6oo MOUND-BIRD— MOUSE-BIRD 



discovery by Dr. Bureau of the Puffin moulting the horny sheath 

 of its Bill, together with the outgrowths over the eyes, while the 

 fleshy rosette at the corner of the mouth shrinks to insignificance, 

 completely changing the bird's physiognomy, and he has since de- 

 scribed the same astonishing metamorphosis as existing in other 

 allied forms, including the genera Chimerina, Ombria, and Simorhyuchus 

 {Bull. Soc. Zool Fr. 1877, pp. 377-399, pi. v. and 1879, pp.' 1-63, 

 pis. i.-vi.) Mr. Harting has given a translation of the first of these 

 papers, with a reproduction of the remarkable plate {Zool. 1878, 

 pp. 233-240), and Dr. Coues has published an abstract of both 

 {Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, iii. pp. 87-91, and v. pp. 127, 128). 



MOUND-BIED, a name sometimes given to the Megapodes in 

 general, from their mode of nidification, but not applicable to all. 



MOUNTAIN-, a prefix to the name of many birds, but often 

 inappropriate, and seldom used except in books, or by persons 

 whose knowledge is thereto limited — thus Mountain-Bunting is the 

 Snow-BuNTiNG ; Mountain-Cock the Capercally ; Moun tain -Duc k 

 ^^ several species of Anatidse — and in New ^Zealand- apparently 

 applied colloquially to Tadorna tadm-noides (Sheld-drake) ; Moun- 

 tain-Finch the Brambling ; Mountain-Parrot the Kea (see Nestor) ; 

 Mountain-Sparrow the Tree-SPARROW, and so on. 



MOUSE-BIRD (Dutch Muisvogel), the name by which in Cape 

 Colony, Natal, and other parts of British Africa, the members of 

 Brisson's genus Colius,'^ Englished Coly in 1773 by Pennant {Gen. 

 B. p. 31), are known — partly, it would seem, from their general 

 coloration, but probably more from their singular habit of creeping 

 along the boughs of trees with the whole tarsus applied to the 

 branch. By the earlier systematists, who had few opportunities of 

 examining the internal structure of exotic forms, Colius was usually 

 placed among the Fringillidx ; but nearly all travellers who had 

 seen one or another species of it in life demurred to that view. 

 Still its position was doubtful till Dr. Murie, in an elaborate treatise 

 on its osteology and systematic place {Ibis, 1872, pp. 262-280, pi. 

 X.) shewed that it was no Passerine, and subsequently {Ibis, 1873, 

 p. 190, note) proposed to regard the Family Coliidx as the sole repre- 

 sentative of a distinct group (PAlkLPRODAGTYL^) — this word being 

 coined to indicate the obvious character of all the toes being 

 ordinarily directed forwards, though it is by no means the only 

 peculiar character these birds possess. A few years later most of 

 Dr. Murie's views were confirmed by Garrod {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, 

 pp. 416-419), who added considerably to our knowledge of the 

 general anatomy of the Family, which he considered to be related 

 on the one hand to the Ficidee (Woodpecker), and on the other to 



1 Some other generic divisions have been suggested, but on grounds so slender 

 as hardly to merit consideration. 



