XVIU 



in his ' Catalogue of the Halcyonidse in the Collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia.' Fifteen species were here recognized as belonging to the Galbulidae, which are 

 arranged as a fourth subfamily of the " Halcyonidse," and somewhat unnaturally inserted between 

 the " Dacelininae " and the " Tanysipterinse," two groups of typical Kingfishers. In the same 

 year Eeichenbach, at Dresden, issued the section of his ' Handbuch ' containing the " Meropinse," 

 of which, according to that author, the " Galbulinae " form a portion. There is little original 

 in Eeichenbach's treatise, except that Galhula chalcoptera is described as a new species (though 

 it is doubtless the same as Swainson's G. luguhris), and the generic term Jacamaralcyonides is 

 shortened by the omission of the first three syllables. Seventeen species of the family are 

 recognized, and assigned to four genera. 



Early in 1852, also, I commenced my studies on the Jacamars, when resident at Oxford, 

 and published my first essay on the subject in Sir William Jardine's ' Contributions to Orni- 

 thology' for that year, under the title of a "Synopsis of the genus Galhula.'" This I shortly 

 followed up by describing a new species in the same periodical as G. melanogenia. These two 

 papers were subsequently joined together and reprinted, with an additional account of the other 

 known species of the family, under the title ' Synopsis of the Galbulidae.' In this general 

 synopsis of the family I recognized seventeen species as more or less perfectly known, and 

 divided them among five genera. 



In 1854 Bonaparte comprehended a list of the Jacamars in his ' Conspectus Volucrum 

 Zygodactylorum,' a somewhat hastily drawn up compilation of names, published in an obscure 

 Italian periodical called ' L'Ateneo Italiano,' but important as introducing a number of new 

 generic terms into science. In this essay the " Galbulidee " are arranged at the end of the 

 " Stirps Barbati," after the Pufi'-birds and anomalous form Leptosoma. Six genera are acknow- 

 ledged, containing all together seventeen species. 



In the following year (1855) I read a paper on the Jacamars before the Zoological Society 

 of London, which was subsequently published in their ' Proceedings ' *. In it I described three 

 new species, Galhula fuscicapilla, Urogalha amazonum, and Brachygalha melanosterna, the first 

 of which I now believe to be barely distinguishable from G. tombacea. In the " Tabula Galbuli- 

 darum Geographica " appended to this essay, I recognized the existence of twenty species of the 

 family, divided into six genera, the latter being just the same as those adopted in the 

 present work. 



Again, in the next following year (1856) two important works bearing on the Jacamars were 

 published. Dr. Burmeister treated of this group in the second volume of his ' Systematische 

 Uebersicht der Thiere Brasiliens,' where the Jacamars are arranged after the Trogons, Barbets, 

 and Puff-birds, as the fourth subdivision of his family "Bartvogel" (Bucconinae), and some good 

 general remarks are given on their structure, although there is nothing novel in the treatment 

 of the species. Herr v. Pelzeln in the same year published, in the ' Sitzungsberichte ' of the 

 Vienna Academy, the valuable MS. notes made by the great field-naturalist Natterer on these 

 birds during his prolonged travels in tropical Brazil, which are still our best authority for the 

 coloration of the naked parts in this and other groups. 



* " Eemarks on the Arrangement of the Jacamars (Galbulidae), with Descriptions of some new Species." — P. Z. S. 

 1855, p. 13. 



