PROMEROPSPSITTA COMORPH& 743 



species, all with perhaps one exception, the P. brevirostris of Gould 

 (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1855, p. 88, pi. xciii.), if indeed that be distinct, 

 as seems very doubtful, from his P. ariel belonging to the southern 

 hemisphere. They are remarkable also for the breadth of their 

 bill at the base. 



PROMEKOPS, a name, long since Anglicized, invented by 

 Reaumur, says Brisson (Ornithol. ii. p. 460, pi. xliii. fig. 2), who used 

 it in a generic sense for a small South - African bird with plain 

 plumage and a remarkably long tail. Without having seen a 

 specimen Linnaeus referred it to the genus Upupa (HOOPOE), but 

 also described the same species, from a drawing sent to him by 

 Burmann, as a Merops (BEE-EATER). Promerops, however, has 

 nothing to do with either, though perhaps its true affinity is not 

 yet correctly determined. Most modern systematists think it allied 

 to the SUN-BIRDS 1 (cf. Layard, B. S. Afr. pp. 74, 75, and Shelley, 

 Monogr. Nectariniidds, p. 377, pi. 121), though it has none of the 

 brilliant hues that distinguish most of that group, its yellow vent 

 being all that enlivens the soberly-mottled white of its lower parts, 

 while above it is of a uniform greyish-brown. A considerable 

 number of birds, having apparently no affinity at all to it, have 

 been referred to the genus Promerops, which probably should be 

 regarded as the type of a Family. Natal furnishes a second species, 

 P. gurneyi, described and figured by Verreaux (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, 

 p. 135, pi. viii.) 



PROUD TAILOR, a local name for the GOLDFINCH. 



PSEUDOSCINES, Mr. Sclater's name (Ibis, 1880, p. 345) for 

 the abnormal AcROMYODi of Garrod ; but, being of hybrid derivation, 

 Dr. Gadow (Thier-reich, Fogel, System. Th. pp. 173, 177) substituted 

 SUBOSCINES in its stead, correlative with his SUBCLAMATORES. 



PSILOP^EDES, a name proposed in 1872 by Sundevall 

 (Tentamen, p. 1) for his first division (agmen) of the Class Aves, being 

 the Birds whose young are naked before their feathers grow : in 

 1873 changed (torn. cit. p. 158) to Gymnopxdes, to prevent confusion 

 with PTILOP^EDES. 



PSITTACI, given in 1826-8 as the name of a Family or group 

 consisting of the PARROTS, by Ritgen (N. Act. Acad. L.-C. Nat. Cur. 

 xiv. part i. pp. 231, 243), and afterwards adopted as that of an 

 Order by Bonaparte and other authors, equivalent therefore to the 



PSITTACOMORPH^E of Prof. Huxley (Proc. Zool Soc. 1867, 

 pp. 465, 466), by whom it was regarded as the sixth group of his 

 DESMOGNATH^E. 



1 In the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum (vol. ix. ) Promerops is 

 placed among the Meliphaginse ; but apparently not with the approval of the 

 author (torn. cit. p. 209). 



