CHAM.EA— CHANNEL-BILL 83 



the general appearance of the European bird, are clothed in soberer 

 tints. Another species of true Fringilla is the Brahible-finch. 



CHAMPA,! a genus instituted by Gambel {Proc. Ac. N. S. 

 Philad. 1847, p. 154) for a cui-ious little bird from the coast-district 

 of California which he had previously described (op. cit. 1845, p. 

 265) as Farus fasciatus but found to require separation. In the 

 difficulty of assigning a position to this and a more recently dis- 

 covered congeneric form, C. henshawi, from the interior of the same 

 country, systematists have resorted to considering the genus as the 

 type and sole member of a distinct Family Chamxidce, which, if its 

 validity be allowed, proves to be the only Family of Land-birds that 

 is peculiar to the Nearctic area. Thus it becomes a factor of some 

 importance in determining the question whether that area should 

 rank as a Zoogeographical or at least as an Ornithogeographical 

 Eegion. It is impossible here to give details of a matter which has 

 agitated the best ornithologists of North America, and reference 

 can only be made to Dr. Shufeldt's paper " On the position of 

 Chamsea in the System," published in 1889 at Boston in Massa- 

 chusetts {Jourii. Morphol. iii. pp. 475-502), wherein the evidence is 

 very carefully weighed, and the conclusion reached is to the effect 

 that it is more nearly related to the Colombian Cinnicerthia than to 

 any other, but the author abstains from declaring the value of 

 ChamEeidse as a, Family, though of the two, to one or other of which 

 it has generally been referred — namely the Paridds. (Titmouse) and 

 Troglodytidai (Wren) — he sees most resemblance to the former. So 

 far as one can judge from the habits of the birds as described by 

 observers, they are more those of a Wren than of a Titmouse ; 

 while the blue eggs which it is said to lay removes it really from 

 the category of either. In the absence then of any very strong 

 reason for disputing what has been asserted by no mean authori- 

 ties, it would seem better for the present to let the Family 

 Chammdse stand. 



CHANNEL-BILL, Latham's name in 1802, and since generally 

 used, for a bird described and figured by Phillips in 1789 (V01/. 

 Botamj Bay, p. 165, pi.) as the "Psittaceous Hornbill," and by 

 John White in 1790 (Jour/i. Voy. N. S. JFales, p. 142, pi.) as the 

 "Anomalous Hornbill," which was apparently first obtained 16th 

 April ^ 1788, and therefore not long after the foundation of the 

 colony. Latham seeing the need of a new genus for it, made one, 



^ This word not having been accepted as English has strictly no right to head 

 an article, but the only names applied to the birds to which it refers, "Bush- 

 Tit" and "Ground-Wren," have not enough special meaning to justify their 

 insertion, while the form, as will be seen in the text, is important enough to 

 require particular notice. 



^ But according to other accounts this species leaves New South Wales in 

 January, only returning in October to breed. 



