294 Mr. ViGORs's and Dr. Horsfield's Description of the 



family of CerthincUe a few Australian species only have as yet 

 been sent home to us. It is however to be observed, that a 

 neighbouring family to the present, that of the Melip/iagidœ, 

 of which a considerable variety of forms and a number of species 

 occur in Australia, possesses one of the grand characteristics of 

 the scansorial birds, a strong and lengthened ludlux. And it 

 consequently becomes a question whether these birds, distin- 

 guished by such a peculiarity which separates them from all 

 the other honey-eating birds of the Old and the New AVorld, may 

 not for the most part supply the place of the more typical climb- 

 ing birds in that fifth division of the globe. The peculiar vege- 

 tation of the country, which seems to unite to so great an extent 

 the strength of the forest-tree with the blossoms of the shrub, 

 serves in some measure to strengthen such a conjecture, and to 

 account for this singular union of characters, as administering 

 at once to the purposes of the birds which represent the scan- 

 sorial and mellivorous tribes. 



The following genus, which holds the same place in Australia 

 as the true Certhia fills in the ancient continent, and the nume- 

 rous group of Dcndrocolaptcs, Herm., in South America, is the 

 first which presents itself of this family. It possesses the strong 

 and lengthened shafts of the tail-feathers which support the 

 typical scansorial birds in climbing, and immediately connects 

 the whole group by a strong affinity with the IVoodpeckers. 



Ortuonyx. Temm. 



1. TeiMMINCKii. Orth.rufo-briinncus; capitc, regione nuchali, 

 interscapidioque nigro-variegatis ; tectricibus iiigris apice al- 

 hido; gutture, pectore, abdomineque medio albis. 



Caput rufo-brunneum nigro-lineatum, striga. laterali oculos in- 

 cludente grisefi. Guttur parce nigro undulatum. Nucha 

 inter scapuliumc\\xe strigis latis nigris notatœ ; illius lateri- 



bus 



