PEZOPORUS. 
and the Macaws.” He did not examine the skull of Pezoporus , so we do not 
know whether it is of the same nature, but it is important that Meiopsittacus 
alone of the smaller Australian Parrakeets has a complete orbit. I have 
associated this genus with Pezoporus and Geopsittacus, and the group seems 
to have a relationship with Strigops. If, as is suggested, the latter be related 
to the stock which produced the South American Psittaci formes, we have here 
again a geographical range such as is commonly met with in other studies, 
viz. an Antarctic one. It is surely suggestive that these peculiar forms should 
always be of a primitive type, and as the type evolves so does their northern 
range. Thus the succeeding form is the more inland derivative of the 
Pezoporine stock, and Meiopsittacus would then be a later and more virile 
evolution which has ranged still further north but has not retraced its route 
into Tasmania. It is imperative that osteological and anatomical examination 
should be made as soon as possible so that we can have facts as well as 
speculation in connection with these most interesting Psittaciformes. At 
present Meiopsittacus is common but Pezoporus is very rare and may soon be 
extinct, while it is now considered that Geopsittacus has already vanished. 
VOL. VI. 
485 
