Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/38

28 Umbreit in the chair of theology at Heidelberg ; there he wrote his Geschichte des Volkes Israel (1869-70), in two parts, extending respectively to the end of the Persian domination and to the fall of Masada, 72 A.D., as well as Zur Kritik Paulinischer Briefe (1870), Die Inschrift des Mescha (1870), Sprache u. Sprachen Assyriens (1871), besides revising Hirzel s commentary on Job (1874). He was also a frequent contributor to the Monatsschrift des ivissenschaftlichen Vereins in Zurich, the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen Gesellschaft, the Theologische Studien u. Kritiken, Zeller s Theologische Jahrbiicher, and Hilgenfeld s Zeitschrift fur ivissenschaftliche Theoloyie. Hitzig died at Heidelberg on January 22, 1875. As a Hebrew philologist he holds very high rank ; and as a constructive critic he is remarkable for the acuteness and sagacity shown in his combinations. His theories, however, are often carried out with a vigour and rigour quite unwarranted by the amount of evidence upon which they rest ; and his deficiency as a commentator in ideality and religious sympathy sometimes almost approaches the ludicrous. His lectures on Biblical theology (Vorlesungen uber biblische Theologie u. Messianische Weissaguiigen] have been recently published (1880), along with a portrait and biographical sketch by Kneucker. See also Kamp- hausen s article in Herzog and Plitt s Realencyklopddie, vol. vi.  HOACTZIN, or, a bird of tropical South America, thought by Buffon to be that indicated by Hernandez or Fernandez under these names, the Opisthocomus hoazin or 0. cristatus of modern ornithologists a very curious and remarkable form, which has long exercised the ingenuity of classifiers. Placed by Buffon among his &quot;Ifoccos&quot; (Curassows), and then by P. L. S. Mtiller and Gmeliu in the Linnseau genus Phasianus, some of its many peculiarities were recognized by Illiger in 1811 as sufficient to establish it as a distinct genus, Opisthocomns ; but various positions were assigned to it by subsequent systematic authors, whose views, not being based on any infor mation respecting its internal structure, do not here require particular attention. L Herminier was the first to give any account of its anatomy (Comptes Rendns, 1837, v. p, 433), and from, his time our knowledge of it has been successively increased by Johannes Miiller (Eer. Akad. Wissensch. Berlin, 1841, p. 177), Deville (Rev. et May. de Zoologir, 1852, p. 217),Gervais (Castelnau, Exped. Amerique du Sud, Zoologie, Anatomie, p. 6(5), Prof. Huxley (Proc. Zool. Society, 1868, ]&amp;gt;. 304), Mr Perrin (Trans. Zool. Society, ix. p. 353), and Gal-rod (Proc. Zool. Society, 1870, p. 109). After a minute description of the skeleton of Opisthocomus, with the especial object of determining its affinities, Prof. Huxley declared that it &quot; resembles the ordinary Gallina ceous birds and Pigeons more than it does any others, and that when it diverges from them it is either sui generis or approaches the Musophagidce&quot; He accordingly regarded it as the type and sole member of a group, named by him Heteromorphce, which sprang from the great Carinate stem later than the Tinamomorphce, Turnicomorpkoe, or Chara- driomorphce, but before the Peristeromorphw, Pteroclo- morplive, or Alectoromorphce. This conclusion is substan tially the same as that at which Garrod subsequently arrived after closely examining and dissecting specimens preserved in spirit ; but the latter has gone further and endeavoured to trace more particularly the descent of this peculiar form and some others, remarking that the ancestor of Opistho comus must have left the parent stem very shortly before the true Gallince first appeared, and at about the same time as the independent pedigree of the Cundidce and Muso- phagidoe commenced these two groups being, he believed, very closely related, and Opisthoconms serving to fill the gap between them.

It would be impossible here to state at length the facts on which these views are grounded, and equally impossible to give more than a very few details of the anatomy of this singular form. The first thing that strikes the spectator of its skeleton is the extraordinary structure of the sternal apparatus, which is wholly unlike that of any other bird known. The keel is only developed on the posterior part of the sternum the fore part being, as it were, cut away, while the short furcula at its symphysis meets the manubrium, with which it is firmly consolidated by means of a prolonged and straight hypocleidium, and anteriorly ossifies with the coracoids. This unique arrange ment seems to be correlated with the enormously capacious crop, which rests upon the furcula and fore part of the sternum, and is also received in a cavity formed on the surface of each of the great pectoral muscles. Furthermore this crop is extremely muscular, so as more to resemble a gizzard, and consists of two portions divided by a partial constriction, after a fashion of which no other example is known among birds. The Hoactzin appears to be about the size of a small Pheasant, but is really a much smaller bird. The beak is strong, curiously denticulated along the margin of the maxilla near the base, and is beset by diverging bristles. The eyes, placed in the middle of a patch of bare skin, are furnished with bristly lashes, resembling those of Horn- bills and some few other birds. The head bears a long pendent crest of loo?e yellowish feathers. The body is olive-coloured, varied with white above, and beneath is of a dull bay. The wings are short and rounded. The tail is long, and tipped with yellow. The legs are long, the feet stout, the tarsi reticulated, and the toes scutellated ; the claws long and slightly curved. According to all who have observed the habits of this bird, it lives in bands on the lower trees and bushes bordering the streams and lagoons, feeding on leaves and various wild fruits, especially, says Mr Bates (Naturalist on the River Amazons, i. p. 120), on those of a species of Psidium, and it is also credited with eating those of an arum (Caladium arborescens), which grows plentifully in its haunts. &quot; Its voice is a harsh, grating hiss,&quot; continues the same traveller, and &quot; it makes the noise when alarmed, all the individuals sibilating as they fly heavily away from tree to tree, when disturbed by passing canoes.&quot; It exhales a very strong odour where fore it is known in British Guiana as the &quot; Stink-bird &quot;- compared by Mr Bates to &quot; musk combined with wet hides,&quot; and by Deville to that of a cow-house. The species is said to be polygamous ; the nest is built on trees, of sticks 