Notes and Observations on a Guan. 283 



Mergus squamatus Gould. 



Mergus squamatus Ogilvie-Grant^ Ibis, 1900, p. 602, 

 pi. xii. 



Two adult males of this handsome Merganser were shot 

 in December 1908 on the River Min in central Fohkien out 

 of a party of several individuals. One of these is in the 

 Shanghai Museum and the other in my collection. I have 

 another, also an adult male, shot in February 1911 in the 

 same locality. 



XIV. — Some Notes and Observations on a Guan* (Ortalis 

 vetula), suggested by an Examination of an Immature 

 Specimen. By Pekcy R. Lowe, M.B., M.B.O.U. 



(Plate VII. and Text- fig. 1.) 



Some little time ago, while comparing some specimens of 

 the genus Ortalis, which I had shot in Venezuela and 

 southern Mexico, with those in the collection at South 

 Kensington, I came across a very interesting specimen of 

 an immature example of Ortalis vetula from the latter of 

 the two countries mentioned. 



If my interpretation of what this young bird teaches is 

 correct, then the Guans (^Ortalis) would appear to represent 

 an interesting link in the chain of evolution of the life- 

 history of a certain group of birds — in which chain we see 

 at one end the primitive Hoatzin with its unique nidifugous 

 young living an entirely arboi-eal existence, and at the other 

 end the more nidifugous and very precocious offspring of 

 the Megapode, which lays its eggs upon the ground in a 

 mound of fermenting leaves and humus, and which now 

 lives an entirely terrestrial existence. 



Mr. Py craft, who has made a special study of nestling 

 birds, has graphically described the structural peculiarities 

 observable in the young of birds at either end of this chain, 



* Pronounced locally Ge-wdn-n. 



