CHAM A4:A—CHANNEL-BILL 83 
the general appearance of the European bird, are clothed in soberer 
tints. Another species of true Fringilla is the BRAMBLE-FINCH. 
CHAMAHA,! a genus instituted by Gambel (Proc. Ac. N. S. 
Philad. 1847, p. 154) for a curious little bird from the coast-district 
of California which he had previously described (op. cit. 1845, p. 
265) as Parus fasciatus but found to require separation. In the 
difficulty of assigning a position to this and a more recently dis- 
covered congeneric form, (. 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 Chamzide, 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 
Region. 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 
Chamea in the System,” published in 1889 at Boston in Massa- 
chusetts (Jowrn. 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 
Chamexidz as a Family, though of the two, to one or other of which 
it has generally been referred—namely the Paridz (TITMOUSE) and 
Troglodytidz (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 
Chamexidz stand. 
CHANNEL-BILL, Latham’s name in 1802, and since generally 
used, for a bird described and figured by Phillips in 1789 (Voy. 
Botany Bay, p. 165, pl.) as the “Psittaceous Hornbill,” and by 
John White in 1790 (Journ. Voy. N. S. Wales, p. 142, pl.) 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, 
1 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. 
2 But according to other accounts this species leaves New South Wales in 
January, only returning in October to breed. 
