22 SMITHSONIAN MISCELI.ANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. /^ 



What species is the tyi^e of the genus Grus instituted by Pallas in 

 1767? 



The main object of Pallas' paper entitled " Grus psopliia " (in 

 Spicilegia Zoologica, fasc. 4, 1767, pp. 3-9, pi. i) was to give a des- 

 cription of the bird hitherto known as Psophia crepitans based on 

 autopsy of a fresh specimen of this then rare South American bird 

 and to show that it does not constitute a separate genus, as postulated 

 by Linne, but that it must be attached to one of the sections of the 

 Linnaean genus Ardca, which Pallas, however, regards and names as 

 a distinct genus Grus. 



It therefore becomes necessary to review briefly the treatment ac- 

 corded the two genera by Linne. 



In 1758 (10 ed. Syst. Nat., vol. i, p. 154) Linnaeus has the genus 

 Psophia (with one species: crepitans). The genus Ardea, with 19 

 species, is found on page 141. The latter Linne enumerated under 

 four section headings as follows : 



X Cristatae : rostro vix capitc long'wrc (species 1-2) 

 XX Grues : capite calvo (species 3-6) 

 XXX Ciconiae (species 7-8) 

 xxxx .4rdeac (species 9-19) 



In the 1 2th Edition (pp. 263 and 233 respectively) the treatment 

 is exactly the same, except that the section of Ardeac there includes 

 eight more species (species 9-26) and that one species, Ardea ibis, has 

 been transferred to the genus Tantalus. 



Pallas begins his article as follows : 



Aves ab ///. LINNAEO sub Ardearuni nomine recensitae constantivus et 

 evidentissimis characteribus in tria genera, ab antiquioribus jam olim Orni- 

 thologis agnita et judiciole adoptata, distingui possunt : Ardcarum nempe 

 Ciconiarum atque Gruum. (The birds enumerated by Linne under the name 

 Ardea can be distinguished by constant and most obvious characters in three 

 genera which were already recognized and judiciously adopted by the older 

 ornithologists, viz.: Ardco, Ciconia and Grus.) 



He then proceeds to enumerate the characters of these genera, in- 

 cluding in Ciconia Linne's genus Mycteria. and in Grus the Linnaean 

 genus Psophia, at the same time referring Linne's Tantalus, together 

 with his Ardea ibis and Ardea aequinoctialis, to Nwmenius. The sen- 

 tence in which Pallas relegates the generic term Psophia to the 

 synonymy of Grus (p. 4) reads as follows: 



Ex autopsia (]uo(iue dedici, avem Americanain, (luam PSOPHIAE nomine 

 indigitarunt BARRERIUS et post euni Linnaeus, non pro peculiaris generis 

 ave habendum, sed Griiibus esse accessendam, quibus characteres, habitu, mori- 

 busque convenit. (From autopsy I have also learned that the American bird 

 which Barrere, and after him Linne, have published under the name Psophia, 



