XVll 



known to science up to this date; but a year later (1824) Spix's great work on the birds of 

 Brazil was published, and brought two more species of Galbulidge to our knowledge (G^aZ^w/a 

 tomhacea and JBracliygalha alUgularis). 



In 1832 Prince Maximilian, of Neuwied, in his ' Beitrage zur Naturgeschichte der Brasilien,' 

 gave an excellent account of the Brazilian representative of typical Galhula {G. rufo-viridis), 

 but, unfortunately, did not distinguish it as a species from the Guianan form. This was first done 

 in 1838 by Swainson in the third part of his 'Animals in Menageries,' where he published descrip- 

 tions of seven different species of Jacamars in his own collection. But Swainson, unluckily, 

 proposed to apply to the Brazilian bird a term previously given to another species. In the 

 same volume Swainson gave the first description of Brachygalha luguiris, from examples obtained 

 in Demerara by Schomburgk, but made the curious error of describing it as " three-toed." 



In 1840 Dr. Burmeister published at Halle the very important researches of the deceased 

 naturalist Nitzsch upon the " pterylography " of birds. As regards the arrangement of the 

 feathers, Nitzsch had convinced himself that the Galbulidse were more like the Meropidse than 

 any other form, and accordingly arranged them along with the latter in the section Cuculinae 

 calopterse or Todidae of the order Picarise (Pterylogr. p. 128). 



We may now pass on to 1847, when the number of the great standard work of Gray and 

 Mitchell, on the Genera of Birds, containing the Jacamars was issued. Here Gray classed the 

 Jacamars as the fourth subfamily of the family "Alcedinidas," and divided them into two genera, 

 Galhula and Jacamerops, assigning ten species to the former and two to the latter genus. 

 Discarding Jacamerops hoersi (founded on Levaillant's fictitious species) and inserting Galhalcy- 

 rhynchus leucotis, described in 1845, but apparently overlooked by Gray until he published his 

 Appendix (p. 6), we find, in fact, that twelve species of Jacamars were known up to their date, 

 although Gray did not give the names and synonyms quite correctly in every case. In the 

 following year Gray published the portion of the ' List of Specimens of Birds in the British 

 Museum' containing the " Fissirostres." Here, again, nearly the same arrangement of the 

 so-called subfamily Galbulinse was employed, except that " Jacamaralcyon " was adopted as an 

 independent genus. 



The next succeeding writers on this group took a much more just view of its rank in the 

 natural series. Both Cabanis and Bonaparte fully allowed the claims of the Jacamars to a status 

 as an independent family of birds. In 1850 Bonaparte issued the first part of his celebrated 

 ' Conspectus.' Here the Galbulidse are ranked as an independent family of " Volucres," and are 

 placed between the Trogonidse and Alcedinidse. Twelve species, divided into four genera, are 

 assigned to the family. In the following year Dr. Cabanis gave an excellent summary of the 

 then existing condition of our knowledge of the Galbulidae in an article published in Ersch and 

 Gruber's ' Encyclopadie der Wissenschaften und Kunst.' Dr. Cabanis recognized sixteen species 

 of the family, and here gave the first description of G. cyanopogon, besides being the first wlio 

 properly discriminated G. rufo-mridis from its allied forms. Being a purist as regards nomen- 

 clature, Dr. Cabanis proposed to substitute Cauax as a generic term for ^^Jacamaralcyon,'' and 

 " Cauecias " for Galhalcyrhynchus, in which, I must say, I am sorely tempted to follow him ! 



Following closely upon Dr. Cabanis three authors published their views on the Galbulidce 

 in 1852. The well-known American ornithologist Cassin catalogued the specimens of the family 

 ScL. Jac. & Puffb.— /w/y, 1882. c 



