Mr. V^igors's Sketches in Ornithology. 345 



Art. XLVII. Sketches in Ornithology, S^c. By N. A. Vi- 

 gors, Esq , M.A., F.R.S., S^c. 



(Continued from Vol. III. page 448.) 



Ordo. Rasores. ///. 

 Fam. Tetraonid^. 

 Genus. Cryptonyx, Temm. 



A more conclusive answer cannot be given to the arguments of those 

 who are in the habit of declaiming against the minuteness of research 

 adopted by modern Zoologists, than an exposition of the facts which at- 

 tended the distribution of the birds that form the genus Cryptonyx of M. 

 Temminck. The male of the Rouloul of Malacca, the first species 

 known of that singular genus, was referred by Dr. Latham,* who de- 

 scribed the species in his " Synopsis," (Vol. IV, p. 622.), to the family of 

 Pigeons. To this arrangement we must suppose our venerable Ornitho- 

 logist to have been led by the analogy which the crested head of the 

 bird bore to that of his Columba coronata, (Lophorus coronatus of the 

 present day,) a relationship which seems to have been considered by him 

 so far indicative of affinity as to have induced him to place the two spe- 

 cies next to each other as the great and the lesser crowned Pigeons. The 

 female again of the Rouloul, differing essentially in colour from the 

 male, and wanting this apparent mark of affinity, was at the same time, 

 and in the same work, ranked among the Partridges, a station much 

 more accordant with its natural affinities than that assigned to its crested 

 mate. This mode of arrangement consequently placed not only in two 

 diff"erent, and not very nearly approaching genera, but even, according to 

 the views of Dr. Latham, in two distinct orders, the male and female of 

 the same species. The subsequent discovery of the fact that these birds 

 differed merely in sex afforded Dr. Latham an opportunity of correct- 

 ing his opinion; and in the Supplement to the "Synopsis," he has 

 united the two birds together under the title of Perdix coronata.f 



* Sonnerat first discovered this bird, which was afterwards described and 

 figured by Sparmann, in his " Museum Carlsonianum," under the name of 

 Phasianus cristalus. 



f Dr. Latham, when he removed this species into the genus Perdix, appears 

 to have changed Sparmann'» original specifick name of cristata into that of 



