that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 437 
known conformation of the same tail-coverts ; their shafts being 
elongated and projected beyond the webs, in stiff and sharperied 
points. On looking to the general affinity which the extremes 
of this family bear to the Muscicapide, and through them to the 
Fissirostral birds of the last preceding tribe, we may perceive 
the character of feeding on the wing carried on to the T'yranni, the 
fork-tailed Dicruri, and more particularly to the Artami or the 
Piegriéches Hirondelles of the continental writers ; while the de- 
pressed bill of the same Fissirostral tribe is partially preserved in 
the groups just mentioned, together with that of Ceblepyris, which 
meets them at the opposite extreme of the circle of affinity. 
The gradual manner in which Nature deserts any particular 
structure or mode of economy is in this, as in every other in- 
stance, strikingly and beautifully conspicuous. 
The family of Merulide, connected as above with the Laniade, 
comprises a considerable number of species, and many natural 
genera; but which, like most of the Insessorial groups, have 
hitherto received but partial examination. The general views by 
which they seem to be allied among themselves, as far at least as 
can be judged from their present unorganized condition, may be 
stated as follows, —but with that expression of doubt which ever 
attends inquiries like the present, where the absence of accurate 
information as to the economy of the subjects before us, and of 
extensive knowledge of the forms connected with them, leaves 
us no better foundation for our inferences than partial conjec- 
ture. The genus Myiothera, Ill. seems to be the first group of 
the present family which is connected with the Laniade, where it 
is met by some of the smaller species of Thamnophilus*. This 
group 
* [ am happy to find these general views confirmed by the accurate examination 
which Mr. Swainson has made of the Laniade. The reader may see the line of con- 
nexion between Thamnophilus and Myiothera fully established by the intervention of 
several forms gradually passing into each other, such as the newly established genera 
312 of 
