Dr. J. Murie on the Upupidae. 183 



an able ornithologist might well bear a full translation; 

 but for my purpose it is enough to cull the more impor- 

 tant points. Of the muscular system, he records that it is 

 uncommonly Passerine in kind, taken as a whole, with, how- 

 ever, some distinctions. The disposition of the tendons and 

 bony grooves predisposes the similitude above stated. He 

 describes the short triangular tongue and the presence of a 

 pair of glands at the sides of the chink of the glottis. There 

 is no crop ; the stomach is saccular and soft ; caecal diverti- 

 cula are absent; a single left carotid artery alone obtains. 

 Other features of the lungs, liver, kidneys, nasal glands, &c. 

 are passed in review. 



Bonaparte* held views widely distinct from Strickland on 

 this subject, inasmuch as, whilst apparently regarding the Hoo- 

 poe as affine to the Hornbill, he threw apart the Irrisors. 

 Concerning the former the arrangement adopted runs — Muso- 

 phagidae, Upupidse, Bucerotidae, Rhamphastidae, Leptosomidae, 

 Cuculidae. His Upupidae embraces two genera, Upupa and 

 Fregilupus, the first with three and the second with but one 

 species. In another section come the families Coerebidae and 

 Promeropidae, then the family Irrisoridae, and subfamily Irri- 

 sorinae, containing the genera Irrisor, Rhinopomastus, and 

 Falculia ; then the families Epimachidae and Paradiseidae. 



Upon purely osteological data, Mr. Eytonf makes a 

 family of theBucerotidae; and this contains three subfamilies — 

 the Momotinae, Upupinae, and Bucerinse. Irrisor he takes 

 no notice of; but his short characters of the cranium &c. 

 of Upupa (U. epops) are explicit enough — though, quoting 

 others, I dispense with them. 



Huxley's grand Balaclava charge at the birds J led him to 

 toss the Upupidae among Coccygomorphae, with group " c, the 

 second, third, and fourth toes turned forwards, the first back- 

 wards." He does not seem to have given much attention to 

 Upupa, his remark thereon being confined to the following 

 terse sentence : — " Here the postero-external angle of the 



* Conspectus Generum Avium. 

 t Osteologia Avium, 1867, p. 59. 

 \ P. Z. S. 1807, p. 447 and p. 407. 



