658 ORTOLAN 



" Yellowhead," were referred to the genus, under the names of 

 0. albicilla ^ and 0. ochrocephala, and then the question of its affinity 

 became more interesting. By some systematists it was supposed 

 to belong to the othermse purely Neotropical Dendrocolaptidse 

 (Picucule), and in that case would have been the sole representa- 

 tive of the Tracheophone Passeres in the Australian Eegion. Others 

 considered it one of the nearest relatives of Menura, and if that 

 view had been correct it would have added a third form to the 

 small section of " PSEUDOSCINES " ; while Sundevall, in 1872, 

 placed it not far from Timelia, among a group the proper sorting of 

 which will probably for years tax the ingenuity of ornithologists.^ 

 The late Mr. W. A. Forbes shewed {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1882, p. 544) 

 that this last position was the more correct, as Orthonyx proved on 

 dissection to be one of the true Oscines, but yet to stand, so far as 

 is known, alone among birds of that group, or any other group of 

 Passeres, in consequence of the superficial course taken by the (left) 

 carotid artery, which is nowhere contained in the subvertebral 

 canal. Whether this discovery will require the segregation of the 

 genus as the representative of a separate Family Ortlionycidse — 

 — which has been proposed by Mr. Salvin (Catal. Coll. Strickland, 

 p. 294) — remains to be seen.^ 



The typical species of Orthonyx — for the scientific name has 

 been adopted in English — is rather larger than a Skylark, coloured 

 above not unlike a Hedge-Sparrow. The wings are, however, 

 barred with white, and the chin, throat and breast are in the male 

 pure white, but of a bright reddish-orange in the female. The 

 remiges are very short, rounded and much incurved, shewing a 

 bird of weak flight. The rectrices are very broad, the shafts stiff, 

 and towards the tip divested of barbs. Two other species that 

 seem rightly to belong to the genus have been described — 0. spal- 

 dingi from Queensland, of much greater size than the type, and 

 with a jet-black plumage, and 0.^ novm-guinese, from the great island 

 of that name. 



ORTOLAN (Old Fr. Hortolan, mod. Fr. Ortolan), the Emberiza 



^ It may be charitably conjectured that the nomenclator intended to write 

 alhicapilla. 



^ Dr. Sharpe naturally extended his generous hospitality to Orthonyx and 

 placed it in his Twneliidm {Cat. B. Br. Mus. vii. p. 329), but refused entrance to 

 Clitonyx, which Dr. Gadow had therefore to include [op. cit. -v-iii. p. 75) among 

 the Paridie — a wrong position, according to Sir W. Buller. 



* Forbes also demonstrated that one at least of the two New-Zealand species 

 above mentioned, 0. ochrocephala, had been wrongly referred to this genus, and 

 they therefore at present stand as Clitonyx. This is a point of some little import- 

 ance in its bearing on the relationship of the fauna of the two countries, for 

 Orthonyx was supposed to be one of the few genera of Land-birds common to 

 both. 



