982 LOWHEE 
The Musophagide form a very distinct Eel of Prof, Huxley’s 
Coccygomorphe, having perhaps the Coliide (Mouse. BIRD, p. 600) and 
Cuculide, as their nearest allies.1 ‘The bill of nearly all the species 
is curiously serrated or denticulated along the margin, and the feet 
have the outer toe reversible. No member of the Family is found 
outside of the continental portion of the Ethiopian Region. 
TOWHEE, so called from one of its notes, a well-known North- 
American bird, Pipilo erythrophthalmus, one of the ‘ Columbian” 
forms which as yet cannot be positively 
assigned to the Mringillide (FINCH) or the 
Emberizide (BUNTING), though commonly 
regarded as belonging to the latter group, 
and indeed genera presumably allied have 
been named Lmberizoides and Embernagra. 
The number of “species” of Pipilo is by no means certain, for many 
local races occur in various parts of the country, and it is thus a 
matter of opinion whether 8 or 10 or nearly twice as many should 
be recognized (cf. Coues, Key N. Am. B. ed. 2, pp. 395-398; Ridgway, 
Man. N. Am. B. pp. 435-441), while examples of these races are 
not easily distinguished. In some the sexes are nearly alike in 
plumage, but this is not so in the eastern bird to which the English 
name, now extended to all the rest, was originally given. There is 
also a considerable difference in their call-note, for P. megalonyx, the 
prevalent form in the south-west, is said to mew like a CATBIRD, 
while the more northern P. arcticus will occasionally utter one of the 
cries of P. erythrophthalmus, which has procured for that species the 
name of Chewink, by which as well as Ground-Robin it is also known. 
The colour of the iris too varies in some cases according to locality. 
Pirino. (After Swainson.) 
matter being soluble in water was, by Mr. Tegetmeier, brought to the notice of 
Prof. Church, who published in 1868 (Student and Intellectual Observer, i. pp. 
161-168) an account of it as ‘‘ Turacin, a new animal pigment containing copper.” 
He has since dealt with it more fully in two communications to the Royal 
Society (Phil. Trans. 1869, pp. 627-636, and 1893, pp. 511-530), in the last of 
which he intimates a doubt as to the existence as an independent pigment of 
**Turaco-verdin” (cf. CoLour, p. 96) as announced by Dr. Krukenberg (Vergi.- 
physiol. Stud. ser. 2, i. p. 151). The subject has received much attention from 
others, and the peculiar property is possessed by the crimson feathers of all the 
birds of the Family. 
1 Eyton pointed out (Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, ii. p. 458) a feature possessed 
in common by some of the Cuculidw and the Musophagidx, in the “‘ process 
attached to the anterior edge of the ischium,” which he likened to the so-called 
“marsupial” bones of Didelphian Mammals. J. T. Reinhardt also noticed 
(Vid. Meddels. Naturhist. Foren. 1871, pp. 326-341) another Cuculine character 
offered by the os wncinatwm affixed to the lower side of the ethmoid in the Plan- 
tain-eaters and Touracos ; but too much dependence must not be placed on that, 
since a similar structure is presented by the FRIGATE-BIRD and some PETRELS. 
A corresponding process seems also to be found in Trocon. 
