438 Mr. N. A. Vicors on the Natural Affinities 
group seems to lead by Pitta, Vieill., and perhaps Cinclus, Bechst., 
through some intervening forms, to the true Thrushes, or the ge- 
nera Turdus of authors and Merula of Ray, which form the type 
of the family. To these we may add that portion of the Lin- 
nean Orioles, which, possessing the curved and notched bill of 
the Thrushes, constitutes the genus Oriolus* or true Oriole of the 
present day. Here we meet several groups, generally arranged 
without order in the Linnean genus Turdus, and hitherto en- 
tirely uncharacterized, which gradually lead from the typical 
groups to those which possess a more generally delicate confor- 
mation; until the comparatively strong form and robust bill of 
the Thrushes is lost in the weaker body and more slender bill of 
the Warblers. Here again the group of Rock Thrushes, of which 
the T. saxatilis is the type, appear to bring us round, by their 
general habits and assimilating characters of bill and farsi, to 
Myiothera, where we entered the family. Those birds which 
constitute the groups which we denominate Chatterers, and which 
form the genus Ampelis of Linnæus, are usually assigned a place 
near this family: and I must confess that, from the general 
affinity which they appear to bear to it, I have felt, and still feel, 
considerable doubt whether this be not their natural station. A 
strong affinity, however, on the other hand, seems to unite them 
with the wide-gaped Pipre, and some of those other groups, 
which by their bill, broad and depressed at the base, appear to 
come in contact with the earlier divisions of the present tribe, 
and the extremes of the Fissirostres which precede it. The gene- 
ral rule of placing groups in a conterminous situation, according 
to what appears to be the predominance of their more important 
of that gentleman, Formicivora, Urotomus, and Drymophila, iu the 1st volume of the 
Zoological Journal," p. 301. Nov. 1824. 
* « GALBULA cum Turdis et Merulis Rostri totiusque corporis figura, mag- 
nitudine quoque et victüs ratione convenit."— Raii Syn. Meth. Av. p. 68. 
characters, 
