The Zoologist— May, 1870. 2131 



There is no trace of a knob ;* the membrane has precisely the same 

 characteristics as that of the adult bird above described. There is no 

 trace of an accessory piece between the rami. 



The bird above described was first indicated as a distinct species 

 by Mr. Cassin in 1858 ; that gentleman founding his specific 

 characters mainly upon the small size, somewhat darker colours, and 

 much smaller, slender bill, as compared with monocerata. The 

 species has always been looked upon with considerable mistrust, and 

 very generally regarded as only a young monocerata. At the time of 

 the introduction of Suckleyi, C. monocerata was not known in all its 

 ages and stages of plumage, as it is at present. The horn which 

 characterizes it was believed to be frequently wanting, particularly in 

 the young bird. The accessory symphyseal piece had not received 

 attention. These facts, together with the almost perfect identity in 

 plumage of the two birds, very naturally led to the suspicion above 

 mentioned; seemingly borne out, too, by the fact that the type of 

 Suckleyi was a very young bird, the adult of which was unknown, or 

 at least unrecognized. But it has been shown in the preceding article 

 that indications both of the horn and of the accessory interramal 

 element appear in monocerata even before it is fully feathered, and 

 that these two distinguishing features are preserved in all ages, at all 

 seasons, with both sexes. The discovery of Suckleyi in perfectly adult 

 breeding plumage settles the question of its identity with monocerata. 

 Specimen No. 31,908, above described, has no trace of a horn or 

 accessory symphyseal piece; and is smaller, and otherwise con- 

 spicuously different from monocerata, though of almost precisely 

 similar colours of plumage. 



There is something highly interesting, very singular, and, with our 

 present information upon the subject, totally inexplicable, in the fact 

 that the plumage of the two birds is so nearly identical as not to be 

 satisfactorily distinguished in any particular; while the bills differ in 

 such radical characteristics. The suspicion comes unbidden, that the 

 whole truth in the matter of C. monocerata, and S. Suckleyi— and 

 S. Lathami, too — remains to be developed ; while it is certain, at the 

 same time, that nothing but the truth appears upon these pages. 



* Dr. Suckley (I. c ), speaking of this specimen, uses the word "knob" in 

 connection with it. His expression is to be taken as indicating merely the lurgidity 

 of the soft membrane during the life of the bird ; which raises the membrane to or 

 above the level of the rest of the culmen. The membrane, being very soft, shrinks and 

 shrivels in drying, and the prominence disappears. 



