THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
It may be useful to quote that Pycraft, probably following Suschkin, 
recorded in the Proc. Zool Soc. (Lond.) 1902, pp. 310-311 : “The phalanges 
are also characteristic. . . . The numerous variations of this character are 
useful generic characters, and wiU be found in the keys which it is proposed 
to add to this paper.” These keys were not added, but on p. 315 Tinnunculus 
(=Cerchneis) is recognised as a valid genus. It is puzzling to understand 
how systematic ornithologists accept such data in some cases and reject 
them in others, apparently due to prejudice of conclusions previously formed 
and not from actual detailed study of skins and fact^s. 
282 
