Genus — E UDYNAMYS. 
Eudynamys Vigors and Horsfield, Trans. Linn. Soc. 
(Lond.), Vol. XV., p. 303, 1827 . . . . . . Type E. orientalis. 
Also spelt — 
Eudynamis Lesson, Manuel d’Omith., Vol. II., p. 123, 1828. 
Etidinamya 
Dynamene Stephens in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., Vol. XIV., 
p. 211, 1826. (Not Dynamene Leach, 1818.) . . Type E. maculatus. 
Medium-sized Eudynamytine birds with strong short deciirved bills, somewhat 
conical, broad at base, long wings, long tail, and short strong legs and feet. 
The obvious feature of this group is the linear nostril. 
The bill is short, culmen decurved, tip sharp and pointed, not hooked, 
rather deep, broadest at base, rather conical ; the lower mandible straight, 
somewhat flattened. The nostrils are linear slits, placed low down at the base 
of the culmen, quite unhke the tubular nostrils of the preceding genera. The 
wing is long, the first primary short, not much more than half the length of the 
third which is longest, exceeding the fourth and fifth, which are longer than the 
second, while the first is shorter than the secondaries. 
The tail is long and of a rounded wedge-shape, about equal to the wing 
length. Tlie tarsus is short and very thick, the front surface bearing large 
scutes, behind covered with reticulate scales. The middle toe is long, the fore 
inner toe shorter than the back outer, but longer than the inner hind one, 
the toes being in pairs. The claws are normal, sharp and curved. 
While this genus is very weU marked, I had at first considered it an 
aberrant Cucuhne bird, but I now accept it as representative of a distinct 
family. The internal characters are so peculiar as to cause its association with 
Scythrops, a genus superficially quite unlike. 
VOL. vn. 
369 
