76 
Genus Pezoporus. 
Of this terrestrial form but one species is known, which is very 
generally distributed over the temperate portions of Australia, the 
islands in Bass’s Straits and Van Diemen’s Land. The eggs are 
laid on the bare ground. 
407. Pezoporus formosus Vol. V. PI. 46. 
Genus Lathamus. 
Of this form only a single species is known to exist in Australia, 
and that species had been assigned to a different genus by almost 
every recent writer on ornithology, Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield 
placing it in their genus Nanodes , Wagler in his genus Euphema , 
&c., until M. Lesson, perceiving that it did not belong to either of 
those forms, made it the type of his genus Lathamus , giving it at 
the same time the specific appellation of rubrifrons , which must of 
course give place to that of discolor , long before applied to it by 
Latham. 
Plaving had ample opportunities of observing this bird in a state 
of nature, I concur in the propriety of M. Lesson’s views in sepa- 
rating it into a distinct genus, at the same time I must remark that 
in its habits, nidification, food and whole economy, it is most closely 
allied to the Trichoglossi or honey-eating Parrakeets, and in no de- 
gree related to the Euphema . 
408. Lathamus discolor Vol. V. PI. 47. 
Genus Trichoglossus. 
The arboreal group of Trichoglossi or honey-eating Parrakeets, 
if not so numerous in species as the grass-feeding Parrakeets, whose 
habits lead them to frequent the ground, are individually much 
more abundant and are more universally dispersed, being found in 
every part of the country yet visited, but from circumstances not 
easily to be accounted for, not more than one species is found in 
Western Australia. Other members of the genus are found in 
New Guinea and the Moluccas, but Australia is the great nursery 
for the birds of this form. 
In their structure, habits and mode of nidification, and in their 
economy, no two groups of the same family can be more widely 
different than the Trichoglossi and the Plalycerci ; the pencilled 
tongue, diminutive stomach, thick skin, tough flesh, and foetid odour 
of the former presenting a decided contrast to the simple tongue, 
capacious crop and stomach, thin skin, delicate flesh and freedom 
from odour of the latter; besides which the Trichoglossi possess a 
strong os furcatorium, which organ is wanting in the Platycerci ; 
hence while the Trichoglossi are powerful, swift and arrow-like in 
their flight, the Platycerci are feeble, pass through the air in a suc- 
cession of undulations near the ground, and never fly to any great 
distance. The mode in which the two groups approach and alight 
upon and quit the trees is also remarkably different ; the Tricho - 
