| OCR Text |
Show 1870.] MESSRS. SCLATER AND SALVIN ON THE CRACIDAE. 509 perhaps P. jacucaca, concerning the identification of which we entertain some doubts. (1849.) Penelope pileata is figured by Des Murs in the 'Icono-graphie Ornithologique' from a specimen in the Paris Museum. (1850.) Fraser, in the 'Proceedings' of this Society, describes two new Cracidee from specimens living in the Knowsley collection, viz. Crax alberti and Penelope nigra, the latter being our Penelo-pina nigra. But note that the bird figured as the female of C. alberti, I. c. t. xxvii. is the female of C. globicera. (1852.) Reichenbach, in his 'Avium Systema Naturae,' which forms a kind of preface to his ' Handbuch der speciellen Ornithologie,' gives a list of genera of this family, mainly in explanation of the previously published lithographic plates of structural parts. He establishes two new genera-Penelojjs for Penelope albiventris oi Lesson ( = Ortalida leucogastra), and Aburria for Penelope aburri of Lesson. The former species is a typical Ortalida ; the latter genus we adopt. (1856.) Prince Charles Bonaparte publishes his 'Tableaux Paral-leliques de l'Ordre des Gallinaces' in the ' Comptes Rendus' of the Academy of Sciences of Paris. After characterizing two new species of the group, viz. Pipile argyrotis (= Penelope argyrotis) and Ortalida montagnii ( = Stegnoleema montagnii), but so shortly as to be unrecognizable without reference to the original specimens, in a table of the Craces, as he calls them, he divides these birds into two families, Cracidee and Penelopidae; of the former he enumerates ten species, of the latter twenty-nine. The synonymy and arrangement of the species are full of errors, and are barely worth criticism, showing the same marks of haste as most of his later writings. The genus Pipile, however, must take date from this paper. (1856.) Burmeister gives an account of the Brazilian Cracidae in the third volume of his ' Systematische Uebersicht der Thiere Brasiliens.' The general arrangement of the genera and higher groups is very good ; but the species are not always correctly identified, and there are some errors in the localities: e.g. Crax blumenbachii, Spix, is united with Crax rubrirostris (i. e. C. carunculata) and C. fasciolata! The species met with by Burmeister himself in S.E. Brazil were only three, namely, Penelope superciliaris, P. araucuan (i. e. Ortalida albiventris), and Crax blumenbachii (j. e. C. carunculata). Burmeister arranges Opisthocomus as an intermediate form between Penelope and Crax; but those who do not go so far as to make this wonderful bird an order of itself (following Huxley) must, we think, at least give it the rank of a separate family. (1858.) Von Pelzeln, in one of his articles on new birds in the Imperial Cabinet of Vienna, describes Penelope cujubi oi Natterer's M S . and the two other species of the genus Pipile. He gives also Natterer's notes and remarks on these three birds. (1860.) Baird, in his 'Birds of North America,' includes one member of this group as found on tbe Rio Grande, within the limits of the United States, and proposes to call it 0. m'calli, the same bird having been previously referred to O. vetula by Lawrence, and P R O C ZOOL. Soc-1870, No. XXXIV, |
