1863.] MR. W. K. PARKER ON PALAMEDEA. 511 



The Secretary read the following note on the breeding of an exotic 

 Tortoise at TreguUow, in Cornwall, the seat of Mr. William Williams, 

 F.Z.S., in continuation of a former communication on the same sub- 

 ject * : — 



"The head gardener found a single egg this year, on the 7th 

 July, and immediately removed it to a pine-pit, the temperature of 

 which has been about 70° at night and from 85° to 90° by day. On 

 the 28th of September a fine male specimen was hatched, stronger 

 than those produced last year. After the egg had been deposited 

 in a hole similar to that mentioned in a former account, the Tortoise 

 proceeded to make it stand upright ; having accomplished this, she 

 at once covered it with earth. 



" The young one burst the shell on the side, and walked away, 

 leaving the other half entire. 



" TreguUow, 30th September, 1863." 



The following papers were read : — 



1. On the Systematic Position of the Crested Screamer 

 (Palamedea chavaria). By W. K. Parker. 



Many years ago, at a time when the only collection of foreign 

 living creatures seen by me was contained in Wombwell's travelling 

 menagerie, my observations on the structure of birds were necessa- 

 rily confined, for the most part, to our native species. I am glad of 

 this now, as they are nearly all of pure types ; and from childhood 

 their life and conversation yielded me a pleasure nearly equal to that 

 derived from communion with bipeds of the plumeless kind. 



If the structure of the pure or unmixed types had not been stu- 

 died by me first in such a way as to make the most definite mind- 

 images, there would have been for me no good firm ground to stand 

 upon whilst contemplating the structure and relationships of such 

 birds as the Trumpeter (Psophia), the Cariama (Dicholophus), and 

 the Palamedea. Any study, however, of the Birdclass which should 

 go no further than its own border-line would be fruitful in bringing 

 to light difficulties and even paradoxes : a physiologist might as 

 well study the functions of one class of organs to the total neglect of 

 the rest of the body, the beautiful ivhole. I have for some time 

 past held to the belief that the birds should not be termed a class, 

 as though they formed a group equal to that of the Mammalia ; I 

 find that Professor Huxley holds the same views. 



If that is the case, we have some explanation of the great unifor- 

 mity of the feathered tribes ; for it is a fact that the remotest forms 

 in the group are really not far apart in nature, and the smaller groups 

 are closely intertwined one amongst another. 



There are two principal conditions of nearness to the Reptilia in 

 the great Birdgroup : first the combination of mammalian and of 

 reptiUau characters with what is truly ornithic, as in the Ostriches ; 



» See P. Z. S. 1862, p. 266. 



