^^x?a 0> ^y^o ^- /^- . ^ . . ^ sufficiently conversant with their science, combine to produce a British Fauna, each undertaking a separate department suited to his talents and previous pursuits, the grand desideratum might at length be effected. It strikes me that this object might be put in train by the means and under the patronage of the Zoo- logical Club. I see now around me a number of Gentlemen suffi- ciently learned in nature, and several who have drunk deeply at her well-spring of knowledge, who, if once they undertook the task, would accomplish it with the highest credit to themselves and to the great advantage of the science they cultivate. Let the members of our new-born institution, amongst other subjects, dis- cuss this point amongst themselves at their meetings — weigh the difficulties — investigate the means — consider the proper persons — apportion the work — set their shoulders to the wheel, and the thing will be half done ; for most true is that aphorism — Dimidium factiy qui bene coepit, hahet. But let me not be misunderstood on this subject ; I do not mean that such a work should be read at our meetings, or appear in the A 2 4 Mr. Kirby'^s Address at the Transactions of our venerable Parent Society. This would be inconsistent with the nature of a Fauna, which ought to be pub- lished in a different form, and appeal more directly to the public for support on the ground of its own merits. Another important object of our association with regard to in-' digenous Zoology is this — That insulated observations made by individuals upon the habits and economy of animals may not be lost. Few persons have an opportunity of tracing the whole pro- ceedings and life of any species of animal ; but almost every one has it in his power to relate some interesting trait, to record some illustrative anecdote, of the beings that he beholds moving around him in every direction. None of these fragments should be lost,, since each may lead to important conclusions; and the whole con- centrated may often form a tolerable comment, and throw great light on some perplexing text of nature. Under this head I may observe, that peculiar care and caution are requisite in noting the habitats and food of animals, particularly insects ; since great mistakes have arisen, and been propagated by high authority**, from collectors being too hasty in forming their opinions on this subject. Bare catalogues of the animals of a district, as such, are of little interest or utility ; but when the localities of the Jnimalia ra^ riora are given, or a district catalogue is worked into a catalogue raisonnee, and includes facts before unknown with regard to th& animals it registers, it becomes a useful document. To note the soil,* the kind of country and atmosphere that particular animals affect, makes such a catalogue more interesting. The relative propor- tion, where glimpses of it can be obtained, that different species bear to each other, or their numerical distribution in any given- district, is a speculation worthy of the attention of the zoologist ; and likewise to obtain as full an account as possible of those which are particularly detrimental to us either in the garden, the orchard, the forest, or the field. * For instance, CurcuUo AlliaricB L. (Rynchites Herbst) really feeds upon the hatethorn, from which it may readily be conceived to drop frequently upon Erysimum AlUaria^ which always grows in hedges ; and Rynchoenus Fragaria F. {Orchestes Oliv. ) feeds upon the beech, from which it may have dropped; upon the strawberry. Foundation of the Zoological Club. 5 No papers will be more interesting than those which pursue the Jiistory of an individual through its different states ; and nothing IS more important for the satisfactory elucidation of natural groups of insects, and in many cases to prove the distinction of kindred species, than the knowledge of their larvae. The above, and many others that I might name did the time permit, appear to be legitimate objects of a Zoological Society with respect to our indigenous animal productions. What further -observations I have to submit to your consideration will relate to ^oology in general. No one who wishes to be at home on the sub- ject will confine his attention to the animals of his own country. Doing this, he will acquire only shreds and patches of knowledge, and see nothing in its real station. When we consider the infinite number of nondescript animals, especially of insects, with which our cabinets swarm — the hosts of new forms that meet our eyes in every collection — the zoolo- gical treasures that our ships, whose sails over-shadow every na- vigable sea, are daily bringing into our ports, we cannot help lamenting that these, for the most part, must remain sine nomine turb a. But let us flatter ourselves that the society, whose birth we may date from this auspicious day,* will be the instrument of bringing to light and knowledge many a curious and interesting group, which would otherwise have remained unknown. Nomina si pe- reunty perit et cognitio r^rum^ says Linne. Names are the foun- dation of knowledge i and unless they have " a name" as well as ^' a local habitation" with us, the zoological treasures that we so highly prize might almost as well have been left to perish in their native deserts or forests, as have grown mouldy in our drawers or repositories. But when once an animal subject is named and de- scribed, it becomes a xrtj/^a w as/, a possession for ever, and the value of every individual specimen of it, even in a mercantile view, is enhanced. It is extremely desirable, when gentlemen, moved by such con- siderations, set about naming and describing the animals, hitherto not so distinguished, which their cabinets contain, that they * November 29, tlie birth-day of Ray. 6 Mr. Kirby's Address at the should copy the example of a learned friend near me,* who has done this in a style of superior excellence, and endeavour to elu- cidate natural groups; as this will, more than any other method, tend to set wide the limits of our knowledge in this department : but at any rate we ought to avoid giving insulated descriptions of a single species, unless it be remarkable either for its economy or structure ', or belongs to a genus containing few known species ; or fills a gap in any group. With regard to indigenous animals, it seems more important that new species should be described as they are discovered, this being a piece of domestic intelligence, which always comes home to us. When we are engaged in the study of janimals, fnd more espe- cially of groups of them, it is of the first importance, if we would avoid mistakes, that our attention should be kept alive to what the friend lately alluded to has said on the subject of affinity and analogy. By his judicious observations on this subject he has opened a new door into the temple of nature, and taught us to explore her mystic labyrinths, guided by a safer clue than we were wont to follow. And whoever casts even a cursory glance over her three kingdoms will every where be struck by resem- blances between objects that have no real relation to each other. He will see on one side dendritic minerals, on another zoomor- phous plants, on a third phytomorphous animals ; and amongst animals themselves he will see numberless instances of this simu- lation of affinity where the reality of it does not exist. From this piirt of the plan of the Creator we may gather, I think, that every thing has its meaning as well as its use; and that probably to the first pair the Creation was a book of symbols, a sacred language ; of which they possessed the key, and which it was their delight to study and decypher. But to return from this digression. — Every circumstance con- nected with the geographical distribution of animals is extremely interesting and important, and merits our full attention. There is often something very remarkable in the range of particular tribes and genera. Some animals, for instance, are common both • Mr. W. S. MacLeay. Foundation of the Zoological Clul, If to the Old World and the New, while others occupy a more limited station ; some have as it were their metropolis, frona which as they recede, they become gradually less numerous. Some again that are found inhabiting the plains of a cold country, take their station on the mountains of a warmer one. Every quarter or principal district of the globe has likewise its peculiar types, so that a practised zoologist can often lay his finger upon an animal that he never saw before, and say confidently, This is of Asiatic origin — this of African — this' of American — this of Australasian : and even in cases where creatures from these countries are apparently synonymous with those of Europe^ there is, not unfrequently, a note of difference, that speaks their exotic birth* As the importance of assigning their genuine country to our animal specimens is now universally acknowledged, it would be a very useful labour, and form a very valuable communication, would any gentleman, properly qualified, undertake the correction of some of the numerous errors, with regard to their real habitat^ that zoologists have propagated concerning the animals thej have described, I must not pass without notice another branch of our science, of the deepest interest and highest importance, and more particu- larly as we have to lament that hitherto it has been very imper-p fectly cultivated^ especially with regard to invertebrate animals, in these islands, — I mean the Comparative Anatomy of animals. France^ in which this science has attained to its acme, can boast of her Cuvier, Savigny, Marcel de Serres, De Blainville, Chabrier, and others ; Germany of her Blumenbach, Ramdohr, Treviranus, Herold, and a host besides ; Italy of her Malpighi, Spallanzani, Scarpa, and Poli,; Holland of her Swammerdam and Lyonnet: but the only boast of Britain, an illustrious one indeed, nee plu" ribus impar^ in this department, is her Hunter ; and even he, if my recollection does not fjail me, employed his scalpel chiefly on the higher orders of animals. Medical gentlemen who cultivate this province have usually, perhaps, the human subject too much in their view, and do not always recollect, that to compare one of the lower animals with this, without making a gradual approach to it by the study of the structure of the intervening groups^ must ft Mr. Kirby's Address to the Zoological Club. inevitably lead them to erroneous conclusions. When it is recol- lected that some of the most eminent comparative anatomists have not been professional men, I trust it will stimulate zoologists in general to labour in this field. I beg not to be misunderstood in what I have here stated. I have the highest possible opinion of the medical gentlemen of my country in every branch of their profession ; I venerate their skill and science : but the most im- portant duties of their station imperatively call on them to look principally at the human subject : it is not wonderful, therefore, that they should feel disposed to refer all minor forms immediately to that standard. The zoologist has still other objects, and those of no common interest, that merit his attention. The busy world of animals that move around him, does not include the whole circle of his I science ; there are others that call to him from the dust, victims of that mighty catastrophe that once overwhelmed our globe and its inhabitants, — antique forms that have not yet been met with by those " that run to and fro to increase knowledge." These also, from the giant Mammoth and Megatherium to the most minute grain of an Oolithe, afford a legitimate subject to the zoo- logist; and amongst our members we number some who have highly distinguished themselves in this vast arena. To conclude. There is one other and great object which ought to stand first with every Naturalist or Association of Naturalists, the mention of which cannot with any propriety be omitted by we, especially upon the natal day of that illustrious Englishman, the father and founder of Natural History in this our country, ^hose delight it was to celebrate " the Wisdom of God in the Creation :" — that great object is the Glory of the Omnipotent Creator. ^' Finis creationis telluriSy" says the immortal Swede, *' est gloria Dei ex opere naturce per hominem solum.^* We fulfil this great end when we ascribe to him the glory of his works; and more especially when, setting aside, as much as possible, every '■ false bias, our great aim is to discover the truth of things, their real nature and relations. And may we all with patient assiduity walk in this path, " and proving all things, may we finally hold fast that which is good !" _,.jo :; Zoolo^cal Jmxrual Vol. lit. 3Bi.Io it- ■ C' Mr. Kirby's Remarks on Orthopiera. Art. II. Some further Remarks on theNomenclature of Orthoptera, with a detailed Description of the genus Sca- pliura. Bi/ the iJetJ.WiLLiAM Kirby, FJL8f L.S, Sfc, GjlNTLEMEN, As you were desirous of receiving my remarks on Entomological Nomenclature in time for the last number of your useful Journal, I drew them up in rather more haste than I wished, and the con- Sequence has been that I have fallen into a few errors, which I now take an opportunity of setting right. In the first place, in- stead of Mr. MacLeay^s tribe of Gryllina^ I ought to have written Locustina, I did not also recollect, not finding it in my Hederic, that there was such a Greek word as Tetrix^ but I have since met with it in Aristotle, who gives it as the name of a bird : ** M. Latreille more than once has applied Aristotle's names of birds certainly improperly, to insects, for instance Corydalis^ Oenasy &c. It did not occur to me when I alluded to the technical language of anatomy, but I ought certainly to have noticed with honour, Dr. Barclay's New Anatomical Nomenclature^ in which as far as he has gone he has introduced considerable improvement, and it is to be lamented that his avocations have not permitted him to finish what was so well begun. I beg leave to add a description more in detail of the characters of the genus Scaphura, SCAPHURA K. Ltobrum orbiculatum.* Mandihulce corneae, validaj, subtrigonae, dorso rotundatse, apice dentatae : dentibus tribus primis laniaribus5+ intermedio incisivo emarginato, j: intimo submolari. || Maocillce lobo superiori coriaceo, lineari, apice incurvo;§ in* feriori apice trispinoso ; H spin^ inferiori longiori. ** Hist. Animal. 1. vi. c. 1. * Plate I. Fig. I.e. \ Ibid. Fig, 2. a. % Ibid. b. (| Ibid. c. § Ibid* Fig. 3. a. 5 Ibid. b. to Mr. Kirby on the genus Scaphura. Labium coriaceum apice bipartitum : lobis oblongis.** Palpi filiformes. labiales triarticulati : articulo priino sequentibus, inter- medio extimo brevioribus.++ maxillares quadriarticulati : articulo secundo et extimo reliquis longioribus, extimo apice incrassato.Jf AntenncB multiarticulatae, basi filiformes apice setaceae. Ovipositor cjmbiforrais asper. Corpus oblongum compressum. Caput triangulare. Palpi hirti. AnienncB interoculares, cor- pore loDgiores? articulo pri mo reliquis crassiori, sequentibus no- vem crassitudipe fere aequalibus sed longitudine variautibus, hirtis ; tribus proximis sensim tenuioribus, reliquis fere capillaceis, Oculi in capitis angulo postico insertis subovalibus prominentibus. Stem" mata tria opaca, unico ante et duobus pone antennas positis. JVa^M* subtriangulus : angulo verticis rotundato^HH rhinario§§ nari- formi utrinque terminatus. Truncus. Prothorax inaequalis, compriessus, trilobus : lobis rotundatis; intermedio horizontali : lateralibus verticalibus. Tegmina lineari-oblonga. Pedes quatuor posteriores angulati : femoribus posticis fere claviformibus basi admodum incrassatis, apice valde attenuatis^ vix loricatis, tibiis posticis extus lon- gitudinaliter spinosis, intus longitudinaliter calcaratis ; f f tarsis^ omnibus quadriarticulatis : articulo penultimo bilobo ; articulo primo subtus pulvillo duplici, sequentibus duobus unico. Abdxjmen femineum undecim constans segmentis ; ovipositori cymbiformi punctis elevatis acutis aspero. This genus is distinguished from Acrida^ not only by its an- tennae, filiform at the base, and capillary at the apex, and by its rough cymbiform ovipositor, but in the number of teeth that arm its mandibles, in wanting the remarkable elevation between the antennae, in having eyes less prominent and of a diflerent shape, ♦* Plate I. Fig. 5. a. ++ Ibid .b. tt J^i^- F'g- 4. || || Ibid. Fig. 1. a. i^S Ibid. bb. f H By a loricate thigh is meant one in which there is an appearance of 8/ftales, as in certain kinols of armour. I call those spint$ that are fijctd, and those that are moveable^ spurs. Mr. Kirby on the genus BcapJiura, 11 and three distinct, though opaque, stemmata. It approaches near to Pterophylla K. the ovipositor being very similar in shape, but much rougher : but its antenn?e afford a sufficient diagnostic from that and any existing genus of Locustina, MacLeay. It appears to form an osculant group between this tribe as explained above, and the Gri/lli of Fabricius. Vigorsii* Long. Corp. lin« 14. Hub. in Brasilia. D. Hancock. Descr, Corpus nigrum subpubescens. Caput, Mandibular fascia rufescenti-pallid^. Palpi arti- culo penultimo, et extimo basi, subtus pallidis. Antennce ubi filiformes sunt nigrae hirtsB, apice nudae pallide luteas. Elytra apice pallescentia. Femora postica fascia medi^ albida. Abdomen ccerulescens. Tab. 1. fig. 6. In honorem D. Vigors, in Entomologia dodo, in Ornithologia doctissimo nomen imposui. Art. III. Observations on the Structure of the throat in the genus Anolis. By Thomas Bell, Esq, F,L,S, Thp peculiar structure of the throat in the genus Anolis^ the anatomical details of which I propose in this Notice to demon- strate, has long been observed by naturalists, as far as regards the external and obvious circumstances connected with it, but has never, that I have been able to ascertain, been examined by dis- section ; nor has the mechanism been pointed out, by which so curious an effect is produced, as that which they have described. If Mr. Bell on the Structure . This genus comprehends such of the Linnean Lacertce^ as have long, unequal toes, the penultimate phalanges of which are di- lated in such a manner, as to allow of their running with facility upon perpendicular surfaces, by means of a mechanism similar to that which Sir Everard Home has demonstrated as belonging to the foot of the Gecko, and of the Window Fly : namely by the production of a vacuum beneath the foot.* But the peculiarity which forms the subject of this paper consists in the skin of the throat being more or less pendulous, and capable of great expan- sion, so as to form at the will of the animal, an enormous protube- rance, reaching in many species from the anterior part of the lower jaw to nearly the middle of the belly. ■ This dilatation takes place when the animal is excited by anger or desire. It has been taken for granted by naturalists, judging from mere external appearances, that this remarkable enlargement is produced by inflation^ and hence various authors who have taken this circumstance as a character of the genus, have adopted terms expressive of such an opinion.f Thus Cuvier says, "la plupart por- tent un fanon, ou un Goitre sous la gorge, quHls eiiflent^^ Mer- rem also gives as one of his characters, " Corpus injlabile,''^ ob- serving, " Sie konnen den Rumpf aufblasen" " They have the power of inflating the belly." Having lately received numerous specimens of this genus from Madeira, and from the West Indies, I have had an opportunity of making repeated dissections of this part in several species, and of ascertaining the precise mode in which this presumed inflation is produced. The frame work of this structure consists of a remarkable de- velopement of the os hyoidesy or bone of the tongue. This bone , ♦ A similar structure has been demonstrated in the flippers of the Walrus by the same eminent comparative anatomist ; of which an account is given in the present Number of this Journal. + It is the more remarkable that this error should have obtained, as it is Well known that the protuberance beneath the throat in the different species of iguana^ is supported by a cartilaginous process of the os hyoides ; and this is one only of many interesting affinities between these two groups, which I hope to take an early opportunity of illustrating. Zoolo^Ai Jouraml Tbl.lI.lEJUII, of the Throat in the genus Anolis, 13 is situated immediately under the larynx. * It has two long, slender, bony processes on each side, which for the sake of dis- tinction, 1 shall term the anterior + and posterior % lateral pro- cesses,— a small one, § which is filiform, given off from the ante- rior part of the bone, and closely connected with the under part of the tongue, — and a very long, delicate, and elastic cartilage, |J extending from the body of the bone nearly to the middle of the abdomen, immediately beneath the skin, to the internal surface of •which it is attached by condensed cellular tissue. In its form ifc is slightly flattened and tapering to its extremity, where it is ex-^ tremely slight and flexible. The anterior lateral process extends backwards to the angle of the lower jaw, over the muscles of which it is curved upwards- The posterior lateral process is placed in a similar direction, hvtt does not take the same curve over the edge of the jaw. Thests two processes run parallel to each other through almost theip whole length, but at a small distance apart. There are several pairs of muscles attached to these little bonesy by the action of which the phasnomeua are produced which it i* my object to explain. Of these the following are the principal A broad strong muscle arises from the whole edge of the posterior lateral process, and is inserted into the clavicle. It is conse- quently of considerable length ; and by its contraction the whole bony frame-work is drawn back and a little downwards, so that the distance between the two extremities of the long elastic car- tilage being diminished, this organ is thrown into a curve, and the skin of the throat and belly is stretched upon it, exactly as the silk is strained upon (he whalebone ribs of an opened umbrella* The parts are restored to their natural state by the action of the following muscles. From the edge of the anterior lateral process arises a muscle which is inserted into nearly the whole length of the base of the lower jaw,— and another taking its origin from the anterior part of the body of the os hi/oides, is inserted into the symphysis of the jaw or chin. It is obvious that the contraction of these muscles will draw the whole of the little bony frame for- wards, and thus restore the whole structure to its usual quiescent * PI. ir. Fig. I, a. + Fig. l.h. t F'g' ^- c- § F'g- ^-^' II ^'S- '• '' 14 Mr* Broderip on the importance of Facts state. These actions are assisted by other muscles of secondary- importance, and less readily demonstrated and described ; and there are muscular fibres passing from one of the lateral processes to the other through nearly the whole length, which keep them in their proper relative position, and assist in both the actions which I have just described. I have made the most careful dissections of eight or ten differ- ent individuals of various species, but have never been able to discover the slightest ground for supposing that these animals can possibly possess the power of inflating the pouch ; nor is there in any pait of it the smallest opening through which air could pass. As ray opportunities of observing these lizards have been con- fined to dead specimens, I am restricted to mere anatomical de- tails : I would however mention that the skin of this part of the throat is always more brightly coloured than that of the rest of the body, and that it is said to be more susceptible of those chamele- on-like changes, which many species of this group are capable of assuming, and which are always more vivid during any kind of excitement. Plate II. fig. 1. Under view of the os hyoides in Anolis lineatiis. 2. Side view with the cartilaginous process strait. S. The same curved. Art. IV. On the utility/ of preserving facts relative to the habits of Animals^ with additions to two Memoirs in " Whitens Natural History of Selborne,'^ By W. J. Broderip, Esq, F,L.S, Sfc. There are few facts, however isolated, however trivial they may respectively appear to-be, more conducive to the illustration of the history of animals, than those which relate to their habits ; and yet there is scarcely any information which is treated in a more careless style. Whether our amour propre tempts us to feel that it is beneath us to be the biographers of '' rats and mice and Buch small deer ; " or whether the anecdotes which we pick up at relative to the Habits of Animals. - 15 intervals are thrown aside as crude and unconnected materials^ the loss is the same. True it is " non omnes arbusta juvant hu- milesque myricae : " but, if we really have the advancement of natural history at heart, we must, some of us at least, be content to descend from the '^ majora " to more humble details. It is not one of the least advantages of the periodical publica- tions which are now open to every department of science, that matters, which would scarcely find room elsewhere, and which would, in the absence of some such asylum, be probably lost, are contributed to the general stock of materials. If any one be in- clined to keep back his alms from the supposed poverty of the offering, let him remember the widow's mite : the truth is, that no information which throws light on the habits of any animal, however apparently low in the scale of creation, i& valueless j while it may be highly important, even when considered with a view to utility, and the elFect that such animal may have upon the luxuries, the comforts, nay the very necessaries of life. In the last number of this Journal is recorded the destructioft which an army of mice dealt upon whole forests : in their van. were the saplings which would have formed the future navies of Great Britain ; they marched on, and behind them was desola- tion.* While oae insect defaces the beauty of our parks and woodlands in the South, another lays low the pine plantations ot * The following extract stating the ravages of rats, is taken from a book lately published ou Jamaica. As it does not appear that any attempt has yet been made to extirpate these nuisances by the means recommended in the late Lord Glenbervie's paper above alluded to, would it not be worth the Planter's while to resort to the method of digging holes as therein described ; taking care to increase their dimensions iiv proportion to tlie size of the quadruped whose destruction is intended? In the case mentioned by Lord Glenbervie, the success of this plan, after the failure of every other, appears to have been complete; and W. S.MacLeay, Esq. in the next article fon Hylobius Abietis) mentions it as the only means that seemed to answer towards the extirpation of swarms of mice which infested the neighbourhood of Strasburg a few years ago. " In no country is there a creature so destructive of property as the rat is in Jamaica; their ravages are inconceivable. Ono year with another, it is sup- posed that they destroy at least about a twentieth part of the sugar canes throughout the island, amounting to little short 0/ 66*200 ,000 currency per annum. The sugar cane is their favourite food; but they also prey upon the Indian corn, on alt the fruits that are accessible to them, and on many of the roots. Son>e idea 1£k Mr. Broderip on the importance of Facts the North.* If, after these records, any one should he disposed to sneer at communications such as those, the utility of which I am attempting to advocate, I would say to that man, " if such a man there be" — Read the excellent chapters on the direct and in- direct injuries caused by insects, in that storehouse of entomolo- gical knowledge the '' Introduction," as it is modestly called, of Kirby and Spence j — watch the flight of the Locust and the Hessian Fly, with plenty before them, and famine in their rear ; — take, I say, these two plagues alone out of scores of others, and then declare whether a knowledge of their habits, which might teach us to prevent the yisitation or stop it in its course, is to be despised. But there is yet another view of the subject, which a knowledge of the habits of animals most strongly illuminates ; a view which ■will never be deemed unworthy of the attention of philosophical minds. An enquiry into the proper place which different forms hold in the scale of animated beings, can never be prosecuted •with success without the aid of light derived from the observations of practical Zoologists. Few have turned their thoughts to the minutiae of animal habits with such devoted attention as distinguished the late ami- able author of " The Natural History of Selborne ; " few have watched nature with greater humility and accuracy ; and none have recorded their observations in a more perfect style of classi- cal simplicity. He did not think it beneath the dignity of a scholar and divine to be the historian of the habits of the meanest will be formed of the immense swarms of these destructive animals that infest this island, from the fact that, on a single plantation, thirty thousand were destroyed in one year. Traps of various kinds are set to catch them, poison is resorted to, and terriers and sometimes ferrets are employed, to explore their haunts and root them out ; still however their numbers remain undiminished, as far at least as can be judged from the ravages they commit. They are of a much larger size than the European rat, especially that kind of them called by the negroes racoons. On the experiment being tried of putting one of these and a cat together, the latter declined attacking it." — Stewart's Jamaica^ page 57, et seq:* * See the valuable papers on Scolytus destructor and Hylohius Abietis^ by W. S. MacLeay, Esq. the first in the 11th vol. of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal j the second in the first vol. of this Journal. relative to the Habits of Animal a. 17 creature ; and, fortunately for us, the naturalists of the day to whom ho communicated the results of his labours, valued his letters as they deserved. Actuated by the same spirit, Wilson sought the savannahs, the swamps, and the forests of America, while Le Vaillant penetrated into the deserts of Africa. The former, inspired by the same muse who shed a grace over the narrative of White, has left, in the sweetness of his style, and in tlie accuracy of his details, a monument which increases the grief always felt at the premature death of a man of genius. The latter, full of years, is gone to " that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns," leaving to posterity a legacy, which, while it insures their lasting gratitude, gives to him an imperishable name. These men did not content themselves with fireside speculations ; they did not conceive that an acquaintance with the treasures of museums would alone enable them to enter the adytum of the temple of nature : No, they sought the goddess in her own woods, and were rewarded with such revelations as no other mode of devotion could have elicited from her. Ask the Zoologist of the present day to whom, of the last generation, he owes the progress which he is making in science, and he will say, without undervaluing the labours of authors of systems, that writers such as these were the spirits who have rendered the veil less impenetrable, " quique sui memores alios fecere merendo." After the mention of these great names, it may appear pre- sumption in me to venture to contribute any thing in addition to that which one of them has recorded : but, in the hope that others may he induced to throw such observations as they have made into the common stock, I, without further apology, proceed to call the attention of the reader to two letters of Mr. White, forming a part of his " Natural History of Selborne," and to give the additional information which chance or the kindness of friends has thrown in my way. In a letter to Pennant, dated " Selborne, 22d Feb. 1770," will be found the following extract. " Hedge-hogs abound in my gardens and fields. The manner in which they eat the roots of the plantain in my grass- walk is very curious. Vol. II. B IBj Mr. Broderip on the importance of Facts With their upper mandible, which is much longer than their lower, they bore under the plant, and so eat the root off' upwards, leaving the tuft of leaves untouched. In this respect they are serviceable, as they destroy a very troublesome weed ; but they deface the walks iu some measure by digging little round holes. It appears, by the dung that they drop upon the turf, that beetles are no inconsiderable part of their food. In June last I procured a litter of four or five young hedge-hogs, which appeared to be about five or six days old; they, I find, like puppies, are born blind, and could not see when they came to my hands. No doubt their spines are soft and flexible at the time of their birth, or else the poor dam would have had but a bad time of it in the critical moment of parturition : but it is plain that they soon harden ; for these little pigs had such stiff" prickles on their backs and sides, as would easily have fetched blood, had they not been handled with caution. Their spines are quite white at this age ; and they have little hanging ears, which I do not remember to be discernible in the old ones. They can, in part, at this age, draw their skin down over their faces ; but are not able to contract themselves into a ball, as they do for the sake of defence when full grown. The reason, I suppose, is, because the cu- rious muscle that enables the creature to roll itself up in a ball was not then arrived at its full tone and firmness. Hedge-hogs make a deep and warm hybernaculum with leaves and moss, in which they conceal themselves for the winter : but I never could find that they stored in any winter provision, as some quadrupeds certainly do." So far Mr. White. — — It is, now, well known, that these ani- mals eat not only beetles but other insects : many are brought to London by the country people and market gardeners ; and pur- chased for the purpose of destroying the hordes of Blatta Orien- t ilis (common cock-roach) which swarm in the kitchens of the city. They are fed occasionally in this their domesticated state with milk, of which they are very fond, but not so unsparingly as to blunt the edge of their appetite for those pests, of which they are the Thalabas. Cuvier, too, who has placed them as the first genus of his twelftli family of Carnassiers (Les Insectivores) con- firms the suspicion of White as to their insectivorous habits ; for he says of the common hedge-hog (Erinaceus Europwus) " aux insectes qui font son regime ordinaire^ il mele les fruits qui lui usent a un certain ^ge les pointcs dc ses dents.* " * Regne Animal, torn. 1. p. 132. relative to the Habits of Animals, 19 But it is not so well known that, like the Peccaries (Sus Tajacu, Lin. Dicotijles. Cuv.) these " hedge-pigs" will devour serpents. That they will do so appears from the following inter- esting communication, for which I am obliged to my friend the Rev. William Buckland, Professor of Geology in the University , of Oxford, and President of the Geological Society. Having occasion to suspect that Hedge-hogs, occasionally at least, preyed on Snakes, the Professor procured a common snake (coluber natrfx) and also a hedge-hog which had lived in an un- domesticated state some time in the Botanic garden at Oxford, where it was not likely to have seen snakes, and put the animals into a box together. The hedge-hog was rolled up at their first meeting: but the snake was in continual motion, creeping round the box as if in order to make its escape. Whether or not it recognized its enemy was not apparent ; it did not dart from the hedge-hog, but kept creeping gently round the box ; the hedge-hog remained rolled up and did not appear to see the snake. The Professor then laid the hedge-hog on the body of the snake, with that part of the ball where the head and tail meet downwards, and touching it. The snake proceeded to crawl, — the hedge-hog started, opened slightly — and, seeing what was under it, gave the snake a hard bite, and instantly rolled itself up again. It soon opened a se- cond time, repeated the bite, then closed as if for defence ; opened carefully a third time, and then inflicted a third bite, by which the back of the snake was broken. This done, the hedge- hog stood by the snake's side, and passed the whole body of the snake successively through its jaws, cracking it, and breaking the bones at intervals of half an inch or more ; by which operation the snake was rendered entirely motionless. The hedge-hog then placed itself at the tip of the snake's tail, and began to eat upwards, as one would eat a radish, without intermission, but slowly, till half of the snake was devoured, when the hedge-hog ceased from mere repletion. During the following night the an- terior half of the snake was also completely eaten up. Here we have evidence that the hedge-hog feeds on roots, fruits, insects, and snakes : in fact, that it is an omnivorous animal. The next memoir which I shall notice, is contained in a Utter B 2 i8> Mr. Broderip on the importance of Facts to the Honourable Daines Barrington, dated " Selborne, May 9, 1776 ; " and proceeds thus : *' My friend had a little helpless leveret brought to him, which the servants fed with milk in a spoon, and about the same time his cat kittened, and the young were dispatched and buried. The hare was soon lost, and supposed to be gone the way of most fondlings, to be killed by some dog or cat. However, in about a fortnight, as the master was sitting in his garden in the dusk of the evening, he observed his cat, with tail erect, trotting towards him, and calling with little short inward notes of complaceny, such as they use towards their kit- tens, and something gamboling after, which proved to be the leveret, that the cat had supported with her milk, and continued to support with great affection. " Thus was a graminivorous animal nurtured by a carnivorous and predaceous one ! " Why so cruel and sanguinary a beast as a cat, of the ferocious genus of Felis, the murium leo^ as Linnaeus calls it, should be affected with any tenderness towards an animal which ^ is its natural prey, is not so easy to determine, " This strange affection was probably occasioned by that clesiderium, those tender maternal feelings, which the loss of her kittens had a- wakened in her breast ; and by the complacency and ease she derived to herself from the procuring her teats to be drawn, which were too much distended with milk, till, from habit, she became as much de- lighted with this foundling as if it had been her real offspring. " This incident is no bad solution of that strange circumstance which grave historians as well as the poets assert, of exposed children being sometimes nurtured by female wild beasts that probably had lost their young. For it is not one whit more marvellous that Romulus and Remus, in their infant state, should be nursed by a she wolf, than that a poor little sucking leveret should be fostered and cherished by a bloody grimalkin — -^ " viridi foetam Mavortis in antra Procubuisse lupam : geminos huic ubera circum Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem Impavidos : illam tereti cervice reflexam Mulcere ctlternos, et corpora fingere lingui." Thus far Mr. White.— On the 27th of April, 1820, I saw a Cat giving suck to five young Rats and a Kitten : the rats were about relative to the Habits of Animals, 91 vne third grown. It was diverting to observe the complacency with which the young creatures sucked in the liberal stream which the teats of their foster-mother supplied ; and curious to see the prey cherished by the milk of the destroyer. The cat paid the same maternal attentions to the young rats, in licking them and dressing their fur, as she did to her kitten, notwithstanding the great disparity of size. The man who exhibited this phaenomenon in the Strand, near Essex Street, said, that the cat had kittened thirteen days, and, at that time, had three kittens at her teats, when he found this nest of young rats, which seemed a few days old, and turned them in, at night, to the cat for her prey : in the morning he found the kittens sharing the milk of their mother with the rats. Two of the kittens were afterwards destroyed, for fear of exhausting the cat by so numerous a family. The man said the cat was a good mouser ; but admitted that he had taught her to abstain from white mice, which he had been in the habit of keeping. This is a much stronger case than that mentioned by Mr. White ; for, here, the cat had kittens on which to exercise her maternal tenderness, and which must have sucked sufficiently to prevent any thing like bodily inconvenience. It is hard to ac^ count for this perversion of instinct. Is it that, at such times, the all-powerful and uncontroulable sro^yfi is exercised indiscrimi^ nately upon every young living creature which is thrown upon the mercy of the new mother for protection and nourishment, and is capable of enjoying her care? The cases of the Hedge-Spar* row or Wagtail and the young Cuckoo, of young Ducks which are hatched by Hens, and even subsHtuted for their own broods on their loss or failure, — nay, the very assiduity with which a hen will sit upon a ball or two of whitening, — would all seem to point this way ; but I may weary my readers with fruitless conjectures, and cannot conclude better than in the words of Mr. White, who says, at the end of another letter dated March 26, 1773, " Why the parental feelings of brutes, that usually flow in one most uni* form tenor, should sometimes be so extravagantly diverted, I leave to abler philosophers than myself to determine." ^ Mr. J. D C. Sowerby and Mr. George Art. V. Additional Observations upon a Fossil found in Coal Shale, and the description of a Palate found in Coal, near Leeds. Bt/ J. D C. Sowerby, Esq, F.L.S, and E. J. George, Esq. F,L.S, In the second number of this Journal,* a figure was given of a Bone, found in Felling Colliery ; we were not then aware that a portion of the same fossil had been figured by David Ure, in his history of Rutherglen and Kilbride, + from a specimen found in coal at Stonelaw ; he had well observed its vascular structure, and finding it different from that of wood, was induced to say, '* From the structure this petrifaction would appear to belong to the Cane, rather than to the Pine." (p. 304). Mr. Parkes has been so fortunate as to become possessed of the specimen figured by Ure, and has kindly submitted it to our inspection ; the ap- pearance of its section confirms us more strongly in our opinion that it is bone, an opinion supported by that of Mr. De la Beche, in the Geological Transactions,^ where he considers the some- what similar bones we have alluded to as found in the Lias, ^' to have been the external defensive radii of some fish, and to have been used in the same manner with similar bones of the Balistes tribe." In a theoretical point of view it is a matter of consider- able importance to prove that bones are found imbedded in any of the coal measures : they are certainly very rare ; in a practical light they may be esteemed as of still greater consequence, for they will probably serve to identify particular strata of coal at very remote places. From analogy we are led to suppose that these bones belong to marine fishes ; we are already acquainted with marine shells (Ammonites Listeri and Pecten papyraceus) ; it has also been a general opinion that freshwater (perhaps lake) shells are not uncommon in the same formation, such as Uniones and Anodontes ; but independently of the difficulty often ex- perienced in ascertaining the genera of shells from their fossil » Vol. I. p. 252. t. viii. f. 9. + Plate XII. f. 6. + Secojid series, Vol. I. p. 43. with a figure. on some Fossils from the Coal Measures. 23 ■ remains, a doubt has been thrown upon this opinion by the recent discovery of an Ammonite, several Pectens, add one or two other unquestionably marine shells in a nodule of iron stone, containing also what has hitherto been considered an Anodon ; it was found in the Hayne Moor bed of coal, in the Waterloo Colliery, near Leeds, by E. J. George, Esq. F.L.S. The near situation to each other of these marine bones and shells and of the land vegetables, is a very curious fact. We have now, by permission of the Philosophical and Literary Society of Leeds (to whom the specimen was given by John Field, Esq. of the Low Moor iron works) the pleasure of presenting a figure of a remarkable bony Plate, perhaps a Palate, also found in coal. It is probably only half of the entire bone, for its thickest edge, which measures about one quarter of an inch, presents a fractured surface ; this surface shews a cellular structure, cha-? racteristic of the soft parts of bones attached to the Palates, Fauces, or Stomachs of Fishes ; the tuberculated surface is po- lished almost like the enamel of teeth, and finishes in a rounded edge, beyond which there is a thin expansion of bone, that served to steady the entire plate in the soft parts into which we may suppose it was once inserted. It is of a dark brown colour, and was imbedded in the pure part of the coal. We are indebted to E. J. George, Esq. of Leeds, for the fol? lowing account of its locality. J, D C. S, The fossil above described is from the thick coal at Tong, near Leeds, a coal known throughout the northern part of the Yorkshire coal-field as the Beeston Seam. It is a seam of variable thickness, being at Garforth, where it is covered by the uncon- formable magnesian limestone, 6 feet ; at Ueeston, 9 feet ; and at Tong from 6 to 7 feet. The seam is divided by partings of white earth (indurated shale) into beds; those at Beeston are three, at Tong two; it is probable that the decrease in thickness from Beeston to Tong, is occa- sioned by the separation of the lower bed ; this has been ascer- tained to be the case at Churwell, where the lower bed is parted from the upper nine yards. 2./ / §4 : Mr. Yarrell's Account of The distance from this coal to the flagstone which it overlays is about 220 yards ; between them are the coals worked at Low Moor, near Bradford, which are accompanied by a great variety of spendid specimens of Lepidodendra, of which the Leeds' Philo- sophical Society possesses rnauy fine specimens. The respective distance of these coals above the flagstone, are, from the flagstone to the Low Moor lower Seam 100 yards, above which the next coal is the Low Moor upper Seam (there called the Black Bed) 40 yards, which is succeeded by the Beeston Seam, at 80 yards ; alfove the Beeston Seam, the next workable coal is the Middleton Lower Seam, at 90 yards. The fossils contained in the strata of the Beeston Seam are not much known, since from the thickness of the coal the shale is not forked. E. J. George. Description of the Figure. Plate I. fig. 7. j a. a. The enamel-like surface. b. b. The fractured edge, with some slight signs of a suture. p. c. Bony expansion as thin as card-paper. Art. VL Notice of the Occurrence of some rare British Birds, By William Yarrell, Esq, [To the Conductors of the Zoological Journal.] Gentlemen, Should you consider the following account of the occurrence of some rare British Birds sufficiently interesting to be worthy of insertion in your valuable Journal, it is much at your service. The circumstances stated have come within my own knowledge, and many of the specimens referred to are in my possession. 1823. January, A female of the Little Bubtard (Otis tetrax) was shot near Harwich. The stomach contained parts of leaves of the white turnip, lungwort, dandelion and a few blades of rare British Birds, 25 grass. The flesh had not the delicacy of appearance or flayour which it is described by some authors to possess. November. A specimen of the Petrel, named after Dr. Leach, (Procellaria Leachii^) was brought to the London market alive; it died on the evening of the same day. The month of December following produced two other specimens, one killed in Devonshire, the second in Hertfordshire. 1824. July, A female of the Long-legged Plover (Charadrius himantopus,) was sent to the London market from Lincolnshire ; and about the same time, a very fine male bird was shot in Nor- folk; in the intestines of this male bird was a species of tape worm, six inches in length, broad, flat and jointed. A male and female of the Pigmy Curlew (Numenius pygmceus) were shot in Norfolk, exhibiting the perfect summer plumage. 1824. August. A very fine old male of the Pigmy Curlew with tvvo young birds of the year, was shot in Huntingdonshire. September. A young Arctic Gull (Lestris parasiticus) was shot • on the Thames near Battersea. November, During the first week of this month a beautiful specimen of the Grey Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus^) was shot while swimming on the Thames near Battersea. It proved to be an old female having nearly completed its winter plumage, but still bearing sufficient marks of its summer dress to form an inte- resting state of change. The contents of the stomach were too far digested to ascertain the quality. More than a dozen Stormy Petrels (Procellaria pelagica) were procured, on the Eastern Coast principally, during the remark- able windy weather that occurred this month. One bird was shot from a coal barge while flying about over the Thames between the bridges of Blackfriars and Westminster. Two Pigmy Curlews, birds of the year, and several Sanderlings (Charadrius calidrisj) in complete winter plumage, were brought to London market. The Rough-legged Falcon (Falco lagopus^ L.) occurred three or four times in this month, one of which, a female, was shot in the Isle of Wight: a second, a female also, was caught by a trap in Gloucestershire. The bony ring in which the orb of the ^ Mr. Yarrell's Account of rare British Birds, eye is suspended in this species is particularly large and strong. This flexible ring formed by a number of small bones was considered to be peculiar only to the diurnal and nocturnal birds of prey; the increased power of vision, at very diflferent distances, depending on minute muscular and mechanical arrangements, assisting them in their search for objects of food : but in occasional examinations of birds, I have found these bony rings in the Green Woodpecker, the Great Plover, the Grey Phalarope and the Northern Diver, as well as in many other birds equally varied in form and habits. The most remarkable of the bony rings I have yet seen is in the Wood Owl (Strix Stridula) corresponding very closely in form to the watchmaker's eye-glass. Tiie Osprey (Falco Haliosetus^) occurred twice in this month ; one, a very fine male, was shot near Petersfield, Hants, the other, ^ female, in Hertfordshire. A female of the Skua Gull (Lcstris Catarractes,) was killed in Somersetshire. December, Two specimens of the Northern Diver (Colymbus glacialisy) both young birds, were shot on the Norfolk coast. The London market produced four spotted Redshanks, (the Scolopax Totanus of Gmelin, the Totanus fuscus of Leister); these birds were in perfect winter plumage, and considered rare. The figure in Bewick's beautiful engravings is an exact representation of a young bird of the year. 1825. January, Three or four specimens of the Ash-coloured Shrike (Lanius Excubitor^) occurred this month ; one was shot in Hampshire, a second in Bedfordshire, and a third was taken in a clap-net, near London, by a bird-catcher, in the act of striking at his decoy linnet. This bird fed well in confinement several days, taking small birds or raw meat from the hand, but was very eagerly parted with by his new master, on finding that the note of the Shrike, once heard, had stopped the songs of all his wild birds. The Hawfinch (Loxia Coccoihrausies, L.) was shot near Netting Hill on the Uxbridge Road, and two others were taken by a parly Batfowling. February, The Little Auk {Alca Jlle^ L.) was shot on the coast of Sussex. Mr. Broderip on Volutce, ^ March, The Little Stint {IVingapusiUa^) was shot near St. Ives, in Huntingdonshire. I have the honor to be. Gentlemen, iRyder Street^ St. James's^ Your obedient Servant, 12th March, 1825. William Yarrell. Art. yil. Descriptions of some new and rare Volutes, By W. J. Broderip, Esq, F.L.S. Sfc. In the fifth number of the Westminster Review, the writer, while administering a course of castigation in the case of the Rev. T. F. Dibdin and others, who are aiFected by Bibliomania, takes occasion, en passant, to give a coup de patte to collectors in general, " We are always doubtful and suspicious," says the re- viewer, " of the real information possessed by collectors of books, minerals, shells, or any other materials and sources of science ; and we have uniformly found that, in proportion as the rage for collecting gained strength, the inclination and subsequently, as well as consequently, the ability to profit by what was collected, diminished." I have not a word to say with regard to the noblemen and gen- tlemen of the Roxburghe Club. They would hardly accept of a precarious defence from one of the uninitiated ; and there is more than one of their own body well qualified to lead a battle of the books. Confining myself, therefore, almost exclusively, to British collectors of Zoological subjects, and leaving all other collectors of all other materials to be their own champions, I shall refer to a few names of the present day, which the omniscience of the reviewer seems to have overlooked. The authors of Iloreu Entomologicce and Reliquice Diluviance^ books containing the results of more industry of research and depth of thought than most works hitherto published on the sub- ject of Natural History, are most ardent collectors; and they con- tinue almost daily to give us the practical and philosophical bene- SB Mr. Braderip*s de script ions fits of their zealous labours. A host of others who have made and are making rapid strides into the inmost recesses of the animal kingdom, or have contributed from their stores materials which shed an additional light on the path of their fellow labourers, wrJl he found in the list of collectors.* For the best natural arrangement of shells hitherto published we must look abroad : but we shall find that we owe this arrangement to a collector ; and, whenever we come to any very rare or interesting species in the pages of Lamarck, we are almost sure to find thereunder written " mon cabinet.'*^ It would be idle to waste time in multiplying instances : in- deed, if we consider for a moment, we shall not find it extra- ordinary that so large a catalogue of names can be readily quoted against the reviewer. What is it that spurs on the man employed in zoological pursuits to make a collection of the objects of his study, objects which, in many cases, are the fruit either of pain- ful and patient research, or costly price ? The many will answer — vanity. " Is it answered ?" I say nay. Such a collector may, indeed, be proud of the museum which his zeal and activity have succeeded in forming, and justly; but vanity is not the motive •which incites him to collect. What then is the motive ? — It is necessity : he cannot report progress without having materials for study. In the existing state of the public zoological collections of England, he cannot calculate upon their never-failing resources: and, though a spirit is abroad which leads the naturalist, whether in the metropolis or in the great country towns, to hope that future students will begin their labours with a prospect of better days, he must, at present, either stand still, or trust to his own collections and those of his friends. There is, however, it must be confessed, a species of collector, ♦ The following names, together with matiy others of merit, will occur to almost every one conversant with Zoology. Bell, Bennett, Brookes, Burchell, CJhildren, Clift, Conybeare, Curtis, De la Beche, Dillwyn, Donovan, Fleming, Goodall, Gray, Hardwicke, Haworlh, Home, Horsfield, Humphrey, King, Kirby, Konig, Laskey, Latham, Leach, MacLeay, Maton, Mawe, Miller, Rackett, Raffles, Sabine, Samouelle, Selby, Sowerby, Spence, Stanley, Sl«phen5, Stoke?, Such, Swainson, Traill, Turlon, Vigors, of new and rare Volutce, S9 now become very rare^ the only species with which the reviewer appears to have come in contact, deserving of all his " doubts." Such is the mere hoarder who spreads his hidden treasures before him solely for the pleasure of his eye, or the gratification of his vanity ; whose pursuit, even if his avarice of natural productions can be pronounced quite harmless, is about as intellectual and use- ful as that of the northern prince, who used to amuse himself with arranging his jewels on a table covered with black velvet, in every figure which his second childishness could suggest. It is the bouuden duty of the collector of shells more especially, to put off these childish things. In conchology, although such men as Adanson, Poli, Cuvler, and Lamarck have lent their aid to the science, there is more to be done than there is in any other depart- ment. The Ornithologist and Entomologist have, in almost all cases, a complete form to deal with, combined, generally, with a knowledge of the habits of the animals, which form the subjects of their studies. The Conchologist is surrounded by difficulties. The animals, with which he should be conversant, reside, in the majority of instances, in the bosom of the great deep ; and the shells, which come to his hands ninety-nine times out of a hun- dred without the inhabitants, are mere exuviae, whose purposes in the animal economy he is left to conjecture. Too many of the writers on this subject have never bestowed a thought on the matter, and consequently we are presented with the most un- natural arrangements, the result of placing the testacea solely ac- cording to the form of this part of their organization, without considering the probable structure of the more vital parts of the animal and their relation to the figure of the shell ; " for we have annulose animals united to true moUusca, merely because they have shells, and true mollusca separated from this division, merely because they have no shells."* With such obstacles in the way of our progress, it is almost unpardonable if we do not avail ourselves of the contents of our collections to aid the fund of scantv materials with which we fc Horce Entotnologicee, p. 242. The shell collector will find many useful hints in the neigbourhood of the passage quoted. 3D^ Mr. Broderip's descriptions have to toil on towards a natural arrangement. And let us not be discouraged because we cannot afford the most satisfactory details. Till we can obtain a more complete knowledge of the inhabiting animals, we may contribute such information as is to be derived from a careful examination of their exuvia3 with a view to their probable structure ; in the hope that every addition may, at least, assist the Geologist, and perhaps form a step, how- ever small, for the advance of natural science. Under the impression that no communication of this kind will be considered devoid of interest, and anxious to contribute any aid however feeble, which my own stores enable me to oflfer, I proceed to give the following descriptions. VoLUTA RUTiLA. — Red-bcinded Volute, V. tests, ovato-oblonga, rufescente, raaculis subtrigonis, con- fluentibus, croceo-rubris varia; spira brevi, sutura simplici ; apice papillari, subgranulato : anfractu basali tuberculis elongatis ar- mato fasciisque 2 latis, interruptis, rutilis, ornato ; columella 4-plicata. var, Anfractu basali inermi. Mus. nost. Habitat in Ocean. Austral ? Icon. Tab. III. Shell ovate-oblong, reddish or flesh-coloured, covered thickly with confluent, subtrigonal reticulatirons of a saffron red. The spire short, its suture unarmed, the apex papillary and slightly granulated or beaded. The body-whorl armed with elongated , tubercles, ornamented with two broad interrupted bands of a deeper and more vivid red, and with oblique irregular stripes of the same colour, extending from the suture to the tubercles in the tuberculated variety, and from the suture to the shoulder of the body whorl in the smooth variety. Pillar four-plaited, the two lowest plaits rather largest. Length about three inches. This beautiful volute was received from a South Sea whaler by Mrs. Mawe, who could not learn from the possessor of it the name of the place where it was found. There were brought at the same time and by the same hand three others ; but the^ had Z©dIl(Dgieal Joinumal Td.II.TlLMI. of new and rare Volutce, Si^ all suffered so much by the auto dafe which they had undergone for the purpose of roasting the inhabiting animals, that the greater part of each shell was fairly burnt into lime. My specimen with the tuberculated body-whorl has suffered but very little; and, with the exception of a paleness where it has come in contact with the fire, is brilliant in colour. The beauty of the specimen with the smooth body-whorl has entirely yielded to the unmerci- ful calcination bestowed on if; but fortunately, no injury has been done to the spire or to the form of the shell. The case of a variety with a smooth body-whorl is by no means uncommon among the tuberculated Volutce* I have very striking examples of it in V, nivosa and V. Lapponica^ as well as in F. rutila ; — to say nothing of V. vespertilio^ Lin. F. rutila appears to me to form an addition to that small natural: group of Volutes which have the last turns, forming the papillary summit of their spire, beaded with a series of regular, minute granulations or pustules. This group contains, together with F. rutila and V.pulchra^ V, magnijica^ Chemn. and Lam. ; the bats (V, vespertiUo^ Lin. and Lara. ; V. pellis serpentis^ V, mitis^ and V, serpentina^ Lam.) ; * and V, nivosa. The granulations are most developed in V. vespertilio and V, nivosa; and are least perceptible in V, magnijica. It may be worthy of notice that all these shells have four plaits on the pillar, and that Lamarck records the South Seas as the habitat, though not exclusively, of the last six, with the exception of his V. pellis serpentis^ and V. serpentina^ to which he gives as a locality " UOcean des Grandes Indes." I strongly suspect that these last are also natives of the South Seas ; and, indeed, I have some strong evidence towards the confirmation of these suspicions : but the locality of Testacea, or indeed of any animals or natural pro- ductions, is a point of such high importance, as connected with their geographical distribution, that the utmost caution should be used before we come to a conclusion on this head. ♦ After a careful examination of a connecting series of specimens, I am un- able to discover any satisfactory specific distinction either in V. pellis serpentisy in V. mitiSf or V. serpentina., Lam.: nor do I think that any sufficient cause exists for removing them from the situation which they formerly occupied ag varieties of F. vespertilio^ Lin. 32 Mr. Broderip's descriptions As soon as I became possessed of my specimens of V. rutila, I carried the tuberculated variety to Mr. George Humphrey. It is wiell known that this patriarch of collectors has been most assi- duous and accurate in noting down localities. When he saw the shell, he pronounced it undescribed and not the F. aulica of Solander ; and an examination of the MSS. of that eminent natur- alist will prove the correctness of Mr. Humphrey's assertion.* He said that it was extremely rare, that he had a small one in his own collection, and that, from the place whence he received it, he called it the Red Music of New Zealand. This specimen, which is of the tuberculated variety, has now passed, together with the rest of the collection accumulated by Mr. Humphrey, during a life already extended beyond the ordinary bounds allotted to man, into the hands of Mr. G. B. Sowerby. VoLUTA. PULCHRA. — The Beuuty Volute. V.testaoblongo-ovata,subfusiformi, la3vi, nitida, carnea,albido- xnaculat^, maculis spadiceis triseriatim irregulariter dispositis, ornata; anfractibus superne adpressis, tuberculis acutiusculis, sub-compressis, coronatis : apertura superne acuta, columella 4-plicata. Long. 2 y^. lat. ^t_ unc. Sowerby in T. C. V. testa oblongo-ovata, subfusiformi, laevi, carnea, niveo-macu- lat^ ; anfractu basali maculis fusco-spadiceis, sparsis, trifasciato ; anfractibus angulatis, tuberculisque elongatis, antice acutiusculis, frequentibus, coronatis ; spira mediocri, apice sub-papillari, sub- granulato ; columella 4-plicat^. Mus. nost. Habitat. Icon. T. C. tab. 3. f. 2. Shell ovate-oblong, subfusiform, smooth, of a flesh-colour spot- ted with snowy white ; the whorls angulated and armed with elongated tubercles nearly sharp at the anterior extremity, where they are so much elevated as to make an almost abrupt descent to the suture ; the body-whorl ornamented with three bands of ir- regular dark-chesnut spots on a ground somewhat darker than the * See next page. of new and rare Volutoe, S3 rest of the shell, — the uppermost of these bands wreaths the coro- net of tubercles ; spire moderate, the apex sub-papillary and somewhat granulated; pillar 4-plaited. Length 2 inches 4 tenths. This elegant shell, one of the gems of the Tankerville collec- tion, in the catalogue of which it is first named and described by Mr. G. B* Sowerby, is the most slender which I have yet seen with the granulated apex. The tuberculated whorls gradually lose themselves in granulations, and these last terminate in the subgranulations of the apex, which, though still papillary, is much more acuminated than in any other species composing the group. Its colouring, particularly in its snow-spots, reminds us of V. nivosa; while its form, as Mr. Sowerby observes, approaches that of some of the elongated varieties of V. vespertilio. It appears to me with its sub-granulated apex, tuberculated whorls, sub- fusiform shape, and somewhat produced spire, to lead us towards those fusiform Volutes which have the spire very much produced, such, for instance, as V. Paci/ica (Chemn.), and V. gracilis (Swain- son), while the granulations are strongly marked on their attenu- ated spire, even up to the papilla or apex, which, however, is quite smooth. If my recollection is right I have seen a second specimen of this shell in the collection of Mr. Spurrett. I never saw or heard of any others. Of its locality I am ignorant : my strong suspi- cions point to the South Seas. VoLUTA AuLicA. — CouvUer or Ruddy-cloud Volute. (Spira apice mamillari). Voluta emarginata oblonga inermis albo luteoque nebulosa, spira conica : anfractibus oblique planis : mamilla laevi ; columella quadriplicata. — Solander^s MSS. V. testa oblonga, inermi, albo luteoque nebulosa ; spira conica, brevi, apice mamillari, laevi ; columella 4-plicata ; labii exterio- ris margine in spirae anfractum ultimum ascendente. Mus. nost. Habitat.—? Icon. T. C. tab. 6. ~ Vol. II. c 84t Mr. JBroderip's description of Shell oblong, unarmed, beautifully clouded with white, yel- loA^ish red and flesh colour ; spire conical, short, the mamillary apex smooth ; pillar 4-plaited ; the middle of the basal belt, arising between the two upper parts of the pillar, marked by an elevated somewhat granulated line, which becomes depressed as it approaches externally the great basal notch ; * margin of the exterior lip ascending upon the last whorl of the spire. Length about 4 inches. Through the kindness of Mr. Brown, I was enabled to com- municate to Mr. G. B. Sowerby, Dr. Solander's description of this beautiful shell ; and it is, accordingly, published in the catalogue of the Tankerville collection, of which Thesaurus conchylio- rum V. aulica formed one of the brightest ornaments. The Doctor's manuscript has at the bottom " Habitat in Oceano I. " but the last initial is written with apparent hesitation, and so as to be hardly legible. I do not, therefore, feel warranted in giv- ing the Indian Ocean as its locality, more especially when this uncertainty is connected with what follows. In the margin of the M.S. will be found the initials M.C.P. being Dr. Solander's reference to the Portland Museum, in the formation of the cata- logue of which he is known to have materially assisted. At lot 4021 of the catalogue will be found the following description — " A very line specimen of Voluta Aulica, 5., a beautiful red clouded species of the Wild Music kind, its country unknown, unique^'' This lot is referred to in the catalogue of Monsieur de Calonne's museum, drawn up by Mr. G. Humphrey, thus " 273. Aulica — Le Courtisan ou le nuage rouge — Courtier or red-clouded — Voluta Aulica Soland,. This beautiful shell is unique. Its country is unknown, but presumed to be from some newly-dis- covered island in the South-seas. M.P. 4021." * The line is so distinct in this rare shell that it was thought advise- able not to omit the mention of it. But we must be careful not to rely on it as a specific character; for its presence or absence in diflperent subjects of the same species of Volutes, seems to be almost matter of accident. That this belt is divided in many species by a line sometimes elevated, some- times depressed, and sometimes nearly obsolete, will*be seen by every accu- rate observer. There must be, therefore, some colrresponding formation in the molluscum. of new and rare Volutw, 35 The shell mentioned in these catalogues, I believe, with Mr. Sowerby, to be the identical specimen which furnishes our des- cription* It appears to me to have for its congeners those volutes among which the mamilla of the spire and the columellar plaits are most strongly developed, the former being well fashioned, smooth, and comparatively broad and flat at the apex, and the latter particu- larly well defined and highly raised from the pillar. These shells, too, have the basal belt very strongly marked, and generally taking its rise, in the best developed forms, between the first two plaits of the pillar, which plaits form the boundary of its width at its origin. F. scapha will readily occur to every collector, as an example of these volutes. The basal belt seems to be of some consequence in the animal economy, and it may, therefore, occasionally furnish us with some useful hints. It is continued from the point of its origin on the pillar, gradually increasing in width as it advances, till it arrives at the great basal notch which it receives, and is evidently formed by a succession of growths, each of which in its time appears to; have terminated in the basal notch. In the group containing V. vespertilioy this belt, which is least developed in V. pulchrUy will be found also to take its rise between the two first plaits of the columella. In V, magnijica it is very much developed, while the granulations of the well formed mamillary spire of that shell are becoming indistinct. In V, aulica the belt is very remarkable, while the well formed mamilla is quite smooth. I cannot help thinking, upon the whole, that when we have full materials for a natural arrangement, V, aulica will be found' to approach the granulated group by a near vicinity to V. magni' Jica, VoLUTA FuLGETRUM. — Lighttiing-Jlash Volute. V. tests, oblonga, lajvi, spira acuminata, apice papillosa, lasvi ; pallide carnea, spadiceo anguloso-strial^ (quasi fulgurata),anfractu ultimo ventricoso, superne subangulato ; apertura oblonga superne acuta, labio coluraellari tenui, expansissimo ; columella tripli- cata. Long. 6. lat. 3. unc. — Sowerhy^ in T.C- V. testa oblongS, ventricosa, laevi, inermi, pallide carnea, strigis c 2 36\ Mr. Brodenip on rare and new Voluta3. flammiferis, enormiter angulosis, fusco-spadiceis, ornate ; anfractu basali superne angulato, caeteris gibbis ; spira productiorij apice tnincato-papilloso ; columella triplicata ; labio exteriore sub-re- flexo. Mus. nost. Habitat.—? . Icon. T,C. tab. 4 & 5. Shell oblong, ventricosey smooth, unarmed, pale flesh-colour, painted with wildly irregular angulose flamy stripes of dark ches- nut ; body whorl angulated above,, the other whorls gibbous ; spire rather produced, its apex truncato-papillose ; pillar with three plaits ; margin of the outer lip somewhat reflected. Length about six inches. This very fine and extraordinary volute, first described and figured in the Tankerville Catalogue, strikes us at once by the singularity of its form and the boldness of its colouring. The apex of the spire, fashioned after the sam« manner as that of V, papulosa (Swainson), in which shell this peculiar structure is most strongly developed, gives us the idea of a papillary apex •which has been rubbed or cut down, or abruptly terminated be- fore the papilla was complete. To designate this kind of apex I have used the term '' truncato-papillose." The same formation, but upon a smaller scale, will be found in the apex of V./usi- formis (Swainson). All these shells have three plaits on the pillar, and the outer lip more or less reflected. I have no direct evidence of its locality, but its congeners were found in the Southern Ocean ; and I suspect that our shell, the only specimen which I have seen or heard of, is a native of the the same seas.* * I take this opportunity of announcing my intention to attempt a mono- graph of the genus Valuta of Lamarck. Mr. Vigors's Sketches in Ornithology. 37 Art. VIII. Sketches in Ornithologt/ : or Obserisations on the leading Affinities of some of the more extensive groups of Birds. By N. A. Vigoiis,>/2. Esq, M.A. F.L.S. [Continued from Vol. I. p. 446.] ON A GROUP OF PSITTACIDiE KNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS. Although, in a scientifick point of view, the value of any sub- ject of Natural History is little enhanced by the consideration of its having been known to the ancients, yet the researches which have tended to elucidate such groups of Nature as have met with their regard or attention have not been altogether unproductive of advantage. We cannot expect, it is true, that ancient science, li- mited as were the means of investigation which it possessed, and scanty as are the relicks relating to it which have survived the rav- ages of time, can add much to the stock of modern information on such subjects ; yet on the other hand, the application of modern science to classical literature amply confers that benefit which it may not derive in return, in bringing to light many 'l)eauties, and clearing up many obscurities in the pages of anti- quity. But there is another point of view in which the interest of such researches is strongly apparent. In general we are acquainted with the ancients chiefly through the records of their most splen^ did actions. The dignity of history and the elevation of poetry to which we are almost exclusively indebted for our knowledge of ancient manners, confine the representations which are transmitted to us of them, for the most part, to those which are most important and heroick. We are presented with little beyond the atchieve- ments or the apothegms of the warriour, the statesman, or the philosopher. All the minour occurrences of domestick life, all the more endearing traits of private feeling, are cast into the shade.* We see the ancients almost always in full dress, almost always in the stately attitudes, and on the exalted pedestals of life. It is only by scattered references that we are enabled to enter into their homes and their bosoms, and investigate the 38 Mr. Vigors's Sketches in Ornithology/, most attractive of all subjects, the windings and variations of the human heart. Natural History affords us an occasional insight into feelings of this nature. Through its means we possess a subject of common iaterest, by which we find ourselves, as it were, on familiar terms with those who are removed from us not merely by time, but by that imposing dignity which time never fails to confer. When our feelings are called forth in admiration of a bird or an insect, which is known to have equally excited the admiration of an Alexander or an Aristotle, we become almost unconscious of the lapse of time, which has separated us from such characters ; we feel ourselves attracted to them by a com- munity of sentiment; and rejoice in that sympathy which brings us in contact with the patron of science and the man of genius of the days that have gone by. Science, it is said, levels all distinc- tions of rank and station, and unites all the adventitious differ- ences in society under the powerful influence of genius and of knowledge : but science goes still farther in the present case, for it appears to level all the distinctions of time and space. In pursuing such researches into antiquity we find not merely that external nature was the same two thousand years ago as it is at present, but that human nature itself has undergone but little variation. I scarcely know a description on which we can dwell with sentiments of more unalloyed satisfaction, — not merely from its intrinsick beauty, but from the exhibition of genuine tender- ness of heart, which is thus proved to be the property of no time or climate, but to be common to all, — than the recognition of his master by the faithful Argus, in the following passage of the *' Odyssey," and the depth of feeling betrayed on the occasion by the '' much-enduring" prince. '' Av ^E KVUV KSipxXlOV T£ KIXI OVUrCX. XE//XEVOS tCT^EV Aqyos Oi^vaanos racXxcri^^ovosy ov §ac vor xvros 0f£"4/f f^EVy OfS' XTFOVfiTO' Ey^x xvuv x?/t' Agyoy, An TOTc y', us evonasy O^va-asx zyyvs lovrocj Ov^v) /x£y f ' oy' f(7)jvf, KXt ovxrx xajS/SaAey aix^u* Affffov S'ot/x tT tirurx dvvrja-xro oio xvxktqs On a group of Psittacidce known to the Ancients, 39 EXV^V at^T^P 0 NOS^IN lAflN AnOMOPHATO AAKPT, PEIA AA©nN Ev(j^um. — A§yoif J'au koctx (Mip^ cXajSev fjitXacvos ^ccvxTOtOj AvrtK* i^ovr^ O^vcr^sc ESiycoa-ru £V/j xJ/zTrax^j To TtsyoftJvov avSfWTroyXoTTov^ rotovrov eo-rt.^^ Hist. Anim. VIII. 14. 6. Solinus apparently following Aristotle makes the same allusion — " lingua lata, mul- toque latior quam caeteris avibus. Unde perficitur ut artici'lata verba penitus (Biuquatur. Quod ingenium ita Romana; dclitia; mirata; sunt, ut Barbari On a group of Psiltacidce known to the Ancients. 41 of their voice, were in general request and estimation : — that they were the favourites of some of the highest personages of Psittacos mercem fecerint." Polyhist. c. 23. p. 121. Ed. Aid. 1518. Apuleius refers to the same formation of the tongue as the cause of the same powers of speech. " Verum ad disciplinam humani sermonis facilior est psittacus, glande qui vescitur; — illud omnibus proprium, quo eis lingua latior, quam caeteris avibus, eo facilius verba hominis articulantur patentiore plectro et palato. Id vero quod dicit, ita similiter nobis canit, vel potius eloquitur, i;t vocem si audias, hominem putes." Florid. Lib. II. p. 137. Ed. Aid. 1521 • In fact these birds are seldom mentioned by classick writers without a refer- ence to their voice. Arrian expressly alludes to it. Nca^^oy oi((/nyizrtxi — liiotos o^vis scrrtv o ctrrxnos^ kxi ontus (pmv)v Isi ixv^^wtfivviv.^^ Hist. Ind. c. xv. Plutarch, in one of those treatises which prove him to have been no ordinary observer of nature, (see particularly his Treatises " De Amore Prolis," and *' De SolertiS, Animalium," Vol. VII. and X.) equally reiFers to the powers of voice which these birds possess in common with the Stares, and Pies. ^' "ioifis 5e xa< y.o^a,y.ts xtxt •^irrxyioi fAdv^AvovrES otaXsyecrS'a/, jcoti to T>jr (pm'ns 7ev£v[Aix rots oioix3V (pvatv Aa-vfAtrx^sarrs^Qs xvm (pxmro tS crr^a^/a." Const. Manass. Compend. Chron. p. 108. Ed. Paris. 1665. The word crr^H^os was originally used ^ov ?l sparrow ; but irr^H^iov was chiefly synomymous with avicula as the diminutive or familiar name of a pet bird of any kind : and there can be but little doubt that the CT^a^/ov fAsaiKoy of the imperial palace was a Parrot. * We may form an idea of the splendour of their cages fron:\ the description given of one by Statins. " At tibi quanta domus, rutila testudine fulgens, Connexusque ebori virgarum argenteus ordo, Argutumque tuo stridentia limina cornu, Et qucrulae jam sponte fores : vacat ille beatus Career.—" Sylv. L. II. 44 Mr. Vigors's Sketches in Ornithology/, The ancient writers are unanimous in informing us that the Parrots known to their times came exclusively from India.* In that country these birds were ever held in the highest honour. We are informed by jElian + that they were the favourite inmates of the palaces of the princes ; and were looked up to as objects of sacred reverence by the religious feelings of the people. From thence they were introduced into Europe at the time of the Mace- dmiian conquest ; and the specifick name of Alexandria applied by modern science to the type of the group, in honour of the first European discoverer of it, serves to perpetuate the name of a warriour, who is said to have valued the conquests that extended the boundaries of his etopire, chiefly as they served to extend the boundaries of science. It was not until the times of Nero that -the Parrots of Africa became known to the Romans. J Some of • Aristotle calls the Psittacus '' to lilixov o^veov." Hist. Anim. VIII. 146. and Arrian in his Indian History makes it a native of the East, '' yiyfirott «» rn h^uv y>j." Hist. Ind. cap. XV. Pausanias says it exclusively belongs to that country, ** TTx^x ^s Iv^uv fjt,ovm a-KKx rt )co[xt^srxt xxt o^vi^ss ot ^trruitoi,''^ Lib. II. 'cap. 28, p. 175. ed. Kuhnii. Solinus assigns it the same exclusive locality : — " Sola India mittit Psittacum avem." Polyhist. c. 53. p. 120, Ed. Aid. 1518. Ovid and Statius also unite in giving this bird an Eastern origin. " Psittacus, Eois imitatrix ales ab Indis." Amor. II. 6. *' Psittacus, ille plagae viridis regnator Eoae." Sylv. Lib. II. I^ee also ^lian. De Nat. Animal. XVI. 2. and XVI. 15. + De Nat. Anim. XIII. 18. See also Strabo. Geogiaph. Lib. XV. p. 718. Ed. Casaub. 1620. if See Pliny. Nat. Hist. Lib. VI. c. 29. Diodorus Siculus says that Parrots were found in Syria. "*Ai ^c rus 'Zv^txs la-^xrixi -^irrxicii xxi 'jro^(pv^imxs XXI y^iKixyqioxs, xxt aXKcuv ^uuv totxs (pvarsts rois ^^u[Axa-i xxi voixiKxs ffvyx^ta-us." Biblioth. Hist. Lib. II. c. 53. p. 165. Ed. Wesselingii. It is not however likely that these birds were natives of a country, so far north of their usual habitation, and so near to Europe as to render it improbable that they should not hare been known earlier than the Macedonian conquest. It is more probable that the birds alluded to by Diodorus were merely articles of On a group of Psiltacidce known to the Ancients, ^^ these birds were among the discoveries made in the course of an expedition sent out by that prince. They came apparently frorai the neighbourhood of the Red Sea. And it is probable that as that country became more known, numbers of the same race were imported from it into Rome, and formed the chief part of those victims of the Parrot tribes, which in after times are said to have supplied the inordinate luxury and wantonness of Helio- gabalus.* The Indian group thus familiar to the ancients, may be identi- fied with those beautiful birds, equally the favourites of our mo- dern times, which are brought to us from the same country, and which are distinguished by the rose colodred collar round their neck, the brilliant emerald of their body, and the deep ruby of their bill. Pliny points out distinctly the former characters. " India hanc avem mittit, sittacen vocat, viridem toto corpore, torque tantum miniato in cervice distinctam." + Solinus, in gene- ral the servile copier of Pliny, confirms this description, though commerce brought from India by the inhabitants of Syria, and being trans- ported from thence to Rome were mistaken for natives of that province. Bochart coincides in this opinion, who thinks that the Psittacus was unknown to the Jewish writers. See Hierozoic. Pars. 2^* p. 342. * The following Bill of Fare which furnished the table of the above em- perour may be of some novelty and interest to the bon vivant, if not to the naturalist. " Comedit saepius ad imitationem Apicii calcanea camehrum, et cristas vivis gallinaceis demptas, linguas pavonum et lusciniarum : quod qui ederet ab epilepsia tutus diceretur. Exhibuit et palatinis ingentes dapes extis mwZ^rum refertas, et cerehe\\\% phcenicopterum, et perdicum ovis, et cerebellis turdorum^ et capitihus psittacorum, et fasianorum, et pavonum.''^ Nor did he reserve such delicacies merely for his own table. " Misit et uvas apamenas in prsesepia equis suis : et psittacis atque /asiam's leones pavit et alia animalia." M\.iv% Lamprid. Vit. Heliog. Script. Hist. Rom. Min. Tom. III. p. 965, Ed. Hen. Steph. 1568. Numbers however of these birds must have been im- ported into Rome at a much earlier period, for Apicius himself must have feasted upon no small proportion of them. It is also probable that Parrots were among the number of those vocal birds which the elder Aesopus, the tragedian, is said to have sacrificed to his extravagance. " Huic nimirum magis Aeso- pus , quem constat cantu commendabiles aviculas, immanibus emptas prt;- tiis, pro ficedulis ponere." Val. Max. Lib. IX. c. 1.2. f Lib. X. c, 42. 46 Mi\ Vigors's Sketches in Ornithology/, with a slight variation as to colour. '' Sola India mittit Psittacum avem, colore viridi, torque pimkeo."^ Apuleius again alludes to the same characters, but more immediately and forcibly distin- guishes the varying tints of the collar round the neck, '' Color Psittaco viridisy et intimis plumulis et extimis palmulis, nisi quod sola cervice distinguitur. Enimvero cervicula ejus circulo mineo velut flwrea torqui^^ivi fulgoris circumactu cingitur et coronatur."f Oppian gives the bird an epithet % which precisely represents the colour of the modern group to which I allude ; "iirrxKos ccvTE^ T^vms ra, svv otKXinXoist nyioiroi^ Aist yxp Tfo^Biisi Xy^o< nOESIXPOON opviv. De Venat. Lib. II. v. 488. While Ovid, in like manner, particularizes both the emerald plumage and the deep red bill. Tu poteras fragiles plumis hebetare smaragdos, I croco. Amor. Lib. II. El. VI. Tincta gerens rubro Punica rostra croco. It generally, indeed as I apprehend, invariably happens, that when groups are separated from all others of the same family by characters of colouring thus decisively marking, and are at the same time confined within certain geographical limits to the exclusion of all the other conterminous groups of the same family, such groups are set apart also by generick characters equally distin- guishing. This at least is the case in the assemblance of birds now before us, which I shall proceed to characterize under the gene- rick name of PALiEORNIS. Rostrum subcrassum ; raandibula superiore dilatata culmine rotundo, inferiore lata, brevi, emarginata. AlcB mediocres ; remigibus tribus extimis fere aequalibus, lon- * Polyhist. c. 23. + Florid. Lib. II. % The epithet oi.v^o(pvu applied to the wing of this bird, in the passage lately quoted from the " Anthologia," (p. 42. Note), seems to refer to the same co- lour, or may perhaps allude to the rose-like spot upon the wing. On a group of Psittacidce known to the Ancients, 47 gissimis; secundae tertiae et quartae pogoniis externis in medio gradatim latioribus. Cauda gradata; rectricibus duabus mediis gracillimis caBteras longitudine magnopere excedentibus. Pedes I tarsis brevibus, debilibus ; unguibus mediocribus, sub- gracilibus, falcatis. Corpus gracile, concinnum. Typus genericus. Ps. Alexandria Linn. The birds that compose this genus are at first sight distinguished by their superiour elegance and gracefulness of form. This cha- racter is considerably increased by the construction of the tail, the two middle feathers of which far exceed the rest in length. This is a form which decidedly separates the present division of Parrots from all the other known species of the family ; and which has caused M. Le Vaillant to designate by the name of Perroquets a queue enJiScbe those species of the group which he ha$ figured. The bill is much dilated above, and rounded like that of PlatycercuSy^ but it is somewhat more elongated : the under mandible also, like that of Platycercus^ is short and bent in- wards, but it is not so much bent as in the latter genus, and conse- quently has not so strong an emargination. The wings are of moderate length, the three outward quill feathers being the long- est, and nearly equal in length. The outer webs of the second, third, and fourth of these feathers are much dilated in the centre, becoming gradually narrower towards the apeaf; in this construc- tion differing from most of the conterminous genera, in which the same webs are either abruptly emarginated as in Platycercus and Pezoporusy or entire as in many of the neighbouring long tailed groups. The tarsi are short, and partially covered by the feathers of the thighs, and the conformation of the legs and feet in general denotes considerable weakness. The similarity of colouring that prevails among all the birds of this group, has given rise to much confusion in regulating the species, the greater part of which have been until lately con- sidered varieties of two or three species. Great praise is due to the * See Zool. Journ. Vol. I. p. 527. 48 Mr. Vigors's Sketches in Ornithology. late M. Kuhl, for his exertions in unravelling the intricacies of this subject: and in characterizing the species of Palceornis^ little more is necessary than a reference to the birds belonging to that group as described in his Monograph * of the family. In mention- ing that work, I cannot allow myself to pass it over with mere simple approbation. It has the merit of being the first instance in which the principles, so successfully developed in the '' Horae Entoraologicai " in reference to some departments of the Jnnulosa, were applied to a group of the Vertebrate d Animals : and where the circular disposition in which the groups of nature return into 'themselves, and the uninterrupted series of affinities by which they are connected together, have been asserted and satisfactorily demonstrated. Whether the views which M. Kuhl unfolded in his Monograph were the result of his own observations on nature, or whether he was originally indebted for them to the " HoraB Entomologicae," it is now impossible to determine. Certain it is that he spent some time in this country in the year 1819, when the work referred to had just been published, and when the prin- ciples illustrated in it formed a topick of general conversation and of peculiar interest among men of science. This period was im- mediately previous to the appearance of the Monograph on the Psittaddce^ which was published in 1820. Whatever may be our opinions on this point, the work itself affords a superiour example of an attempt at a natural arrangement. The leading divisions, with some slight modification, + will be found to accord with those . * See " Conspectus Psittacorum, ab H. Kchl, Ph. Dr. &c." printed in the "Nova Acta Physico-Medica Academiae Caesareae Leopoldino-Carolinae Naturffi curiosorum." Vol. 10. p. I. Bonnse, 1820. + M. Kuhl's grand divisions of the family amount to six : but they will be seen, if accurately examined, to compose hni five of equal degree. His sixth division, which unites the Cockatoos and Maccaws, is composed only of the two species which form the genus Microglossum, Geof. St. Hil., or those which M. Le Vaillant denominates ^ras a trompe. This group, though generically distinct from the other species of the Cockatoos^ more particularly by the form of the tongue, accords with them so closely in the general characters of the section or subfamily, as to cause an unnatural break if we separate it from them. The only material deviation which it exhibits from the Cockatoos is the nakedness of the face: but this deviation merely places it at the extreme of thai sec- On a group of Psittacidcc known to the Ancients, 49 more comprehensive and philosophick views, which, from accurate observation of nature, are now^ almost universally allowed to offer the most faithful interpretation of her laws. And although the minour subdivisions are founded on the geographical limits of the species, a foundation, which if universally adopted would be both arbitrary and insufficient.; yet in the present instance this arrangement of the groups before us may be considered as afford- ing, with some slight and partial deviations, the nearest approach to their separation by strict generick characters ; so closely are their natural peculiarities in unison with their geographical distri- bution. It is to be regretted that M. Kuhl did not characterize * the divisions which he has formed. Had he added this necessary finish to his groups, little more would have been left to succeeding naturalists, than to subjoin to his subdivisions those species with which subsequent discoveries encrease the numbers of the family. Following then M. Kuhl as my chief guide, and assisted also by the splendid illustrations and scientifick notices which M. Le Vaillant has left us of this family, f proceed to point out the species of Palceornis now known to us. * Mandibula inferiore brevL 1. Alexandki. Linn. P. viridis^ torque miniaceo^ gula tcenU dque interoculari nigrisy macula alarum purpureo-'rubr a, Psittacus torquatus macrourus Antiquorum. Aldrov. Ates, Voh l.p. 678. Icon p. 679. Psittacus Alexandri. Linn. Syst. I. p. 141, No. 34. tiori, where it joins the succeeding section of the Maccaws, in which the cha- racter of the naked face prevails. We might equally separate many other groups as M. Kuhl has separated this, and call them sections or subfamilies; but they could not stand as separate divisions of the same rank as the rest, not being of equal degree with them in point of distinction or importance. « M. Kuhl has affixed characters to the leading divisions, and also assigned them names. These latter however he does not use; and the characters themselves extend no further than to the length or evenness of the tail, the nakedness or covering of the cheeks, and the size of the bird itself. He makes little use of the various modifications of the bill, tarsi, or wings, or of the tail with the exception of its being even or graduated. Vol. II. D 50 Mr. Vigors's Sketches in Ornithology. Psittacus Alexandri. Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 97. No. 46. Psittacus Alexandri. Kuhl. Nova Acta, &c. No. 35. Grande Perruche a collier rouge vif. BufF. Tom. VI. p. 141. Ferruche a collier des Isles Maldives. PI, Enl. 642. La grande Perruche a collier. Le Vaill. pi. 30. Alexandrine Parrot. Lath. Syn. Vol. I. p. 234. No. 37.-— Vol. IL m, Ed. 2'is Ring Parrakeet. Edw. pi. 292. Alexandrine Parrakeet. Shaw. Gen. Zool. Vol. VIII. p. 423. 0jun, Absque torque. Psittacus Eupatria. Linn. Syst. Vol. I. p. 140. Psittaca Ginginiana. Briss. Vol. IV. p. 343. tab. 29. f. 1. Psittacus Eupatriaw Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 85. No; 11. La grande Perruche a ailes rougeatres. Buff. Tom. VI. p. 166> Perruche de Giugi. PI. Enl. 239. Perruche a epaulettes rouges. Le Vaill. pi. 7S. Gingi Parrot. Lath. Syn. Vol.1, p. 209. No. 10 — Vol. II. p* 113. No. 14. Ed. 2"'. Gingi Parrakeet. Shaw. Gen. Zool. Vol. VIII. p. 438. Habitat in Zeylona. This species differs from the following chiefly by the greater size of the bill, and the dark red spot on the shoulders. It ap- pears to extend over some parts of the continent of India, but its cXiiei habitat is Geylon. 2. Torquat:us. Auct. P. viridis^ torque miniaceoy gula tceniaque interoculari nigris^ macula alarum nulla, Psittaca torquata Briss. Vol. IV. p. 323. No. 55. Psittacus Alexandri. var. /3. Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 98. Psittacus torquatus. Kuhl. Nova Acta, &c. No. 34. Perruche a collier couleur de Rose. Buff. Tom. VI. p. 152. La Perruche a collier. PI. Enl. 551. Perruche a collier rose. Le Vaill. pi. 22. 23; ' Alexandrine Parrakeet. Lath. Syn. Vol. I. p. 235. No. 37. var. A. Rose-ringed Parrakeet. On a group of Psittacidce known to the Ancients. 51 Rose-ringed Parrakeet. Lath. Syn. Vol. II. p. 160. No. 70. Ed. 2^\ Rose-ringed Parrakeet. Shaw. Gen. Zool. Vol. VIII. p. 425. /S. var.Jlav. .r Perruche souffre. Le Vaill. pi. 43. Sulphur Parrakeet. Shaw. Gen. Zool. Vol. VIII. p. 428. Habitat in India, Africaque. It is said that this species is abundant on the African Continent, and IS found as far westward as Senegal. M. Brisson has asserted that it is a native of America (Vol. IV. p. 326), led into this errour most probably from his having received specimens from that country which had been previously imported into it from India. It is not often that we have to notice an inaccuracy of this kind in the works of that naturalist, which may be consulted with much advantage, both for the sake of the information they contain and their scientifick views, 3. FlAvitorquis. Shaw. P. viridis, subtus subjlavescens^ torque Jlavoy capite, collo postico, redricibusque mediis cwruleis, his apice albidis, Psittacus flavitorquis. Shaw. Gen. Zool. Vol. I. p. 439. Psittacus annulatus. Bechst. Kuhl. Nova Acta. &c. No. 36. Perruche a collier jaune. Le Vaill. pi. 75, 76. Yellow-collared Parrakeet. Lath. Syn. Vol. II. p. 166. No. 75. Ed. 2-a. Habitat in India. 4. BiTORQuATus. Kuhl. P. viridisy torque dupliciy superiore cce- ruleoy inferiore rubro^ gula nigra, Psittaca Borbonica torquata. Briss. Vol. IV. p. 328. No. 57. t. 27. f. 1. Psittacus bitorquatus. Kuhl. Nova Acta, &c. No. 168. Psittacus Alexandri. var. I. Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 98. d2 52 Mr. Vigors's Sketches in Ornithologi/* Perruche a double collier. Buff. Vol. VI. p. 143. Perniche k collier de I'lsle de Bourbon. PI. Enl. 215. Perruche a double collier. Le Vaill. pi. 39. Alexandrine Parrakeet. Lath. Syn. Vol. I. p. 236. No. 37^ var. C. Double-ringed Parrakeet.— Vol. II. p. 161. No. 70, var. B. Ed. 2^% Habitat ? M. Le Vaillant saw two of these birds alive, from which he took his description. Their habitat, according to M. Kuhl, is unknown. Dr. Latham, however, who has described the bird as a variety of the Alexandrine Parrakeet, makes it a native of the Isle of Bourbon. 5. Xantiiosomus. Bechst. P. Icete viridis^ capite^ caudd, remi' gihusque ccerulesceniibus^ tectridbus intermedus citrinis, Psittacus xanthosomus. Bechst. Psittacus xanthosomus. Kuhl. Nova Acta, &c. No. 42. Pferruche k epaulette jaune. Le Vaill. pi. 61. Habitat in Ternate. This species rests also on the authority of that accurate observer and naturalist, M. Le Vaillant, who saw a specimen of this bird alive. 6. Malaccensis. p. viridis^^capite^ pileo excepfo, colloque postico vinaceo-rubris^ gula^ mystacibus^ tcenidque inferoculari nigris, Psittacus Malaccensis. Gmel. Vol. I. p. 325. No. 74. Psittacus Ginginianus. var. 5. Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 100. No. 50. Psittacus erubescens. Shaw. Gen. Zool. Vol. VIII. p. 437. Psittacus barbatulatus. Bechst. ..,, Kuhl. Nova Acta, &c. No. 38. La grande Perruche a longs brins. Buff. Tom. VI. p. 155v, Perruche de Malac. PI. Enl. 887. Perruche a nuque et joues rouges. Le Vaill. pi. 7%. On a group of Psittacidm known to the Ancients, 6S Blossom-headed Parrakeet. Lath. Syn. Vol. I. p. 24. No. 39. var. C. Malacca Parrakeet.— Vol. II. p. 164. No. 74. var. C. Ed. 2''% Habitat in Malacca, Sumatra, &c. I have seen several specimens of this beautiful species, which have been lately brought to this country from Sumatra,' by Sir Stamford Raffles. M. Bechstein has altered the original name of this bird into that of harbatulatus^ in consequence of the terra Malaccensis having been also applied to another species of Par- rot, But the latter bird belongs to a totally distinct subfamily from that before us ; and, thus disposed in different gerierick groups, they may each possess the same specifick name without interfering with each other. 7. Erythrocephalus. Gmel. P.viridis^ subtus Jlavescenti-vitidi'Sy capite rosea postice violaceo, torque nuchali guldque nigris^ macula humerali rufa^ rectricibus ccerulescentibus, Psittacus erythrocephalus. Gmel. Vol. I. p. 325. Psittaca Ginginiana erythrocephalos. Briss. Vol. IV. p. 346^ pi. 29. f. 2. Psittacus Ginginianus. Lath. Ind. Orn. p. ^Q, No. 50, Psittacus erythrocephalus. Kuhl. Nova Acta, &c. No. 37, Perruche a tete rouge. Buff. Tom. VI. p. 144. Perruche a tete rouge de Gingi. Pi. Enl. 264. Rose-headed ring Parrakeet. Edw. Glean, t. 233. Blossom-headed Parrakeet. — Lath. Gen. Syn, Vol. I. p. 239. No. 39.— Vol. II. p. 164. No. 74. Ed. 2di,. Perruche a collier noir. Le Vaill. pi. 45.. Habitat I have never had an opportunity of examining a specimen of this bird, and accurately observing the difference between it and the next species, which is not uncommon : but from the figures of both, given in the above quoted plates, and from the observa- tions of M. Kuhl, who seems to have investigated the point wjitb much attention, they appear to be decidedly distinct. 64 Mr. Yigors's Sketches in Ornithology/, 8k Bengalensis. Briss. P. viridis suhtus virescenti-Jlavus, capite purpurascentUrubro^ postice lilacino, tcenia nigra cincioy gula nigra^ maculd, humerali purpurascenti-brunnea^ rectridbus mediis cceruleis apice albis, Psittaca Bengalensis. Briss. Tom. IV. p. 348. Psittacus Ginginianus. var. /3. Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 100. Psittacus rodocephalus. Shaw. Gen. Zool. Vol, VIII. p. 434. Mus. Lev. p. 83.— Vivarium Nat. Vol. 21. p. 877. Psittacus Bengalensis. Kuhl. Nova Acta, &c. No. 39. La Perruche a tete rouge de I'Isle de Lu9on. Somi. Voy. p. 79, t.42. La petite Perruche a tete couleur de rose a long brins. Buff. Tom. VI. p. 154. Perruche de Mahe. PI. Enl. 888. Perruche fridytutah. Le Vaill. p. 74. Parrakeet from Bengal. Albin. Vol. III. t. 14. Blossom-headed Parrakeet. Lath. Gen. Syn. Vol. 1. p. 239. No. 39. var. A. Rose-headed Ring Parrakeet. — Vol. II. p. 164, No. 74. var. A. Ed. 2"% 9. PoNDiCERiANUs. Goiel. P, viridis^ capite pallide cosrulescentU canoy gula mystacibus fasciaque frontali nigris^ alls mediis Jiavicantibus^ pectore abdomineque superiore roseis. Psittacus Pondicerianus. Gmel. Vol. 1. p. 325. No. 75. Psittacus Pondicerianus. Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 9Q, No. 48. Psittacus Pondicerianus. Kuhl. Nova Acta, &c. No. 48. Psittacus mystaceus. Shaw. Gen, Zool. Vol. VIII. p. 436. pi. 63. Psittacus barbatus. Gmel. Vol. 1. p. 325. No. 73. /3. La Perruche a moustaches. Buff. Tom. Vol. VI. p. 149. Perruche de Pondichery. PI. Enl. 517. Perruche a poitrine rose. Le Vaill. pi. 31. Mustachoe Parrot. Lath. Gen. Syn. Vol. 1. p. 238. No. 38.— Vol. 11. p. 162. No. 72. Ed. 2"^ Psittacus bimaculatub, Sparm. Mus. Cars. F. II, i. 30. On a groitp of Psittacidce known to the Ancients, 55 Psittacus bimaculatus. Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 90. No. 49. Bimaculated Parrakeet. Lath. Gen. Syn. Vol. II. p. 163. No. 37. Ed. r\ Bimaculated Parrakeet. Shaw. Gen. Zool. Vol. VIJI. p. 457. Psittacus Javanicus. Osbeck. t* I. 101. Psittacus Javanicus. Gmel. Vol. I. p. 321. Psittacus Osbeckii. Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 87. No. 16. Psittacus Osbeckii. Horsf. Linn. Trans. Vol. XIII. p. 182. Alexandrine Parrakeet. Lath. Gen. Syn. Vol. 1. p. 237. No. 37. var. E. Javan Parrakeet. Alexandrine Parrakeet. Shaw. Gen. Zool. Vol. VIII. p. 426. var. Javan Parrakeet. To these may I think be also added the following synonyms : ^the rose colour of the breast seeming to identify the birds des- cribed with the species before us, rather than with any other. Psittacus Alexandri. Amaenit. Academ. Tom. IV. p. 236. Psittacus Alexandri. var. Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 98. No. 37. Bracelet Parrakeet from the East Indies. Albin, Vol. II. pi. 1^. La Perruche a collier des Indes. Briss. Tom. IV. p. 326. No. 56. Alexandrine Parrakeet. Lath. Gen. Syn. Vol. I. p. 236. No. 37. var. B. Purple-ringed Parrakeet. Alexandrine Parrakeet. Shaw. Gen. Zool. Vol. VIII. p. 42ei« var. Purple-ringed Parrakeet. Habitat in regione Pondiceriana, Jav^, &c. I have included the above various synonyms under one name, in deference to the opinions of some of our best modetn ornithop- Jogists, whose authority^ from their having devoted much atten- tion to the present subject, must have considerable weight upon this point. I have however some doubts whether the Javanese Tsirds, first described by M. Osbeck as Psit. Javanicus^ and after^ wards by Dr. Latham as Psit. Osbeckii^ be not distinct from the continental species. In all the birds of the group which I have ascertained to come from Java, I have observed some devia- tion in their colours and in the distribution of them, from those .birds which have been described under the name oi Pondicerianus ; ^while at the same time the former birds exhibited little variety 56 Mr. YigoYs^s Sketches in Ornilholog?/, among themselves. In this country, however, we want data suffi- •cient to determine this point. We have abundance of specimens from Java, but few which can be ascertained to have come from Pondichery. In my doubts on this subject I find myself associat- ed with. Dr. Horsfield, who had every opportunity of observing these birds in Java, where they were excessively common ; and who has retained to his Javanese specimens the name of OsbeckiL 10. Barrabandi. p. viridis^ sindpite gulaque aureo-Jlavis^ fas- cidpectorali maculisque femoralibus rubris. Psittacus Barrabandi. Swains. Zool. Illust. Vol. I. pi. b9. Scarlet-breasted Parrot. Lath. Gen. Syn. Vol. II. p. 121. No. 24. Ed. 2''^ Habitat in Nov^ HoUandia. This bird beautifully connects the Parrots of New Holland with the Indian species of Paloeornis, The name of Barrabandi has been already applied to another species of the family, but a species belonging to a diflferent generick group , it may therefore remain attached to the present species. ** Mandibula inferiore elongaia, 1 1 . Papuensis. Gmel. P. sanguineo'coccineusy inter scapulio^ alls rectricibusque viridibusy fascia nuchali alteraque interoculari nigrisy hdc azureo-marginata. Psittacus Papuensis. Gmel. Vol. I. p. 317. Psittacus Papuensis. Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 88. No. 20. Psittacus Papuensis. Kuhl. Nova Acta, &c. No. 40. Petit Lori Papou. Sonn. Voy. p. 175. t. III. Perruche Lori-papou. Le Vaill. pi. 77. Papuan Lory. Lath. Gen. Syn. Vol. I. p. 215. No. 17.— Vol. II. p. 125. No. 28. Ed. 2"% Papuan Parrakeet. Shaw. Gen. Zool. Vol. VIII. p. 440. pi. 64. Habitat in Papua. Were we enabled to decide the generick station of any bird by an inspection merely of a figure, without having seen the bird On a group of Psittacidce known to the Ancients. 57 itself, we might venture to subjoin another species of Dr. Latham, his PsiL Narcissus^ or Jonquil Parrakeet^^ to the foregoing list of species. Whether that bird be a distinct species, or merely a variety of some other, the representation of it exhibits all the striking characters both in form and colour of the genus before us ; the compact head, the slender, delicate, and graceful body ; the elongated tail, the collar that encircles the neck, the dark red spot on the shoulder — in short all the exteriour indications of this beautiful group. Dr. Latham described his species from a single specimen which was alive in the neighbourhood of London : of this unfortunately all trace, as far as I can understand, is now lost, and no second specimen has appeared to throw light upon the subject. It strikes me that the bird was a variety of one of the species enumerated above, most probably of the Pal. erythro' vephalus or Bengalensis^ with both of which birds it closely ac- cords in the general disposition of the colouring. M. Le Vaillant has well observed, that, in those accidental variations of colour that take place occasionally in the feathered tribes, as well as in the usual changes that accrue in the vegetable world, where black or the other darker colours become white, green invariably changes into yellow. This he infers to be the case in his Perruche souffre^ •which he considers a variety of his Perruche a collier rose^ our Val. torquaius, 1 have myself had an opportunity of observing the uniformity of this mode of variation in a few instances among the Psittacidce ; but more particularly in a specimen of the Pla- tycercus scapulatus^ or King's Parrakeet^ of New Holland, which ^as for some time alive in this country. The whole of this bird was yellow, with the exception of the head and under body, and the scapular /«^c/«, the former of which retained their red, and the latter its ultramarine colour, while the original green had be- come a decided yellow. If we examine Palwornis erythrocepJia' lus or Bengalensis^ and imagine to ourselves the mode in which either would be likely to vary, we can easily conceive that the green colouring of the wings, body, and tail, may fade into a lemon on jonquil yellow, the black colour round the neck become white, according to the general law of variation, while the roseate crim- * Gen. Syn. Sup. II. p. 83. lab. 123.— Vol. II. p. 143. tab. 23. Ed. 2'^\ 58 Mr. Vigors's Sketches in Ornithology, son of the head and of the spot on the shoulders will still retain their original strength of colouring. If we make allowances for these usual changes in either of the above mentioned species, 35 e shall have before us the Psit. Narcissus of Dr. Latham. .,.,The station which the group of Palceorms appears to hold among the Psittacidce seems to be nearly typical, if not entirely so,, in that primary section, or subfamily, which is familiarly known to us by the title of long-tailed Parrakeets^ and to the French naturalists by the name of P er ruches ; and which has heen separated by M. Kuhl from the other subdivisions of the family under the sectional name of Conurus. Among the groups of that subfamily the genus before us exhibits the greatest de- velopement of its leading character, in the superiour length of the tail ; a peculiarity, which is rendered strikingly conspicuous by the prolongation of the two middle tail feathers beyond the rest. In the length of the bill also it seems to hold a central situation in the same subfamily, between the extremes on each side. The corresponding subdivisions of the Psittacidce which adjoin the present subdivision of Conurus^ are, on one side, the genus Macros cercus of M. Vieillot, or the group which we call Maccaws ; and, on the other, that group of short-tailed Parrakeets^ which M. Brisson denominates Psittacula, The former of these, or the Maccawsy are noted for the shortness of their bill, that member although strong being considerably abbreviated in comparison to the size of the bird, more particularly the under mandible, which is bent inwards, and almost appears at times to lie concealed HjFithin the feathers of the jaws* On the other hand the short or even-tailed tribes, which seem to form the typical groups of the Psittacidce in general, have their bill, comparatively speaking, lengthened ; the under mandible in particular being much ex- tended, and in some instances having the upper margin nearly straight. Now on examining the subfamily to which Palceornis belongs, we shall find that it consists of a series of groups, distin- guished from each other by strong generick peculiarities, but fol- lowing each other by a gradual and perceptible prolongation of the bill which unites the abbreviated bill of the Maccaws to the more lengthened bill of the iy[ncikl Psittacidce ; and at the same On a group of Psittacidoe known to the Ancients, 59 time exhibiting a gradual abbreviation of the tail as the bill be*^ comes prolonged. The following outline of the succession, of these different groups, which it is my intention at an early period to characterize more fully, and distinguish into generick divisions, will afford some idea of the relative situation which Palceornis holds among them. Closely allied to the Maccaws, or the Aras of the French Orni- thologists, by their general form, is a group which is represented by the Psit,Guianensis of Linnaeus, or the species which M. BufFon, with a happy adaptation of name to character, has distin- guished as the Perrucke Ara, Here the naked cheeks of the preceding subfamily is lost ; but a naked space, still retained about the eye, exhibits the rudiments of that character, and evinces the unbroken chain of affinity that unites the two groups. These Parrakeet-Maccaws form a somewhat considerable genus, con- fined chiefly to the New World, the native place also of the pre- ceding subfamily. They are immediately met by two New Hol- land groups, in which the shortened bill of the Maccaws is still strongly conspicuous ; one, a group including some of the most diminutive and delicately formed species of the family, such as Psit, discolor^ Lath., pulchellus, Shawj venustus^ Temm., and undulatus^ Shaw, and which may be said in their general struc- ture to exhibit the appearance of pigmy Maccaws ', the second, a group, which forms the genus Platycercus^ as characterized in the last volume of this Journal.* This genus, it may be remembered, is distinguished by its broad and depressed tail, and its lengthened tarsL In the latter of these characters it intimately accords with Pezoporus 111. ; but the breadth of the tail is lost in that genus, which partially assumes somewhat of the lengthened and arrow- shaped form of the tail of Palwornis, In a species of this last group, belonging io New Holland, P. Barrabandi, the full charac- ters of the tail and of the other distinguishing peculiarities of Palwornis are discernible, with the exception of the tarsi being considerably longer than in the Indian species. Here then we have a beautiful connection between the ambulating Parrakeets of Australasia, and the weaker and shorter legged groups of India. * Vol. I. p. 527. 60 Mr. Vigors's Sketches in Ornitholog?/. Arriving now at Palceornis^ we may perceive that this group in general still retains the abbreviated under mandible ; but in some of the extreme species, more particularly Pal. PondicerianuSy we may detect an increasing length in that member which indicates an approach to the longer billed tribes. In the species just men- tioned also we may perceive a gradual decrease in the length of the tail, the two middle feathers, which in the typical species generally exceed the others by three inches or more, in this species scarcely exceeding them by an inch and a half. In the Pal. Papuemis again, and other species which holds an aberrant station in the genus, we equally recognize a recession from the typical birds, in its partially changing the emerald green colour that characterizes the present group for the deep red which now begins to predominate in the groups which succeed. We have already observed the striking deviation in the form of the bill of that species. The next division of Parrakeets^ which, by their lengthening bill and decreasing tail, as well as by other less striking characters, appear to follow Palceorms, is one of peculiar interest. The representative of it is the Psit. hosma" ivdus of Linn-aeus, a bird which was first discovered in the Mo- lucca Islands, but wJiich has since been found * in considerable abundance in New Holland, where it is known by the name