Oedee — PODAEGIFOEME S. 
The birds treated in this volume were placed in my Handlist in the Orders 
Coraciiformes, Coccyges and Menuriformes. This classification was that of 
Sharpe, as displayed in the Handlist of Birds. This was accepted in my list, 
but herewith I make amendment, as it has become obvious that the inter- 
relationship of the forms is different to that expressed by the above. 
I propose, therefore, to regard the groups which I named as fanulies in 
my List, and which Sharpe has placed as suborders, as of ordinal rank, 
and hence we will have the orders Podargiformes, Coraciiformes, Alcedini- 
formes, Meropiformes, Caprimulgiformes, Micropodi.ormes, Cuculiformes and 
Menuriformes. 
Further, it is certain that the true Podargus are separable with at least family 
rank from ^gotheles: the Alcediniformes may prove divisible into families, and 
while this may be so in the Micropodiformes it is certain in the Cuculiformes. 
The Podargiformes have a superficial resemblance to the Caprimulgiformes, 
but are not as nearly related as was commonly supposed when they were classed 
together, and even in 1898 Beddard, in the Structure and Classification of 
Birds ^ associated them, concluding the differences to be of family rank only. 
Beddard then wrote : “ The relationship of the Caprimulgi (including the 
Podargiformes) to other groups is a puzzle hard of solution. This is partly, 
perhaps, due to the fact that the goatsuckers are probably a somewhat ancient 
group ... It appears possible to place all these genera {Podargus, ^gotheles, 
Steatornis, etc.) in one family, which, on account of its greater antiquity, has had 
time to vary more than the Caprimulgidse. It is also among members of this 
family that the greatest number of points of affinity to the owls is met with, a 
further argument in favour of their basal position . . . The remarkable series 
of modifications of the syrinx is one of the most striking facts in the anatomy of 
the group. They share this with the Cuculi and, though to a less extent, with 
the Striges. It is, indeed, with this latter group that the goatsuckers seem to 
be most nearly allied . . . MitcheU has found that of the various groups which 
may be supposed reasonably to be allied to the Caprimulgi the owls come nearest 
to them in the primitive character of the gut, while the caeca, swollen at the 
ends, are alike in both. The owls, too, are nearly the only other Coraciiform 
birds besides the Caprimulgi, which have well-developed basipterygoid processes.” 
In the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, Vol. XVI., published in 
1892,” Hartert had written : “ The Podargidce resemble the Caprimulgidce, and 
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