200 Dr. J. Murie on the Upupidse. 



4. Fregilupus. — Of this remarkable form Prof. Schlegel* 

 uses words to this effect : — The species, F. madagascariensis , 

 has become so rare at the island of Reunion (Bourbon) that it 

 has not been heard of for a dozen years. Coastwards it is de- 

 stroyed ; but report says that it still exists in the interior forests. 

 Old Creoles state that at one time they were common, stupid, 

 and easily killed with a stick. It is there known by the name 

 of Hoopoe. Whether suggested by this local name or other- 

 wise, some ornithologists, Bonaparte for instance, have ranged 

 it among the Upupidse. Later writers, however, George Gray 

 for example, more judiciously placed it in the neighbourhood 

 of the Sturnidse. Its proper location it is not my intention 

 at present to enter on, my object alone being to give succinct 

 and good reasons for its separation from the Upupidse. 



I understand that no skin of the form in question exists in 

 this country, and that the only skeleton is that in the possession 

 of Professor Newton at Cambridge. The kindness of this gen- 

 tleman, then, in forwarding the precious specimen f for my 

 examination, I duly appreciate. 



Osteologically the points of departure from Upupa and 

 Irrisor are trenchant. The keel of the sternum is relatively 

 shallower, and anteriorly sharper j the rostrum deeply forked, 

 large, and sharply upturned ; the whole sternum is broader ; 

 xiphoid spaces longer ; costal processes very high and broad. 

 Furcula with a large inflected process or interclavicle. Sca- 

 pula curved ; coracoid long, narrow, and relatively slender. 

 Pelvis with narrowed deflected ilia in front and proportionally 

 wide behind; ischia remarkably long, their pointed tuber- 

 osities little short of the pubes. Postfrontal and occipital 

 regions of skull full and rounded ; the former relatively nar- 

 rower, the latter with greater width to height ; there is a large 

 interorbital vacuity ; narial orifice large, long, and elliptical ; 

 a stout vomer present, truncated in front and cleft behind ; 



* Recherches sur la Faune de Madagascar et de ses ddpendances d'apres 

 les d£couvertes de Francois P. L. Pollen et D. C. Van Dam. Mammif. et 

 Ois. par H. Schlegel. Leyden, 1868. Part 2, p. 104. 



t Labelled Fregilupus varius 3 , Reunion (J. P. Verreaux), No. 974«, 

 Newton's MS. Osteol. Col. 



