272 AVES. 



Others have a slender, sharp beak, which, with their striated tail,, 

 approximates them to the Wren.(l) 



The Orthonyx, Tem. may be approximated to the Ant-catchers. 

 They have the beak of a Thrush, but, it is short and slenderj their 

 legs are long, the nails almost straight, and the quills of the tail 

 terminate in a point like those of the Creepers. 



We must also separate from the Thrushes: 



CiNCLUs, Bechst.(2) 



Or the Water-Thrushes, which have a compressed, straight beak,^ 

 with mandibles of an equal height, nearly linear, and becoming 

 sharp near the point; the upper one hardly arcuated. There is but 

 one in Europe. 



Sturnus cinclus, L.; Turdus cindus, Lath.; Enl. 940; Vieill. 

 Gal. 152. (The Water Thrush.) Legs rather long, and a short 

 tail, which approximate it to the Ant-catchers. It is brown, 

 with a white throat and breast, and has the singular habit of 

 descending into the water, not swimming, but walking about on 

 the bottom in search of the little animals which constitute its 

 food. 

 Africa, and the countries bordering on the Indian Ocean, produce 

 a genus of birds neighbours of the Thrushes, which I call 



nophilus stellaris, Spix, 39; Thamn. myotherinus. Id. 42. The M. kucophris, Tem. 

 Col. 448, although from Java, seems to approach this group. The Brachypteryx 

 montana, Horsf. Jav. also approximates to it in the height of its legs, but its tail is 

 longer in proportion, and the beak is somewhat allied to that of the Saxicolse. 



(1) Such are the Bambla {Turd, bambla), Enl. 703; the Arada {T. cantons), Enl. 

 706, 2. Here comes the genus Rhamphocene, Vieill. 9, 128. 



We are compelled, however, to replace among the Thrushes, several species 

 which BufFon arranged with the Ant-catchers, on account of some relative simi- 

 larity of colour, viz. the Carillonneur (T. tintinnabulatus), Enl. 700, 2; the Merle 

 a cravatte {T. cinnamomeus), Enl. 560, 2; those of the pi. Enl. 644, 1 and 2, which, 

 contrary to all appearances, he considers as varieties of the formicivorus. I place 

 in the same class the Thamnophilus griseus, Spix, 41, 1 and 48, 2; striatus. Id., 

 40, 2; melanogaster. Id., 43, 1. The Myothera capistrata, melanothorax, Tem. 

 Col. 185, [and M. obsoleta, Bonap. I, p. 1, 2- Jim. Ed.]. We must also send back to 

 the Thrushes, notwithstanding their smallness, the long-tailed species, called by 

 BufFon Fourmilliers rossignok {T. coroya and T. alapi, Gm.), Enl. 701, as well as 

 the Myiotheramalura, Natterer, Col. 953 and the M. ferruginea and ntfimarginata. 

 Col. 132, which are even closely allied to the T. pimctatus and grammiceps; the 

 M. gularis and pyrrhogenis, Tem. 442, 448. 



The Myiothera mentalis and stridothorax, Natterer, 179, appear to me should be 

 placed among the Shrikes. There is no group which has been more overloaded 

 with species foreign to it, than that of the Ant-catchers. We must confess, how- 

 ever, that it is not more rigorously limited than the other groups of the Dentirostres. 



(2) Vieillot has changed this name into that of Hxdrobata. 



