Birds — Reptiles. 



2265 



I should like to pursue the inquiry still a step further : there are two groups of 

 birds greatly resembling each other, and which contain the following families, taken 

 from Gray's ' Genera of Birds.' 



First Group, Gallinee, contains — 1. Cracidae. 2. Megapodidae. 3. Phasianidae. 

 4. Tetraonidae. 5. Chionidae. 6. Tinamidae. 



Second Group, Grallce, contains — 1. Charadridae. 2. Ardeidae. 3. Scolopacidae. 

 4. Palamedeidae. 5. Rallidae. 



Then we have two minor groups, Columbidas and Struthionidae, excluded by most 

 authors from all the primary groups : the first of these has most affinities with the 

 Gallinae, the second with the Grallae. I would therefore propose to associate the pi- 

 geons with the gallinaceous, the ostriches with the grallatorial birds. These two pri- 

 mary groups thus constituted seem to me to approach each other in the manner 

 expressed below, supposing each group to occupy the superficies of a circle. 



GALLING. 



Tetraonidae. 



(4 others). 



Columbidae. 



Megapodidae. 



GRALL&. 



Charadridae. 



(4 others). 



Struthionidae. 



It seems to me that a seventh group is wanting to fill the hiatus I have left blank, 

 and that Didus possesses all the characters which the missing group requires. 



As regards the number seven, which in these instances falls in so aptly with 

 opinions I have elsewhere expressed, I may observe that I cannot give any opinion of 

 Mr. Gray's groups, since in many instances I am unacquainted with the birds which 

 they contain. Still, as Mr. Gray has deeply studied the subject, and as his study, like 

 that of Lindley on plants, and our best zoologists on insects, has resulted in a similar 

 number, I do not think myself called on to say that I believe the coincidence purely 

 accidental. 



Edward Newman. 



Note on the Triton palmipes of Daudin. By John Wolley, Esq. 



I have to report the existence of our recently ascertained newt in the extreme 

 north of the island. On the 1st of August I found several females and one male in a 

 little fresh-water peaty pool, a few hundred yards from high-water mark, on the side 

 of the hills which rise from Loch Eribol, and on the west side of the loch. It is an 



