Sclater on the System a Avium. 75 



With these additions the Anisodactylae, as we have called them 



in our • Nomenclator,' will consist of the following twelve 

 families : — 



i. Coliidas. 7. Momotidae. 



2. Alcedinidae. 8. Todidae. 



3. Bucerotidas. 9. Coraciidae. 



4. Upupidae. 10. Leptosomidas. 



5. Irrisoridae. n. Podargidas. 



6. Meropidae. 12. Steatornithidae. 



The Heterodactylae, which follow next in the v Nomenclator,' 

 consist of the single family Trogonidae, the only form of the 

 whole class of birds in which the fourth or outer digit is reversed 

 instead of the second. The pterylosis of Trogon is also quite 

 different from that of the other Zygodactyly, being purelv pas- 

 serine, except as regards its long aftershaft.* 



The true Zygodactyly in the k Nomenclator ' consist of four 

 families besides the Cuckoos, namely the Galbulidaa, Bucconida?, 

 Rhamphastida 1 , and Capitonida?. To these must be added the 

 Indicatorida\ which do not occur in the New World. Indica- 

 tor has now been conclusively shown to have nothing to do with 

 either the Cuckoos (as supposed by the older authors) or with 

 the Woodpeckers (as believed by Blythf), but must form a 

 family of itself, allied to the Capitonida^. \ 



Lastly. I would now propose to place together in one group, 

 under the restricted title of " Coccyges," the two families Cucu- 

 lida? and Musophagida 1 . I am not yet prepared to remove them 

 to the neighborhood of the Gallina? altogether, but (as above 

 stated) am ready to allow that Prof. Garrod has shown good 

 reasons for separating them from the rest of the Zvgodactylre. 



Moreover, on the whole, I have come to the conclusion that, 

 looking to the successful assaults that have been made on Prof. 

 Huxley's views as to the nature of the palate in the Pici and in 

 the Trochilidae, it will be a better arrangement to sink the Pici 

 and Cvpseli to the rank of suborders and to revive the term 

 Picarise for the whole of the three groups denominated in the 



* Nitzsch, Pterylogr. p. 93. 

 t J. A. S. B. xi. p. 167 (1842). 



\ Cf. Sclater, Ibis, 1870, p. 176. For the species of Indicator consult Sharpe in Row- 

 ley's Orn. Misc. i. p. 192, and P. Z. S. 1878, p. 793. 



