388 



GRO UND- THR USH—GRO USE 



know, under very similar conditions. Nine species of Geospiza have 

 been described, five of Camarhynchus and four of Cadornis. All these 

 birds have a sombre coloration, in many deepening to a pitch-black. 

 Further particulars respecting them are to be found in the Zoology 

 of the Voyage of the ' Beagle,' and in Mr. Salvin's paper " On the 

 Avifauna of the Galapagos Archipelago " (Trans. Zool. Soc. ix. pp. 

 447-510), from which last the accompanying illustrations are 

 borrowed. 



G. rtiagnirostris. 



G. strenua. 



G. fori is. 



G. fortis. G. fuliginosa. 



Series of Forms of Geospiza. 

 (From the Transactio7is of the Zoological Society.) 



G. parvula. 



GROUND-THKUSH, a name long ago used for birds of the 

 genus Pitta and its allies (Jerdon, B. Ind. i. p. 502) ; but latterly 

 an attempt has been made [Cat. B. Br. Mus. v. p. 147) to foist it 

 on a composite group of some .40 species of Thrushes which have 

 been referred to a ghost -like genus Geocichla, the characters and 

 type of which continue to defy discovery.^ 



GROUSE, a word of uncertain origin,^ now used generally by 

 ornithologists to include all the " rough-footed " Gallinaceous birds, 



^ The assertion {loc. cit.) that Kuhl, to whom the establishment of this sup- 

 posed genus is attributed, founded it "in some popular Dutch periodical," is 

 unconfirmed by evidence, and is contradicted by all we know of his strictly 

 scientific practice. 



^ It seems first to occur {fide 0. Salusbury Brereton, Archmologia, iii. p. 157) 

 as " Grows " in an ordinance for the regulation of the royal household dated 

 "apud Eltham, mens. Jan. 22 Hen. VIII." (i.e. 1531), and considering the 

 locality must refer to Black game. It is found in an Act of Parliament 1 Jac. I. 

 cap, 27, § 2 (i.e. 1603), and, as reprinted in the Statutes at Large, stands as now 



