SERILOPHUS. 243 



while the secondary quills, by their broad, truncated, 

 and indented termination, give us the fissirostral 

 character, so eminently developed in the Meropidoe 

 and many other types. These peculiarities leave 

 us in no doubt where to look for the analogies of 

 Serilophus, and induces us to view it, by the pre- 

 ponderance of these characters, as the rasorial type. 

 The next in the natural series is our genus 



PSARISOMUS*, 



represented at present by a single species, and of 

 which we can only speak from the figure and de- 

 scription published by Dr. Roylet. 

 We now come to the genus 



* Class, of Birds, vol. ii. 261. 



t Since the above was written, and the Classification of 

 Birds was published, a beautiful figure of this remarkable 

 type has appeared in the Icones Avium of Mr. Gould, while 

 the additional characters he mentions fully confirms the views 

 we had taken of its relations. The bill, as Mr. Gould observes, 

 is not only narrower than in the other types, but is even a 

 little compressed; thus representing that form we should 

 expect in the tenuirostral type, which is to represent Pachy- 

 rhynchuS) Hyliota, Monacha^ &c. It seems impossible to look 

 at this bird without being immediately reminded of Pachyceph* 

 Cuvieri, and even of the Ptilonopus melanocephaltts, Sw. (PI. 

 Etd. 214.) which is also a tenuirostral type. The Classifica- 

 tion of Birds was published in May 1837, the Icones Avium, 

 as stated on the covers, in the following August. We are at 

 a loss, therefore, to discover why the new name of Crossodera 

 was proposed, unless we suppose that Mr. Gould was ignorant 

 of our prior denomination. 



