and it may possibly have branched off from a 

 common ancestor with the Owls. The Nightjars may have done the like,^ 

 for there is really not much to ally them to the Gypseli (Swift) and 

 Trochili (Humming - bird), the Masrochires proper, as has often been 

 recommended. However, it should not be supposed that the place of 

 the Striges is under the Picarise ; and the last are already a sufficiently 

 heterogeneous assemblage. Whether the Pici (Woodpecker) should be 

 separated from the rest is a matter on which Prof. Fiirbringer and Dr. 

 Gadow are at variance. That they constitute a very natural and easily 

 defined group is indisputable ; more than that, they are j^erhaps the most 

 diftereutiated group of all those that are retained in the " Order " Picarise ; 

 but it does not seem advisable at present to deliver them from that chaos 

 when so many other groups have to be left in it. 



1 It was long suspected that that the geuus Polyhoroides of South Africa and 

 Madagascar, from its general resemblance in plumage and outward form, might come 

 into this group, but that idea has now been fully dispelled by M. A. Milne-Edwards 

 in M. Grandidier's magnificent Oiseaux de Madagascar (i. pp. 50-66). . 



^ The great resemblance in coloration between Nightjars and Owls is of course 

 obvious, so obvious indeed as to make one suspicious of their being akin ; but in 

 reality the existence of the likeness is no bar to the affinity of the groups ; it merely 

 has to be wholly disregarded. 



