George IV, to the Gardens of the Zoological Society at its foundation. Indeed, it is not at all improbable that there are more living examples at this time in Europe than in Australia, where even when Gould was there he found it to have been extirpated in places where a few years before it had been abundant.

Additional interest is imparted to this by the discovery in New Zealand of remains originally attributed by Sir R. Owen (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1865, p. 438) to the Dinornithine group (MOA) under the name of Chemiornis calcitrans, and subsequently fully described by him (Trans. Zool. Soc. v. pp. 395-404, pls. lxiii.-lxvii.). The acquisition in 1872 of a further collection of bones of this extinct bird enabled Sir James Hector to recognize in it a large Goose, probably allied to Cereopsis and of similar habits, but in which the power of flight had become obsolete, and as such he described it before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 18th August 1873 (Trans. N. Zeal. Inst. vi. pp. 76-84, pls. x.-xiv.a), communicating his results also to the Zoological Society of London, in whose Proceedings for the same year they will be found (pp. 763-771, pls. lxv.-lxviii.), as well as to Sir R. Owen, who lost no time in preparing an additional memoir on the subject, subsequently published in that Society's Transactions (ix. pp. 253-272, pls. xxxv.-xxxix.), and acquiescing in Sir James's determination of the position and relations of this remarkable form. A good many more of its bones have since been obtained, and no doubt can exist on the subject, though the precise epoch at which it became extinct cannot be regarded as settled.

CHACHALACA or CHIACALACCA, so called in Texas from its cry (Coues, Key N. Am. B. p. 573), Ortalis maccalli (see GUAN).

CHAFFINCH, a well-known bird, the Fringilla cœlebs1 of ornithology, which may be regarded as the type-form of the Fringillidæ (FINCH). This handsome and sprightly species, which is so common throughout the whole of Europe, requires no description. Conspicuous by his variegated plumage, his peculiar call-note 2, and his glad song, the cock is almost everywhere a favourite. Algeria our Chaffinch is replaced by a closely-allied species, F. spodogenia, while in the Atlantic Islands it is represented by two others, F. tintillon and F. teydea — all of which, while possessing

In

1 This fanciful trivial name was given by Linnæus on the supposition (which later observations do not entirely confirm) that in Sweden the hens of the species migrated southward in autumn, leaving the cocks to lead a celibate life till spring. It is certain, however, that in some localities, the sexes live apart during the winter.

2 This call-note, which to many ears sounds like "pink" or "spink," not only gives the bird a name in many parts of Britain, but is also obviously the origin of the German Fink and our Finch. The similar Celtic form Pinc is said to have given rise to the Low Latin Pincio, and thence come the Italian Pincione, the Spanish Pinzon, and the French Pinson.

the general appearance of the European bird, are clothed in soberer tints. Another species of true Fringilla is the BRAMBLE-FINCH.

CHAMÆA,1 a genus instituted by Gambel (Proc. Ac. N. S. Philad. 1847, p. 154) for a curious little bird from the coast-district of California which he had previously described (op. cit. 1845, p. 265) as Parus fasciatus but found to require separation. In the difficulty of assigning a position to this and a more recently discovered congeneric form, C. henshawi, from the interior of the same country, systematists have resorted to considering the genus as the type and sole member of a distinct Family Chamæidæ, which, if its validity be allowed, proves to be the only Family of Land-birds that is peculiar to the Nearctic area. Thus it becomes a factor of some importance in determining the question whether that area should rank as a Zoogeographical or at least as an Ornithogeographical Region. It is impossible here to give details of a matter which has agitated the best ornithologists of North America, and reference can only be made to Dr. Shufeldt's paper "On the position of Chamaa in the System," published in 1889 at Boston in Massachusetts (Journ. Morphol. iii. pp. 475-502), wherein the evidence is very carefully weighed, and the conclusion reached is to the effect that it is more nearly related to the Colombian Cinnicerthia than to any other, but the author abstains from declaring the value of Chamaidæ as a Family, though of the two, to one or other of which it has generally been referred—namely the Parida (TITMOUSE) and Troglodytidae (WREN)-he sees most resemblance to the former. So far as one can judge from the habits of the birds as described by observers, they are more those of a Wren than of a Titmouse; while the blue eggs which it is said to lay removes it really from the category of either. In the absence then of any very strong reason for disputing what has been asserted by no mean authorities, it would seem better for the present to let the Family Chamæidæ stand.

CHANNEL-BILL, Latham's name in 1802, and since generally used, for a bird described and figured by Phillips in 1789 (Voy. Botany Bay, p. 165, pl.) as the "Psittaceous Hornbill," and by John White in 1790 (Journ. Voy. N. S. Wales, p. 142, pl.) as the "Anomalous Hornbill," which was apparently first obtained 16th April 2 1788, and therefore not long after the foundation of the colony. Latham seeing the need of a new genus for it, made one,

1 This word not having been accepted as English has strictly no right to head an article, but the only names applied to the birds to which it refers, "BushTit" and "Ground-Wren," have not enough special meaning to justify their insertion, while the form, as will be seen in the text, is important enough to require particular notice.

2 But according to other accounts this species leaves New South Wales in January, only returning in October to breed.

Scythrops, and as S. nova-hollandiæ it has been almost always recognized ever since, though its systematic position has often been disputed-its large and curiously grooved bill inducing some to refer it to the Bucerotida (HORNBILL), while its zygodactyl feet caused others to place it among the Rhamphastida (TOUCAN). It is now generally allowed to belong to the Cuculida (CUCKOW).

CHAPARRAL-COCK, so called from the chaparral or dwarf forest which it frequents, the name commonly given by Englishspeaking settlers in the south-western districts of North America to a curious form of CUCKOW, Geococcyx, of which there are two species. The first, described by Hernandez (Hist. Anim. Nov. Hispan. p. 25, cap. lii.) under the name of Hoitlallotl, and then identified by Buffon with the Paraka of Barrere (France Equinox. p. 140), was mistaken by Latham for the Parraqua figured by Bajon in 1777 (Mém. pour l'hist de Cayenne, i. p. 374, pl. i.), and became the Phasianus mexicanus of Gmelin. This, being the southern form, is presumably that which is usually called G. affinis. The second, a larger bird, inhabits New Mexico and the adjacent part of the United States of America, and, under the name of Saurothera californiana, was described by Lesson (Compl. Buffon, vi. p. 420) as one of the most interesting discoveries of modern times. The habits of both seem to be very similar and very remarkable. They have short wings, and seldom fly unless suddenly surprised, but run with great speed, bearing their long tail erect. Like others of their Family in the New World they build their own nests, though clumsily, and lay therein from two to four white eggs. When tamed, as these birds often are, they become expert mousers, but are so mischievous, says

Mr. Dresser (Ibis, 1865, p. 467), as hardly to be suffered in a house. The name Paisano (countryman) by which this species is known in some districts is said to be a corruption of Faisan (Pheasant). "Road-runner is another name frequently given to it. The osteology of the species has been minutely described by

Dr. Shufeldt (Journ. Anat. and Physiol, xx. pp. 246-266, pls. vii.-ix., and xxi. pp. 101, 102).

CHARADRIOMORPHE, the first group of Prof. Huxley's Suborder Schizognatha (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 457), nearly corresponding with the Pressirostres and Longirostres of Cuvier, and the Limicolæ or Scolopaces of Nitzsch-or in other words including almost all the Scolopacida (SNIPE) and Charadriida (PLOVER) of other systematists.

CHAT, in England generally used with a prefix as STONECHAT, WHINCHAT, but in the valley of the Thames said of itself to signify the Sedge-WARBLER. In North America it is applied to the two forms of the genus Icteria (I. virens and I. longicauda), which is generally referred to the Family Mniotiltidæ, or American WARBLERS, but may possibly not belong to them, its stout bill being very unlike that possessed by the rest.

ICTERIA. (After Swainson.)

CHATTERER, a word that has been used by ornithologists in a very wide sense, and wholly irrespective of its meaning. Gesner's name for the WAXWING, Garrulus Bohemicus (i.e. Bohemian Jay), having been erroneously rendered by Ray, in his translation of Willughby's Ornithology (p. 133), "Bohemian Chatterer"; and that bird being also the Ampelis of Aldrovandus, subsequent writers, Pennant and Latham, used "Chatterer" as the equivalent of Ampelis, when Linnæus had founded a genus with that name, quite regardless of its inapplicability. This genus being very composite

in its character was naturally broken up, and the name Ampelis having been retained by the more accurate writers in its original sense for the Waxwing and its congeners, the name Chatterer has been generally

conferred, for want of a better, on a group of birds, one of the most beautiful of which Brisson had termed Cotinga. This group, all the members of which inhabit the Neotropical Region, is a very natural one, and has long been regarded as a separate Family, properly called Cotingida, though it is closely allied to the Piprida (MANAKIN), and together they form the divi

sion HETEROMERI of the MESOMYODI of Garrod and Forbes (see INTRODUCTION). Mr. Sclater, who adds thereto Rupicola (COCK-OFTHE-ROCK) and an allied genus, which Garrod had put among his HOMŒOMERI, divides the Cotingida into five subfamilies (Cat. B. Br.

Mus. xiv. pp. 326-405), Tityrina with 3 genera, Lipaugina with 4, Attilinæ and Rupicolina each with 2, Cotingina with 11, and Gymnoderina with 7 (see BELL-BIRD, partim, and UMBRELLA-BIRD). A considerable number of these birds are remarkable for the extraordinarily abnornal form of some of their wing-quills, and occasionally of their wing-coverts a feature in the former case observable also among the Piprida, and, where existing, generally confined to the male sex. Many of them also are brilliantly coloured, and at least one, Xipholena pompadora-known as the Pompadour1 Chatterer, is of a hue scarcely to be seen in any other bird.

CHEEPER, the young of any kind of bird that cheeps or utters a low plaintive note, especially used of game-birds, GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, or PHEASANTS; but also a name of the Tit LARK, though mostly with a prefix, as Moss-Cheeper or the like.

CHEER or CHIR, the Anglo-Indian name of Phasianus wallichi, a fine but plainly-coloured PHEASANT, a native of the Western Himalayas.

CHENOMORPHE, the first group of Prof. Huxley's Suborder DESMOGNATHE (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 460), composed of the Anatida of most authors-the DUCKS and their allies, among which he includes Palamedea (SCREAMER).

1 So named by Edwards (Gleanings, ii. p. 275, pl. 341) after the celebrated Madame de Pompadour, to whom it and other birds were being sent, when the ship that bore them from Cayenne fell a prize to a British cruiser.