XVlll 
RESUME OF THE HISTORY. 
1861. Mr. Sclater, in a paper on the American species in ‘ The Ibis,’ gives a note on the 
classification ; he ranks them as a distinct family. 
1862. Dr. Jerdon, in his valuable work on the ‘Birds of India,’ follows Bonaparte s 
classification of the Asiatic group, and places them next the Indicatorince. 
1863. Goffin, in the catalogue of the Leyden Museum, gives a most carefully worked- 
out monograph of the Buccones. He, however, erroneously places the fissirostral Bucco 
in the same family with the Ccqritonidce of this work. He divides this latter into three 
great genera, Pogonorhynchus, Megalaima, and Capita , retaining, however, most of the 
other genera as subgenera. 
1868. Dr. G. R. Gray, in his Catalogue of the British Museum, gives them rank as a 
separate family, next to the Picumninw. 
1870. The genus Stactolcema is proposed, with type S. anchietce, in the P. Z. S. (p. 118). 
From the above extracts it will be seen that for a long time the scansorial Barbets were 
coupled together with the fissirostral Puff-birds. Mr. A. R. Wallace was the first to point 
out the claims of the Scansores to rank as a separate order; and this arrangement, being 
supported by distinctive characters both in habit and structure, has been almost universally 
followed by the later authors. The general definition of the two orders thus limited may 
be taken as follows : — 
Scansores . — Those arboreal birds which use the feet only in pursuit of food, and in which 
the outer toe is versatile or turned completely backwards. 
Fissirostres . — Those arboreal birds which use the wings in pursuit of food, and have the 
feet adapted for perching only. 
As a natural accompaniment to these habits, the feet are found to be large and strong in 
the scansores, small and comparatively weak in the fissirostres; the wings are short and 
rounded in the former, long and well developed in the latter. The subjoined Tables will 
illustrate this point; the numbers in the second column (being the comparative length 
in terms of the ulna, which is considered as the unit) are calculated in order to facilitate 
comparison. It will be seen that among the fissirostres the ulna is invariably longer 
than the tibia, and, except in two instances, more than twice the length of the tarsus; 
while among the scansores, on the other hand (with the exception of the true Picidce), 
the ulna is shorter than the tibia, and less than twice the length of the tarsus. 
Fissirostres. 
Name. 
Humerus. 
XJlna. 
Tibia. 
Tarsus. 
f Podargus humeralis 
29 
•83 
35 
1 
25 
•72 
11-5 
•33 
\ Capritmilgus europaeus 
14-5 
•80 
18 
1 
12-5 
•70 
6-5 
•36 
Harpactes Reinwardtii 
13-5 
•93 
14-5 
1 
12 
•83 
6-5 
•45 
Calurus fulgidus 
16 
•80 
20 
1 
14 
•70 
7 
•35 
Monasa torquata 
11 
•85 
13 
1 
12 
•92 
9 
•70 
Chelidoptera tenebrosa 
12 
•80 
15 
1 
10-5 
•70 
5 
•33 
Trogon melanocephalus 
12 
•86 
14 
1 
11 
•82 
8 
•57 
