Recently published Ornithological Works. 595 



does not tell us more about the birds and other animals of 

 that strange land. Mr. Pratt's main object was to search for 

 Lepidopterous Insects*, and in this he was very successful ; 

 but he also obtained a series of Paradise-birds, and devotes a 

 short chapter to this subject, with a list of the species met 

 with and a few remarks on their habits. The prize-bird of 

 the district visited seems to be Paradisornis rudolp/u, but 

 Astrapia stephanice and Loria loriae are also there. " Bird- 

 of-Paradise soup," we are told, is "truly abominable." 



91. Pycroft on the Position of the Eurylsemidae. 



[Contributions to the Osteology of Birds. — Part VII. Eurylfeniidfe ; 

 with Remarks on the Systematic Position of the Group. By W. P. 

 Pycraft, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. P. Z. S. 1905, vol. ii. pp. 29-56.] 



Forbes and Garrod are our principal authorities on the 

 systematic position of the anomalous family Eurylsemidae. 

 They were of opinion that the peculiarities of this group, 

 especially as regards the retention of the plantar vinculum, 

 were so great as to necessitate its separation as a main 

 division of the Order Passeres, which might be termed 

 " Desmodactyli," while all the other Passeres were designated 

 " Eleutherodactyli." This proposal has met with more or 

 less acceptance up to the present time, and in the fourteenth 

 volume of the ' Catalogue of Birds ' the Eurylaemida? were 

 placed by Sclater at the end of the Oligomyodian Passeres as 

 an aberrant group. 



In the present paper Mr. Pycraft treats of the osteology 

 of the Eurylsemidae at full length, and comes to the con- 

 clusion that it is doubtful whether so wide a separation of 

 this group from the other Passeres as has been proposed by 

 Garrod and Forbes is maintainable. " The survival of the 

 plantar vinculum is not so very surprising." Mr. Pycraft 

 enlarges upon the many resemblances between the Eurv- 

 laemidae and the Cotingidse, and thinks it quite possible that 

 future investigations may prove that the former are entitled 

 to no higher position than a subfamily of the latter group. 



* See Mr. Bethune Baker's paper on Mr. Pratt's collections of insects 

 in Nov. Zool. xi. p. 3(37. 



2q2 



