370 JOURNAL. BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1890 



another bough ; the Dicurida; appear as a family between the Sittidce and the 

 Certhiina ; the Regulidce are a full-blown family, and lead from the Sylviidce 

 to the Laniidce and Oriolidce, which in turn approach the Sturnidce by means 

 of a new family, the Eulabetidce. This arrangement of the families is a blemish 

 on the book, and the use of an editor should have here been apparent, if he had 

 suggested to the author that this arrangement was certain to be accepted literally, 

 and that a footnote of explanation that the " Key" was an artificial, and not a 

 natural one, would have saved the necessity of the above remarks. We know 

 from our own experience that in the making of " Keys," where the species or 

 genera are numerous, it is often impossible to fit them all in what seems a natural 

 order, and certain " keys" must of necessity be more or less artificial. In such 

 cases we have always stated that fact, and in the arrangement of the genera or 

 species have followed what we conceived to be the more natural arrangement 

 Cf. also Oounes's Key to North American Birds (p. 230)- 



The chief character for the division of the ten-primaried Passeres on which 

 Mr. Oates relies is to be met with in the plumage of the young birds. 

 Mr. Seebohm was the first ornithologist to recognise this as a fundamental character, 

 and it enabled him to characterise his Thrushes and Warblers in a philosophical 

 and satisfactory manner. Mr. Oates is the first ornithologist who has carried it 

 out for the bulk of the Passeres, and he finds that five types of nestling plumages 

 exist in these birds. 



In the first the nestling resembles the adult female. 



In the second the nestling resembles the adult female, but is more brightly 

 coloured, and generally suffused with yellow. 



In the third the nestling is barred. 



In the fourth it is streaked. 



In the fifth it is mottled or squamated. 



That much of the natural affinity of birds may be elucidated by the colouring 

 of the young we do not deny, and we look upon the nestling plumage as an 

 indication of the ancestral colouring of the species, but whether it is capable of 

 being reckoned as a primary character for the sub-division of the Passeres we very 

 much doubt. 



We would not have the reader suppose that the characters given by Mr. Oates 

 in his " scheme" of Passeres are the only ones on which he relies for the 

 characterisations of these birds. On the contrary, each family is introduced with 

 a carefully detailed account of its characteristics and full explanations are given. 

 We will give a short sketch of the volume with its principal features. The 

 corvidae have three sub-families — Corvinw, or Crows ; Parince, Titmice ; and 

 Paradoxornithina, or Crow-tits. Mr. Oates says that the affinities of the Tits with 

 the Crows " are recognised by all writers on ornithology." The present writer 

 at least begs to dissent from this arrangement, for he can find little in common 

 with such a bird as the moss-nest building long-tailed Titmouse and any species 

 of ambulatorial, carnivorous Crow. According to Mr. Oates the Titmice must 



