POMATORHINUS MONTANUS. 



SoJelereJe, of the Javanese^ 



Pomatorhinus montanvis, Horsf. Syst. Arrangement of Birds from Java, Linn. 

 Trans. Vol. XIII. p. 165. 



To the concise remarks on the affinity of Pomatorhinus, which have been 

 annexed to the generic character, it is necessary to add a few details regarding the 

 comparisons which I have instituted, in order to ascertain, as far as possible, the 

 relations of this genus, and its place in the natural system. Althovigh it has been 

 . placed among the slender-bUled birds, the Tenuirostres of M. Cuvier, it possesses 

 various characters by which it is related to the Dentirostres of the same author. 

 The most obvious of these are, a great validity of the bill and tarsi comparatively 

 with other birds of the family of Tenuirostres. In reviewing the Dentirostres for 

 this comparison, one genus prominently presented itself, which possesses A^arious 

 points of analogy to the slender-billed birds. These shew themselves in the struc- 

 ture of the bill and feet, in the manners, and in the food. Deriving the latter from 

 sweet substances, which it extracts from flowers and other parts of vegetables, it has 

 r been named Melliphaga by Lewin, who first observed and described it in its native 



country, and Philedon by Cuvier. And from the more accurate examination of 

 later ornithologists, it appears that various birds, which have been placed in the 

 genus Certhia of Linnseus, which comprised a large proportion of the slender-billed 

 birds, belong to the genus Melliphaga : for instance — Certhia caruncvilata, Certhia 

 cardinalis, Certhia atricapiUa, and many others. It may be observed, however, that 

 the genus Melliphaga is, even at the present period, not defined with critical accu- 

 racy, and that birds of very different structure and habits are promiscuously arranged 

 in it. The most prominent characters of Melliphaga are an arched bill, moderately 

 compressed at the sides, rising in the middle to an elevated culnaen or back, a lower 

 mandible, nearly straight, and a covering to the posterior portion of the nares. In 

 the feet, the two exterior toes are slightly connected at the base, and the claw of 

 the hind toe is comparatively stout. These characters are also observed in 

 Pomatorhinus ; a more minute detail of the peculiarities of Melliphaga is therefore 

 required to shew those points in which these two genera are different. In Melliphaga 

 the extremity of the upper mandible is decidedly and uniformly notched ; the nares 

 extend, in form of a longitudinal groove, from the base towards the middle of the 

 biH; their covering is partial and membranaceous; they are pervious, or pass into each 

 other from the opposite sides ; the edges of the upper mandible are slightly bent 

 inward, while the apex is laterally rounded and distended. 



