that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 435 
of the preceding tribe. They appear to succeed* each other 
as follows : 
Muscicapide. 
Laniade. 
Merulida. 
Sylviade. 
Pipride. 
The family of Muscicapide, which first meets us as we leave 
the preceding tribe, contains a multitude of species, diffused 
over every quarter of the globe, and differing in many important 
points of generic distinction; but hitherto so ill-defined, and so 
unsatisfactorily grouped, that any attempt to trace them in de- 
tail through their affinities in their present confusion, would be 
as hopeless as it would be foreign to the general views of this 
inquiry. ‘They are all, however, well united together by the 
essential characters which distinguish the type of the group ; the 
notched, depressed, and angular bill, and the strong hairs or 
vibrissæ that surround its base. In these characters, as well as 
in their manners, they partially correspond with the Laniade, 
from the earlier families of which they chiefly differ in their in- 
ferior power and robustness. 
Entering among the Laniade by the genus Tyrannus, Cuv., 
which unites them with the preceding Muscicapide, in which 
family indeed that genus has generally been classed, and from 
which I would separate it chiefly on account of the strength of 
the bill, wherein the character of a Shrike is more conspicuous 
* In their typical disposition they may thus be grouped: 
Normal group. Laniade. 
Rostris fortioribus. . . . . Merulide. 
aberrant gob © Sylviade. 
Rostris debilioribus . . . . À Pipride. 
Muscicapide. 
VOL. XIV. sir than 
